LinkedIn has over 400 million users based in 200 countries across the world. Due to its global reach it has become increasingly important as a way for businesses to gain clients and for individuals to find new employment.
In recent months there has been growing concern about fake accounts being set up on the site. These bogus profiles allow hackers to gain the trust of those they interact with, which can lead to sensitive personal data being disclosed. This is something that any user of the site should remain vigilant about, particularly as these fake accounts seem usually to represent themselves as recruitment companies. However, these concerns don’t mean that LinkedIn isn’t still an excellent way to reach out to your target audience, whether that’s new clients or a new employer.
Let’s look at ways you can develop your LinkedIn profile so you have the best chance possible to gain your objective.
Individuals Seeking Employment
If your aim with LinkedIn is to put yourself in the market for a new job, it’s imperative you fill out your LinkedIn profile as fully as possible. Add detailed descriptions of your previous roles and make sure you include the skills you will bring to a role, don’t just write a bland list of responsibilities you held. Also, complete your educational background, including whether you have any higher education qualifications such as a degree or vocational training of value to your career. To make your profile appear more fully rounded, you can also complete the sections on hobbies, voluntary work and membership of any societies.
Endorsements for key job skills and personal recommendations can also make your profile far more appealing to prospective employers. Therefore networking is essential if you want to make the most of the platform. Reach out to past and present colleagues and write recommendations for those you would genuinely endorse, you will find your goodwill is often swiftly reciprocated.
LinkedIn for Business
If you are using LinkedIn to promote your own business or to widen your audience to gain new clients, you will need to approach the platform in a slightly different way.
While your individual profile is still of value and should be completed as fully as possible, it is also important to set up a company page for your business. This allows you to share more about what your company offers and it can even feature individual services and products. If you have employees a LinkedIn page is also a central place for colleagues to connect and you may well find that your staff have people in their network who can be seen as potential new business.
If businesses want to build their credibility within the industry and engender trust in their audience, one way to do this is to share expertise via the LinkedIn Pulse posts. Pulse offers a platform for anyone to write an article about something within their niche and then to share this to a larger audience than just their own network for even wider exposure. If the article is frequently commented on and liked it can garner a great deal of interest and this can help build your brand awareness. In addition, Pulse also allows you to embed links, images and even videos so you can easily drive people back to your own online real estate, such as your website or blog, and encourage people to sign up to your mailing list.
As you can see LinkedIn offers benefits to both individuals and companies using its platform. As with anything online you should always be careful who you pass your details to, but this shouldn’t deter you from reaching out to make new contacts who will be valuable to you as a job seeker or who may wish to become your client. One of the key advantages of LinkedIn is that it comprises people who genuinely know and who have worked with each other in real life and little is as powerful in business as this face-to-face knowledge.
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