Loving LinkedIn – The business only network. How to use groups, company profiles, ads and etiquette. Growing your network, reputation and more.
What is it?
LinkedIn is a business only social network. More recently, business professionals are starting to use social networks as a way to develop sales, market themselves and build relationships. Think of Linkedin as a way of sharing your experience online, a virtual CV, and an extension to your website.
History
Born in 2003 to five original founders, who took $4.7m worth of investment in the October and ended the year with 14 employees and 81,000 members. By March of 2006 they were cash flow positive with 5m members, hitting that all important critical mass tipping point in the USA. The UK didn’t become ‘mainstream’ until 2009 with 1m members.
Stats
There are approximately 120 million LinkedIn members worldwide. 3 new members join every second. All Fortune 500 companies are LinkedIn Members.
How is it used?
It acts as a directory of professionals and companies. It is used for job hunting, networking, head hunting, all kinds of research and connecting with likeminded people directly, or via interest groups.
Top Tips
- LinkedIn will guide you throught the profile set up process. Once you have this done, you can always go back and edit, change or improve.
- LinkedIn has a nifty tool that shows you how far away you are from having a completed profile:
- Make your profile summary interesting and not ‘just’ about business
- Add specialities keeping in mind specific key words relating to your industry, your empoyment history or any achievements you have accomplished.
- Add a picture (so people can recognise you!)
- LinkedIn links to other social network to update your status across multiple platforms
- LinkedIn offers extensive plug-ins to make your profile more interesting and relevant from embedding your blog into your profile to sharing what books you are reading via amazon.
- Connect to everyone you know – Classmate, colleague or friend. Import your Outlook or Google contact list, LinkedIn will do the rest
- Don’t auto update multiple platforms. Remember, this network is different to Facebook and Twitter. Think about the different audiences before you update them all with the same info
- Keep It Fresh. New Job? Contact details? Nothing is worse than an out of date profile
- Recommend great people and don’t be shy to ask for recommendations
- Get involved with or create a Group. LinkedIn has over 375,000 groups
- Joining groups gives people a better idea around your interests and more importantly, it allows you a chance to interact with individuals in your industry. Look at your connections and colleagues for group ideas
- What not to do in groups:
- Spam. Don’t ever spam
- Don’t use these spaces for shameless self promotion. Yes, you are a genius but it’s best to show this through meaningful and helpful participation.
- Create a company profile. It gives people who choose to ‘follow’ your company the low down on who is being hired or fired. It can also be used as a tool to attract potential talent. It lists all employees, allows you to link to your company Twitter feed and blog. This is incredibly important because it provides a snapshot of your company, in one place.
LinkedIn is constantly trying to better the users’ experience. We feel that this year will be big for LinkedIn. Watch this space.
Interesting Facts
- They currently have 1000 employees worldwide, 120m members across 200 countries and a net income of $4.5m
- It is the oldest of the big 4 social network sites (But still so young!)
- LinkedIn is available in six native languages – English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish
- 80% of companies use LinkedIn as a recruitment tool
- It receives almost 12 million unique visitors per day
- Recruiters account for 1-in-20 LinkedIn profiles
