How does Linkedin work? This social network is a free multimedia platform for Web Marketing (with optional paid services and in the most complete version, the premium one), specifically to insert your curriculum vitae in an online version and for the dissemination of professional content.
Summary
If you want to increase the visibility of your content, we also recommend an article on how advertising on Linkedin (Linkedin Ads) works and how to use hashtags .
However, this does not imply a "passive" attitude towards this social network, but on the contrary a "pro-active" approach. This highlights the fact that it is not enough to insert your CV and wait for the call from companies, a completely useless and ineffective strategy.
LinkedIn is present and active in over 200 countries and, while it had approximately 30 million users in 2009, to date it has reached the impressive number of 630 million active users (approximately 12 million in Italy) .
By continuing to read you will find a complete guide to the key elements to start using this social network.
How to get started
First of all, you obviously need to register on the official website and create your account. The procedure is always the same as for all private account creations, just enter your name and surname, email address and create a password as secure as possible. If you are already registered, simply log in.
As soon as you log in or register for the first time, just follow the guidelines and answer the questions asked and you will see your CV being created.
You will also be asked immediately to set up an alert for job requests, this is because it has a search engine designed exclusively for job offers. The purpose of this and this precise classification is to create a dense network of connections between people known and indicated as reliable in the work environment .
In this way, connections upon connections are formed which form a dense network like a "neural center".
Although used by both genders, it is the male concentration that is in the majority (59%) , with age groups between 25-34 and 35-54 in the finance, high-tech and manufacturing sectors.
Key elements
Let's go back to talking about your profile for a second: it must have a perfect photo of you (and not taken in a playful moment) because it is the first one that everyone will see and it must fully represent you, to then lead them to the contents that will be a fundamental point on the platform, but the core of all this must be the relationships.
One of the goals of the profile and presence on LinkedIn is to transform these virtual relationships into real ones through likes, public comments, private messages until they lead to an "offline" relationship.
Referring to this concept, remember that your account works based on how many contacts you have connected: try to have as many connections and people as possible by accepting them in turn but always being careful not to ask for contact from people or companies that would never accept it from you.
In fact , a high number of rejections would only cause you to receive sanctions or limitations from the social network .
Conversely, successful and therefore positive connections will help you achieve excellent results in terms of opportunities and visibility.
I Like: the basis of interactions
Why is the banal like so important? Because whoever expresses a positive opinion (like, comment or share) multiplies the visibility with any person or company that has interacted with it.
To give a very simple example, it works like a retweet on Twitter.
Obviously, the above must be based on a profile containing the most detailed information possible regarding your educational background and the qualifications obtained during your studies and all previous work experiences which, if confirmed by contacts who know you, provide a reference on the platform.
You can also add courses attended , publications, languages mastered , collaborations and internships, thus highlighting your skills and qualities.
The more detailed and precise this information is, the more effective the CV will be.
The groups
Another very functional and fundamental aspect is constituted by Groups . In fact, they include people with the same interest or operating in similar sectors where they can share opinions, offers or establish professional contacts.
However, a very common mistake is to only sign up to primary interest groups, but in this way we would probably have more competitors than customers .
But how can we fully understand its success? Professionals in the same sector gathered in a group to discuss or collaborate on interests that unite them and find different clients in need of services offered by these professionals is no small feat.
Automatically and with minimal effort we will learn about new techniques, services or more simply exchanges of opinions thanks to interpersonal sharing between members of these groups.
This still requires an active and productive attitude in order to cement your reputation and establish long-lasting and deep roots within the social networking platform.
Now we will analyze how to track down and find these "famous" professional interest groups: the simplest, most direct and most used method on all platforms is the search bar , where we will write the location of interest and once the search has started we will select the "Groups" item on the left of the menu.
In addition to the location, we could insert an infinite number of keywords such as product type, the name of the sector of interest and so on.
What has just been said is the simplest and fastest method but also a little more "dispersive" since the research, however precise it may be, is always a little approximate with respect to our objectives or interests.
So there is another trick, that of looking for "ideal clients" (contacts already present in our network of connections) and going to see which groups they are registered in .
Most likely, by doing so we will be able to find sectors that may interest us in a very specific and precise way.
Finally, a mistake that absolutely should not be made is to join a group without first evaluating its current condition. That is, you need to carefully study who the people are who are part of it, their age and function, the demographic concentration, the growth curve of the activity within it, the rules of the group and the presence (active/passive) of the owner of the group.
All this must then be put in relation to my intention within it; if I want to emerge as a Top Contributor I will need large groups and a lot of commitment, if I need new customers the number is the least important part, if it is a group connected to a company the activities within will bring benefits to all the "connected" of that Network.
Unfortunately, as useful as a group can be, it can also fail due to poor management or low activity, or because our efforts are not taken into consideration.
Linkedin Premium
Now that you have seen how to use Linkedin with the free account, you should know that there is also a more advanced and obviously more performing paid version called premium .
In reality, it provides four versions with monthly payment , specifically JOB SEEKER for sector operators who are looking to expand their job prospects (€21.99 + VAT), BUSINESS PLUS which allows you to strengthen your network of contacts so as to affirm or enhance your brand (€44.99 + VAT), SALES NAVIGATOR for the most demanding and experienced headhunters (€59.99 + VAT) and RECRUITER LITE with a specific focus on human resources for the expansion of the company's workforce of any age or role (€89.95 + VAT).
The most interesting feature is undoubtedly the ability to send emails to people outside of our contact network in order to add strangers and messages that do not receive any response will be refunded at a later time directly by LinkedIn.
There is also the OpenLink feature, which allows anyone to contact you .
In addition to having your network connections up to the second level with the free account, with this version you can have it extended up to the third level, therefore the possibility of seeing the contact information of those who have only visited your profile .
There is also an additional advantage from the point of view of the internal search engine of the platform through a greater number of profiles as results , saving the searches carried out and specific and personalized alerts when profiles similar to those already added to memory are inserted.
After analyzing both versions, free and paid, in enough detail, a very simple question arises spontaneously: is it worth upgrading to the paid version or not?
Let's say that if you are users only looking for job offers, the free version is well built, structured and gives excellent results. In fact, this Web Networking platform uses the Internet as the main form of communication, so the more Managers, Recruiters, Professionals, People, Companies, Referents etc. we have connected, the more substantial and impactful this Network will be.
How to evaluate your profile
A very powerful feature of LinkedIn is the Social Selling Index , initially available only for paid versions, but now also open to free profiles.
It is an index that highlights how much we are able to exploit the platform to the fullest and, therefore, the sales capacity. To discover yours click here .
There are factors that should never be underestimated, which are building stable and active contacts, identifying new realities or people and strengthening your brand. We can say that these are the basic rules of a good Salesman.
Using the profile so that our Personal Brand is impactful is not a very simple thing, it must be taken care of and paid attention, enriching our contents through videos, presentations, sharing and collecting quality topics.
Studying the profiles of other users (connected or not to us) to be able to procure the right clients or collaborators in a targeted and precise way. In essence, adopting an active approach and establishing strong and profitable connections and relationships, especially with the most expert and "qualified" users, will allow us to use a professional social network like LinkedIn in a powerful way and with an impact on the market or specific sectors of interest.
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