LinkedIn has over 575+ million users. However, about 260 million are monthly active users. This means two things: first, there is massive opportunity out there on this incredible business social network. Second, there is also a lot of competition. How to become more ‘visible’, ‘searchable’, and ’employable.’
1. Set up your LinkedIn profile like a pro
First of all, LinkedIn is pretty persistent in pushing you to complete your profile. It is important to have all these details in place before your account is usable:
- Profile picture
- Bio
- Education
- Work Experience
Apart from these, you should also try to add details about online certifications, projects and other affiliations. Also, don’t forget to ask your friends for reccomendations. Every bit helps.
You should ensure that your current location and position are clearly mentioned to enhance your profile. Mention your skills. You should make sure that you have at least five skills listed and at most about ten to twelve. Too many skills dilute your focus.
Never go overboard with the description. Assume that other people are smarter than you and they will not like a person who over promises but under delivers. When in doubt, list skills that can either establish your authority or give you a job.
Using LInkedin for job search
LinkedIn.com is a great network for job search. In fact, it’s an office joke that co-workers can predict employee turnover by the amount they spend on this website.
It is essential to keep your profile updated. You don’t want outdated information to be seen by the recruiters when they open your profile. In fact completing your profile will boost the chances of being seen on search results:
If you are seeking a job change, you may try out LinkedIn Premium which offers some extra features over the free profile. If you are not sure which premium plan is better or whether LinkedIn premium is worth it, you can check out our article on this topic.
Business use
Did you know that LinkedIn generates about 277% more leads than other social networks like Twitter and Facebook? Hubspot found that LinkedIn has a much higher visit to lead ratio of around 2.74%
An excellent tool for business is the InMail or IM. The IM is a killer feature that lets you communicate with ‘anyone.’ This is quite useful when you want to get across influential people who are difficult to get through.
2. Connect
About 90% of the recruiters use LinkedIn. In order to make yourself visible, you need to connect with potential recruiters. You can increase connections easily by sending out to people you know.
Firstly, try to connect with people from your work and educational institute. The response rate is highest from people you know. Next in line is the response from people who are affiliated to the same institute.
It is said that you must have at least 50 connections before you are shown in the search.
3. Engage
It is essential to engage with people. The rule is simple. Every time you like on someone’s post, they get notified. However, liking is a passive form of social media interaction.
Comments have much more visibility. Commenting on trending posts will help you reach out to a greater number of people. Try to contribute something valuable to the discussion rather than simply using the standard ‘thank you’ for maximum impact.
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4. Contribute
If you want to build a reputation fast and gain followers, the best method is to contribute. Think of it as a platform to share your ideas. However, there are certain things to keep in mind to ensure the best results:
- Post original content. Original content would get featured not just internally but also on search results.
- Use hashtags to feature for the searches. It is a skill to include both broad hashtags as well as narrow ones. Broad terms like ‘leadership’ will have lot of searches but higher competition. Narrow terms are longer phrases like ‘leadership at the bottom of the pyramid.’ These narrower terms have lesser competition and therefore your article has higher chances of being visible.
5. Leverage org, brands and other influencers
It is very difficult for a new comer to establish their authority online. However, there are smarter ways to crack the social media code:
- Include the profile handles and tag people – tagging can bring their attention to your article.
- Ask for comments and views. LinkedIn posts that specifically ask for comments have a higher chance of getting one.
- Post about trending topics.
- Post about topics that people care about
- Cross-post others’ materials with permission or through sharing their original content
- When you write on a topic that is useful, funny, entertaining, or educating, it will lead to greater impact.
- Go easy on self-promotion. People can see through things fairly easily.
Bonus tips and tricks
- Keep aside specific time for setting up your profile. People often expect returns from their social media profiles without investing anything.
- Keep your network ‘pruned.’ LinkedIn has millions of users but that does not mean you need to connect to all of them. People are quite judicious about maintaining a specific set of friends on Facebook. However, when it comes to LinkedIn they add random people. While it really helps to get visible but there is a tradeoff between having a larger and better network.
Backup your LinkedIn Data
This social network is essentially a key to all of your professional connections. The connections that you spent years or decade building. Let’s hope that such a day never comes but what if you lose access to the account?
Here is a simple tip to save your day:
- Click on the ‘me’ section
- Select ‘Settings and Privacy’ > ”Privacy”
- On the left rail, select “How LinkedIn uses your data”
- Voila, now you can get your copy of the data within 24 hours.
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