And you’ve found yourself asking “what is LinkedIn and how can it help me achieve certain goals?”
The LinkedIn platform is owned by a large technology company Microsoft, and is similar to Facebook, Instagram and many others.
What makes it different is that LinkedIn is a social network with an exclusive focus on the professional area and career development. This communication channel is used, among other things, for CV posting, job search and professional reputation enhancement.
LinkedIn is free to use, but there is also a subscription version called LinkedIn Premium that offers additional features such as courses and webinars, as well as information about who discovered your profile based on a search and who viewed your profile.
Despite being one of the most popular social platforms, many people still have no idea what it is used for and how they can benefit from this communication channel.
Here’s everything you need to know about the aspects offered by this unique platform.
A brief introduction to LinkedIn
Whether you’re a marketing director at a large company, a business owner or a first-year student looking for your first job, LinkedIn is for anyone and everyone interested in taking their professional life to the next level.
Through this platform, anyone can search for new career development opportunities and connect with other professionals.
You can think of LinkedIn as your physical presence at a traditional networking event where you go to meet other professionals, talk to them about what you do and exchange business cards.
The LinkedIn platform is one big networking event available to anyone 24/7/365 with no barriers.
On LinkedIn you can connect with other people marked as “connections”, similar to the way you send a friend request on Facebook.
Conversations take place through private messages, and your profile will display all your professional experience and achievements in a well-organised way.
LinkedIn is similar to Facebook in terms of its layout and varied feature offering. In the case of LinkedIn, these features are more specialized because they are aimed at professionals, but in general, if you know how to use Facebook or any other similar social network, LinkedIn is somewhat comparable.
Main features of LinkedIn
These are some of the basic features that this platform offers and how they have been designed to be used by professionals:
HOME PAGE: once you’ve logged into LinkedIn, the home page feed is your content stream. It displays recent posts made by your connections in the platform and posts from pages you follow.
PROFILE: your profile will display: your name, photo, location, occupation and other information at the top of the page. Next, sections can be customized to show a brief summary, work experience, education and other sections, similar to how you create a traditional CV.
MY NETWORK: or My Network, shows you a list of all the professionals you are already connected with on LinkedIn.
JOBS: or Jobs, shows you daily job postings on LinkedIn from employers or recruitment companies. The platform will also recommend specific jobs based on your profile information.
INTERESTS: in addition to your connections with active professionals on LinkedIn, you can also follow certain interests, such as company pages, groups, the SlideShare platform or the Lynda platform, for educational purposes.
SEARCH BAR: LinkedIn also has a very efficient search function that allows you to filter results according to several selection criteria. Through the search bar you can find certain specialists, certain companies, jobs and even more.
What can you use LinkedIn for?
Now you know what LinkedIn offers you and what kind of people use it, but these two aspects don’t give you specific ideas on how to use it. In fact, many users create an account and then abandon it because they have no idea how they should use LinkedIn.
Here are some recommendations for beginners.
You can use the “my network” section to find former colleagues, teachers, people you went to school with, co-workers and other people you think are worth adding to your professional network.
You can also use your profile as a CV that you can include as a link in an email or cover letter when applying for jobs.
Some job boards allow you to do this by connecting your LinkedIn account to their platform and importing all your information.
Other ways you can use LinkedIn:
Find and apply for jobs.
Find and connect with other professionals.
actively participate in groups relevant to you, your personal brand or your business.
blog about the topics you master.
Switching to a LinkedIn Premium account
Many people do just fine without LinkedIn Premium, but if you’re serious about using LinkedIn as an online marketing channel, you’ll want to upgrade to one of the four premium accounts available.
Currently, LinkedIn has premium plans for users looking to find their dream job, discover new sales opportunities and those looking to hire.
What does LinkedIn mean in 2022?
A new online marketing opportunity for any online business that can produce quality and relevant content for their target audience. Why?
Because, currently, LinkedIn is one of the best platforms in terms of organic reach and this will not change anytime soon.
We can compare the current organic reach that can be achieved on LinkedIn with the organic reach that Facebook pages had back in 2011 – 2012.
LinkedIn, although mainly used for making new connections and career development, is fast becoming a top social media platform for content creation and digital marketing.
With over 2.5 million active users, LinkedIn Romania is the ideal place to promote company culture, showcase products and services and highlight organizational changes.
It’s a powerful tool, but how do we optimize it? How do we use the LinkedIn platform to generate leads, drive sales or strengthen our brand awareness? A company LinkedIn account is indispensable to any business today.
So let’s take a look at some LinkedIn practices that are of great use in 2022:
Forming valuable connections
What makes LinkedIn a truly unique social media platform is its focus on networking. It has become common practice to create connections with strangers within and sometimes even outside of your current network.
This practice should be exploited. And why? Because when we update our profiles to reflect our affiliation with a particular business or organization, we essentially become ambassadors for that entity. Therefore, every peer-to-peer interaction becomes an opportunity to indirectly promote an organisation’s page.
If we are referring to a company’s LinkedIn Premium account, it is all the more important to find business partners or future customers through the network.
Content creation
Posting content on LinkedIn is becoming more and more common. Year on year, LinkedIn is seeing a steady increase in the volume of content published on the platform.
LinkedIn offers brands, companies and organisations the possibility to post different information, ideas, opinions. The internal content of a LinkedIn profile is a powerful digital marketing tool as it allows the freedom to highlight community culture, detail achievements without exaggerating the commercial tinge and provide news and updates.
The more we reveal about our organisation, our company, the more likely users are to find reasons to connect.
Running LinkedIn ads
Social media platforms continue to dominate the online advertising space. In January 2021, there were over 4.66 billion internet users worldwide, and of those 4.66 billion, over 90% were active social network users.
What does this mean? It means that “social networks” and “the internet” have become almost synonymous.
LinkedIn offers a variety of ad types that can meet a variety of needs; from single-picture ads, to video ads, to multi-photo carousel ads, to event ads.
Social media advertising is powerful because we are in control. We can customize our target audience, set our desired price and manage our budget and posting schedules.
Live streaming
Live streaming is a relatively new tool on LinkedIn. Today we see more and more social media platforms using this tool. It’s incredibly useful because it basically creates a bridge between the real audience and the virtual world.
Live streaming allows companies and organizations to reach and interact with markets around the world in real time. What makes live streaming an incredible strategy for promoting your business is its flexibility. You can discuss anything you want at no cost.
Conclusions
LinkedIn is powerful. And in many cases it can prove to be the best digital marketing tool for a business, brand or organization. What platform could be better suited than one already tailored for professionals?
LinkedIn encourages peer-to-peer interactions and demonstrates steady growth. Whether it’s content creation, digital ads or live streaming, LinkedIn is a virtual platform that every company should become familiar with.
As a final note to this article, don’t forget to take full advantage of the mobile app available for free on iOS and Android platforms. Contact re7consulting today to find out how LinkedIn can become an asset to your business development.
