The social media networks have really blossomed in the past decade and now they have become hugely popular while playing a crucial role in influencing opinion as well as business online. Amongst the various social networks and apps such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram the LinkedIn remains one of the most productive social media network for business and employment. The LinkedIn is an essentially an employment and business driven social network for professional where companies hire professionals and prospective candidates seek jobs in their respective industries. Utilizing and using LinkedIn effectively is important to get the maximum out of this social network and ensure that it is used constructively.

Using LinkedIn efficiently

People used LinkedIn to keep in contact with the clients, business associates and co-workers. However beyond that this social network can do a lot more such as boost your profile, create awareness for the brand and help in recruiting the right people for your business requirements. If you are new to this social network and want to know how to use LinkedIn then let us have a look.

Creating and completing your profile: The first step is obviously creating and completing your LinkedIn profile by creating an account and submitting all the necessary details. Your profile on LinkedIn is an important component of your brand and if your profile is public then all the registered users will be able to access and see your profile. This is for business so your profile should look different than your personal one on a hookup site, local sex sites, or your dating profile on tinder. In a word your profile should be more professional. Once you have a created an account on LinkedIn you must use a good quality photograph of yourself. It is preferable if that photo has been taken by the professional photographer so that it looks better. This is because LinkedIn is not a casual social media network rather it is a professional network where all the potential clients and business owners are likely to engage with you for employment and business purposes.

When completing your profile you must add a background image so that your profile looks good and vibrant. You must always mention the industry as well as your location in the headline. Then you must provide a concise and articulate summary of yourself that includes stuff about you and what you have got to offer to the prospective businesses or the clients. You can also provide a sample of your work and upload files accordingly so that people get a fair idea of what to expect from you. There should also bean inclusion of previous history of work, educational information and your areas of knowledge or expertise. Once you are done completing the profile you should move onto the next step.

Connecting with other LinkedIn users: Like all other social media networks, the LinkedIn also provides the option of connecting with other users and people who are interested in connecting to. You can send an invitation on LinkedIn to connect with the specific user and if that user accepts your invitation then now you are connected with that user. The LinkedIn creates a list of your connections known as the “My Network”. When you establish a new connection with any user you not only gain access to their profile but also their connections which are publically available. This opens up more opportunities and possibilities for all the parties involved. The number of connections that you have on LinkedIn has an impact on the search ranking of LinkedIn. So it is a good idea to have a minimum of 50 connections that are “first degree”.

Start interacting: Once you have made the connections on LinkedIn, it is important to start interacting with your connections. These conversations can help open up possibilities that you didn’t know exist and thus communicating with the contacts is always a great way of exploring the potential jobs and client services. The LinkedIn provides the messaging service that enables you to have real time conversations with the interested people. The LinkedIn also provides an active status feature that indicates whether that specific user is currently online or not. If the use is online you can initiate a real conversation with that user. LinkedIn also provides a “Smart reply” feature where standard responses are automatically drafted such as “Great”, “Thanks” and ” What time” etc. The premium membership of the LinkedIn account allows you to send private messages to any of the LinkedIn members even if you don’t have any prior communication or introduction with them.

LinkedIn groups: You can make use of the LinkedIn groups feature to share news and discuss ideas with like-minded professionals and users. The LinkedIn groups allow you to ask questions, join conversations and send messages to other members of the group. You can search for different groups by using the search bar available on the top. The LinkedIn groups are a good way of structuring your areas of interest and creating a dedicated channel for that.