James Potter
We often have people tell us how they think LinkedIn works and it is not always correct. There are a lot of myths about what it takes to make LinkedIn work so we have created a series of blog posts to dispel the most common myths we see.
Myth #7: LinkedIn is just a super-sized job board.
I hear this frequently, but if you do a quick piece of research you’ll find it’s simply not true.
First, LinkedIn itself does not rely on recruitment for its core revenue. LinkedIn’s revenue comes from three distinct sources: hiring solutions, advertising and premium subscriptions. But just 58% of its revenue comes from hiring solutions, which includes jobs listings.
Second, the three most active industries on the platform are IT, construction and financial services (if you search by those listed at Director or above). Within these sectors there is a healthy amount of networking, business development, collaboration and discussion – all of which has very little to do with recruitment – in fact recruitment is the one sector we don’t focus on!
A strong profile certainly helps when it comes to finding new employment, as recruitment consultants are increasingly relying on LinkedIn to source candidates.
However, I suggest against falling into the trap of only updating your profile when you are looking to make a career change, or abandoning LinkedIn because recruitment is not relevant to you. The platform has so much more to offer you, to help you in your role and to drive your success.
Sadly the time to find out its value is not when you have to use your network for a purpose to help you, but before. Too many times people wait until they ‘need to’ or ‘have to’ use LinkedIn and unfortunately that is often too late.
So just how much of a chance have you given LinkedIn?
The most effective users of LinkedIn are those who are engaged and genuine when it comes to building connections and relationships. Content is king on LinkedIn in the same way as it is on other social networks, but on here the main currency is the reputation of each user. How you spend yours, lend it to others with introductions and recommendations, and the way you present yourself affects the impact you will achieve using LinkedIn.
By being on the platform and investing time in getting it right you are giving yourself an unprecedented opportunity to engage with a vast global network of 162 million professionals.
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