Just as everyone needs to have a twitter account , LinkedIn too cannot be missed and here are top reasons for What LinkedIn is and how useful it can be .
Basically it is an efficient way to connect with an enormous reservoir of professionals from about every industry with its very easy-to-use search and filtering features. It lets you create a detailed professional profile others can search. Thus its more or less like facebook but with Professional Carrier Oriented topping in it .
LinkedIn by far is the most developed business networking site I have ever seen and it’s the way millions of career-minded people find their next jobs. Used mostly to get to someone in your niche in order to form a partnership , recommend other people you have worked with , get a job or generate sales . However its not restricted to only business , you can also utilize LinkedIn to connect with old friends or colleagues . Even if you intend to use it for business later , then they can surely help you . It works very good and if you some good number of Connections [LinkedIn slang for Friends] chances are that you can go viral because it is an online network of more than 10 million experienced professionals from around the world representing huge number of industries.
Here compiled are some of the tips to increase and optimize the value of your LinkedIn :
1] Increase your Visibility
You are on facebook , twitter , digg and almost everywhere . So why not on LinkedIn ? Most of the people are already on it and starting their growth , and you should too . By adding connections, you increase the likelihood that people will see your profile first when they’re searching for someone to hire or do business with. In addition to appearing at the top of search results , people would much rather work with people who their friends know and trust. That’s the Bonus 😉
2] Optimize you Connectability
You should fill out your profile heavily just like you fill out your facebook . Don’t leave anything black . Keep on updating your profile just like it’s an executive bio . Add Education , past companies, affiliations, and activities , your strengths and everything …
Even list your Twitter account and sync it so that your tweets will be visible to your connections
3] Appear on Search Engines
Now this is slightly in terms of SEO . LinkedIn has power to make your profile information available for search engines to index. If you are on LinkedIn then just search your Full name on Google , Bing or Yahoo and your LinkedIn profile will be visible in First page of search results , Second SERP [ Most probably after your Twitter Profile ] .What can be better way to influence people when they search yourself !
For this, create a public profile and select “Full View” .
Customize your public profile’s URL to be your actual name to optimize in Search Engine Ranking .
4] Perform Reference checks
LinkedIn’s reference check tool is useful and when you input a company name you will find all the people who worked for that searched company during the specific time period you search for ! Thus you can be in touch with all the people and get the inside scoop on the job, employees and growth potential.
5] Powerful Job search
Check out LinkedIn’s advanced search to find people with educational and work experience like yours to see where they work. Almost every job niche has a group where you can join in and connect with like minded people
6] Easy Tracking of Startups
Check people in your network initiating startups through advanced search for a range of keywords such as “stealth” or “new startups.”
Use the “Sort By” filter to “Degrees away from you” in order to see the people closest to you first.
7] Request advice.
LinkedIn Answers is LinkedIn’s newest product aiming to enable this online . This can allow you to broadcast your Professional courier or business-related questions to everyone in LinkedIn network just like [ filtered ] group discussion . Thus more chances of Superlative responses .
8] LinkUp your other social profiles
Add all of your profiles of social networking sites including your Blog address , Website , Twitter ID . Once you’ve made your connections people can view your profile and then click away to your website, blog or Twitter account .
9] LinkedIn Apps
This is the coolest LinkedIn feature . It offers many applications helping you to get the most of your profile. WordPress – that shows all of your recent blog posts of your wordpress powered blog , SlideShare – allowing you to share all of your presentations and save them on the web , Polls – to find out valuable information and statistics and many other such apps .
10] Recommendations
This is the core and most loved feature for LinkedIn ! Recommendations are just like testimonials where you write about that person , his Plus points and highlight it to other people in your group . The more recommendations you get , the more powerful you are and chances are that you are more likely to get selected based on Parameter of number of recommendations . If you’ve had a good business relationship with another LinkedIn member, ask for a recommendation and you can return the favor by recommending as this gives exposure to both of em making it a win-win situation 😀
I find LinkedIn to be amazing because it’s a great shortcut for both job seekers and headhunters. I recommend everyone to Join LinkedIn .
And if you already present , then add me here .
Fantastic post mate. I will agree with all the points listed here. There is no better place to find a better job other than Linkedin. Well thanks for sharing an useful post.
Well written post, Mostly I am using linked in for asking Questions related with blog and SEO…
LinkedIn has grown more reliable and worthy network for professional usages. Thank you for sharing such valuable tips for a popular network. I am registered there and have some nice friends but been unable to exploit properly.
Found your blog from a comment you left over on Blinky so I wanted to check out your site. It’s really excellent. I’m not on LinkedIn because I didn’t really know what it was. Thanks for enlightening me. Oh, and btw, congrats on reaching the high Alexa rank so quickly!
First of all thanks for your comment here Debby !
Glad you like it 😀
Keep visiting and stay connected blogger 🙂
Now we will create LinkedIn account to promote my online business activities. This suites me in every aspect.
I actually was thinking linkedin is just facebook spoof when i was getting lots of linkedin connection requests . I havnt checked what linkedin is , but looks like now i need to sign up . Thanks fro the thumb-up man
Glad you got it Ricky 😀 Linkedin is the one the best ‘career’ social networking site and is growing day by day .
Thanks for your comment .
Thanks for the article. I have updated my Linkedin profile. Looking to get new connections. I think it is the best social networking site to get a job/career
I am not a member of linkedin but I’m planning too. Actually, I let my brother to be a member of it. Since he’s working in a corporate world, I thought he needs it more than I do because I’m only working online. Not until I visited the site, I also found people who are also working online who have their accounts in linkedin. It proved that this site is for everybody not only for professionals in corporate world.
This is amazing list like the previous one.. Thank you for this post.. Interesting Infographic