Connecting on LinkedIn

What is LinkedIn?

LinkedIn is a professional social networking site that was founded in 2002. Since then it has grown to include more than 430 million registered users, of which 106 million are active each month. To sign up for LinkedIn is free for both individuals and businesses, but the company offers many Premium products that provide more value to both individuals and businesses. The site provides a way for users to market their professional achievements and make lasting business connections. I have personally been using LinkedIn for almost 7 years to discover job opportunities and stay connected with colleagues from college and previous jobs.

How can businesses get started on LinkedIn?

The first thing a business should do is set up a company page. This allows the business to provide basic details including their industry, website, contact information, company size, and they are able to upload a profile picture/logo. This allows anyone to search and find the business and if any of their employees have the business listed as an employer, the logo will appear in the employee's employment section and will link to the business page.

To the right is an example of the business page for Cooper Tire & Rubber Company. As an individual, this page will also tell you if you have any connections that work for this company, both first degree and second degree connections, and how many of its employees are on LinkedIn. You can also see any of the recent updates that the company has posted and any open job postings. If you click on any of the job postings, you will see how many people have applied for that position if any of your connections or past experiences are a commonality with the company.

Premium Features

Once an individual or business has a page on LinkedIn they will have the opportunity to upgrade their page to one of LinkedIn's Premium products. Before deciding on a Premium product, businesses should determine their goals for using LinkedIn. Are they trying to improve the quality of their recruiting function? Are they trying to attract higher quality talent? Are they trying to grow their sales and marketing reach? LinkedIn has Premium products to address each of these items individually! 

Job Seeker: designed for individuals who are searching for a job, $29.99 per month. Allows you to directly message recruiters, see who's viewed your profile in the last 90 days, and see how you compare to other applicants and move to the top of the applicant list.

Business Plus: designed for individuals and businesses who want to expand their networks, $59.99 per month. Allows you to contact anyone on LinkedIn, see who's viewed your profile in the last 90 days, and filter through connections with advanced search filters.

Sales Navigator: designed for salespeople who are looking to identify sales leads and connect with decision makers, $79.99 or $129.99 per month. Allows additional search filters and the ability to save contacts through Lead Builder, receive customized lead suggestions, and the ability to message anyone who doesn't have an email listed.

Recruiter: designed for HR/recruiting professionals, $119.95 per month for Recruiter Lite and $749.99 per month for the full Recruiter product. Provides recruiter specific search features, track applicants, and with the full product get data analytics and unlimited profile views.

Obviously, LinkedIn has a lot of different features that you can customize for your individual or business use. Identifying your goals of using this site are key to knowing which product you should be using. The average LinkedIn user spends 9.8 minutes on the site each day and in order to engage with them, companies need to make sure that they are posting and connecting with the right people. "According to LinkedIn, 50% of its members said they’re more likely to buy from a company they engage with on the platform." In order to do that, companies should be posting updates to their LinkedIn profiles regularly that interest their followers and help job seekers get a feel for what it would be like to work for the company.