In our latest series of how-to blogs we explore LinkedIn for beginners and how you can make your personal professional profile the best it can be.
What is LinkedIn?
Founded in December 2002, LinkedIn is a social networking site designed for the business community, and is the world’s largest professional network. The goal of the site is to allow members to establish networks of people they know and trust professionally. You can build connections with potential employers and customers alongside endorsing others for their skills and knowledge.
What can you do with LinkedIn
- Establish your professional profile
- Build and maintain your professional network
- Find and reconnect with colleagues and classmates
- Learn about other companies and get industry insights
- Tap into the knowledge of your network
- Create new career opportunities.
Here's some further facts about LinkedIn
- Total number of users is 380 million with over 10 million UK users (July 2015)
- There are 2 new members every second
- 97 million monthly unique visiting members
- It reaches a total of 200 countries and territories geographically
- 44% of users are women and 56% are men.
- There are 45,000 skills listed.
How do you join?
Like most social networks, LinkedIn is easy and free to join. Just head over to linkedin.com and sign up. Remember while completing your profile to remain professional – from your photograph right through to your summary.
Choose a headline or phrase that sums up your professional identity and include a summary of your work experience, professional expertise and what you have accomplished. This is where others will see what you have achieved and what your current position is. Give as much information as possible and try not to miss out any of your skills, as these will get picked up on searches.
Keep yourself and your brand aligned as much as possible with other social media channels – you are aiming for consistency throughout. This channel is more about ‘you’ as an expert in your field rather than your business or brand, however it is still important that you are representative of your company.
Think carefully about what you write, and check it over to make sure your spelling and grammar are correct. Ask a colleague or friend to look over it and make sure it gives an excellent professional first impression. If someone is searching for you online your LinkedIn profile will be the first one that appears! That is why it needs to be polished, and therefore a great introduction to you.
If you need any help setting up your account please do not hesitate to contact us.
Next time: Building connections and gaining endorsements.