7 of the Best LinkedIn Tips for Professionals

LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional network with over 660 million users from 200 different countries. This makes it too big of an opportunity for you to ignore.

It is especially great for B2B marketers as the platform has over 63 million decision-makers from different companies and industries. This presents an unmatched opportunity for B2B marketers to connect with potential clients and generate qualified leads. 

And, these are just two of the many LinkedIn stats that can convince you of its value as a marketing platform, especially for B2B marketers. But is LinkedIn just meant for B2B marketers? No! Anyone can benefit from LinkedIn by establishing a solid presence on the platform and amassing enough followers. All you need is a push in the right direction and that’s what we are here for.

In this post, we will discuss 7 of the best LinkedIn marketing tips with you that actually work. You can use them to build your brand on LinkedIn and beyond.

5. Sponsor Your Winning Posts

As we all know, some of the content that we create works and some doesn’t. 

The smart thing to do is capitalise more on the content that does well to get the maximum benefit out of it. That is where LinkedIn’s “sponsored content” option comes into play.

Wait… What is sponsored content?

Sponsoring content is basically like native advertising on the platform. You can sponsor your best content to have it shown on the feeds of your target audience even those users outside of your professional network. This increases the reach of your content and gets it more views from the right audience. This is an excellent way to market yourself and get noticed by the bigshots in different companies, who could be potential clients.

7. Leverage LinkedIn Analytics

No marketing initiative is complete if you don’t track and measure its performance. LinkedIn has a built-in analytics tool that can help you see how your efforts on the platform are going. Using the “Company Page Analytics” feature you can assess how your company page is performing. You can specifically see which updates are getting the highest engagement and which ones are a complete failure.

You can then use those insights to fuel your future marketing efforts and create more engaging content. So, if you haven’t used LinkedIn analytics yet, try it now.

See all 7 tips and the complete article

10 ways to make your LinkedIn profile stand out to recruiters

By 

Sarah Fielding

 If you’ve ever applied to a job on LinkedIn, you've seen that message saying X and Y company has viewed your profile. Sure, that’s the outcome you wanted when you sent in your resume, though it's not who viewed your profile but what is in there that matters -especially if you haven’t done anything to it for a while.

According to the 2018 Jobvite Recruiter Nation Study, 77 percent of recruiters regularly use LinkedIn to find candidates, making it the most popular social media used for this purpose. So, if that job description is out of date or your photo is the one you took way back in your college dorms, you should definitely be serious about updating your profile. To ensure it stands out to recruiters, we spoke to career experts about the changes you can make: 

2. Customize your headline and profile background

LinkedIn assigns both of them automatically: your latest position fills in your headline, and a blue background that looks like a constellation is set to anyone that doesn't create their own. While this may be all you need, having a specific, eye-catching headline and background can attract recruiters to your profile.

“You want a customized headline that quickly tells someone who you are, and what you specialize in,” says Jenny Foss, a recruiter, job search strategist, and founder of career blog JobJenny. "And a lot of people don't even realize you can customize your background, but you can and you should." Not only does this set you apart, but it provides you the opportunity to give recruiters a further sense of who you are. "I'd make the most of it. It's valuable real estate!”      

6. Improve your profile's URL

While it may not seem like much, your URL is what recruiters use to look at your LinkedIn. Proctor recommends changing it from a mix of names and numbers to a smooth and concise link. If your name by itself is taken, or very common, add your degree, location or industry as well. This small move shows you took the extra time to clean up every aspect of your profile, not just the obvious parts. 

8. Explicitly say you're job seeking

There may be other reasons why you haven't heard back from a job application, but sometimes you just come accross as unavailable at LinkedIn. Foss suggests to take advantage of the Open Candidate feature, which allows you to alert recruiters who are using LinkedIn Premium Recruiter. "Let them know that you're interested in being contacted, and spell out what types of roles you'd like to hear about,” she says. While recruiters at your own company are unable to see if you’ve activated the feature, any outside recruiting agencies will be able to see it. But consider this: if you don’t want to disclose job searching to your current company, best to leave this off. 

See all 10 ways and the complete Fortune article
    

Why Authenticity Is the Sole Tactic You Need to Succeed on LinkedIn

By Robbie AbedAuthor, writer, and founder of Firemeibegyou.com

I truly believe that LinkedIn is the most powerful social network of all of the major social networks, including Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. LinkedIn is where business happens, plain and simple. And if you're an entrepreneur starting a company that you hope will be big one day, you simply can't ignore this powerful social network.

I've been on LinkedIn since 2006, and it has single-handedly changed my career and entrepreneurship trajectory. It has provided me with new career opportunities, new business partners, employee referrals, and connections to wealthy investors. For entrepreneurs, LinkedIn works really well.

I've been able to amass over 30,000 connections on LinkedIn, and that number continues to grow every day. To achieve this success, I've used a single approach that has worked since day one: authenticity. If anything sells on LinkedIn, it's this.

Every year, I post a reflection called "Robbie's Last Year: The Good, Bad, and Ugly," where I talk about everything that happened with my company and even my personal life. Every year, this post consistently generates the most comments, likes, shares, and even InMails (LinkedIn's messaging system). 

Many of the comments and InMails that are sent to me are from people who have had the same struggles I've had. Many of these people are strangers that I've never interacted with before, and they're opening up to me about their life and business struggles. I'm able to forge new connections and new business opportunities by simply being genuine and talking openly about my successes and failures.

If you want to build better relationships with your connections, this is easily the way to go. Many of your connections read your content every time you post it but never comment, like, or share it. And since LinkedIn doesn't tell you exactly who's viewed your content, you're left in the dark.

When I write authentically and talk deeply about a subject that's either taboo or just not talked about enough, my engagement skyrockets. The "lurkers" who usually don't like or comment on posts actually start engaging with my content. By writing authentically, you've given them permission to open up to you as well.

Read the rest of the Inc.com article

LinkedIn Career Expert Says to Get Your Next Job, Your LinkedIn Profile Should Have These 7 Simple Things

By Peter Economy

Your LinkedIn profile serves as your first impression with potential employers. And 65 percent of people believe that the impression you make online is just as important as the one you make in person. So, making a great first impression is key to landing your next opportunity.

Check out seven tips from LinkedIn career expert, Blair Decembrele, on how to perfect your LinkedIn profile.

5. Ace your summary.

Think of your summary as your "about me." Try to sum up your experience in about 40 words and make sure you include any keywords and/or skills that you've seen featured in descriptions for jobs that seem interesting to you. A robust summary section makes your profile more likely to show up in a hiring manager's search and gives you the opportunity to share more about yourself.

6. Ask for recommendations or referrals.

Asking for recommendations from a peer, manager, direct report, professor, or client on your profile is a great way for hiring managers and recruiters to see what others say about your work. Or even better, if they are connected to someone at the company where you want to work, ask them to refer you. Job applicants who are referred by an employee are 9X more likely to get hired. 

7. Put your profile to work.

Once you've set up or refreshed your profile, start searching the 20+ million jobs on LinkedIn, and set up job alerts so you're among the first to be notified when a relevant job is posted. Applying for a job within the first 10 minutes of receiving a relevant job notification increases your chances of hearing back by up to 4X.

See all 7 things and the complete Inc. article

LinkedIn listed 10 skills with the highest demand in 2020

By Alicia Newman

What skill does the workforce value most? What are the 10 skills that are the highest in demand in 2020?

Recruiters around the world have a front-row seat to the changing mix of skills most prized in the business world. And understanding what those skills are can give you a tremendous boost. But these skills tend to change gradually over time. And only the most sought-after hard skills evolve in a light-speed, pushed mostly by the relentless transformation of the technology.

Here are LinkedIn’s 10 skills with high demand in 2020:

1. Blockchain

6. Business analysis

7. Affiliate marketing

Blockchain

Blockchain, in essence, is a growing list of records called blocks that are linked using cryptography. Originally, blockchain was invented by someone you probably know called Satoshi Nakamoto.

It was first invented in 2008 in order to serve as the public transaction ledger of the cryptocurrency bitcoin. And with that, the first digital currency to solve the double-spending problem without the need for a trusted authority was solved.

 See all 10 Skills, their explanations and the complete LearnWorthy article