LinkedIn is perhaps not the first social network one thinks of. When trying to decide how to divide one’s precious time among. However, the numerous platforms that exist today.

But that’s a real shame.
Because LinkedIn is actually an extraordinary showcase for doing business, especially if our goal is to promote ourselves and our personal brand .

But also to promote our company, especially in B2B sectors , with the creation of a company page, advertising campaigns, etc.

Furthermore, this social network offers many interesting features not only for those looking for work, but also for those looking for collaborators or employees.

In short, LinkedIn certainly goes quiet compared to the more noisy emerging “cousins” like TikTok , or the more established ones like Instagram , but in reality it is a platform with a thousand potential to be discovered.

LinkedIn: trend and growth

Just look at its usage stats to understand: LinkedIn has over 660 million active users in over 200 countries.

Officially launched in 2003, it has amassed 1.6 million members in just two years. In Silicon Valley  it became the most used social network for recruiting in 2007 , surpassing 15 million users.

Despite everything, LinkedIn’s initial growth rate was relatively slow compared to the surge it had after going public in 2011. Over the next five years, LinkedIn nearly tripled its user base from 160 million to 400 million. . Just a year later, in 2017, it exceeded half a billion.

Today, nearly half of the total number of LinkedIn users are active monthly. And if this doesn’t seem like enough, consider the current growth of this social network: more than two new members join LinkedIn every second. That’s over 172,800 new users a day!

In Italy alone, LinkedIn has more than 14 million users . It has been estimated that about 50% of B2B traffic on social media comes from this social media, as well as 80% of leads for the same category.

Are you starting to understand why it is convenient to be there?

Well, now that I’ve caught your attention with these interesting LinkedIn trends, let’s get to the heart and find out how and why to use it.

Let’s start from the basics, or how LinkedIn works in its two main variants: the personal profile and the company profile.

How does LinkedIn work? From CV to social network

Create a complete and effective personal LinkedIn profile

The personal profile is the home of your personal brand: it should be much more than an online CV, and become a sort of interactive landing page in which to show the best of you from a professional point of view.

It is a very important business card now, so much so that most people go to look for possible business partners, suppliers or customers on LinkedIn. So free cfo email list the point is not just to be there, but to be good!

Imagine your LinkedIn profile as an iceberg: there is the tip, what emerges immediately and is visible from the surface, that is, from the search function, in the preview when you leave a comment, etc. Few essential information, a professional profile photo, etc.

And then there is the base of the iceberg, which can be an ice cube or a continent. You can complete your LinkedIn profile at very thorough levels, also adding interactive materials such as presentations, books, photos, and entering not only professional but also personal information such as the causes you believe in, volunteer activities, etc.

It is up to you to decide how much to fill it in depth, but it is a job that I advise you to do calmly and seriously, because it will pay off over time.

Creating your profile on LinkedIn is simple, and the platform itself will guide you in the various things to insert, gradually suggesting further insights as you complete the more superficial ones, also giving you interesting statistics regarding the percentage of completeness of your profile.

Here are 6 basic tips for building a good LinkedIn profile:

1. Choose a professional profile picture

A good photo increases your credibility and helps you stand out from the crowd.

Statistics show that users with a good profile picture on LinkedIn can get up to 21x more views . Therefore, consider that it may be worthwhile to use the services of a professional photographer. After all, we know very well that in the professional field also the dress counts, right?

You can also add a cover image to personalize your profile. In this case, the best option is to use professional and free image banks such as  Burst , Pixabay , Pexels or Unsplash to ensure high quality photos. You can even use Canva to create a small graphic that helps convey the message of who you are and what you do even better.

2. Create an SEO-friendly summary describing what you do

Whenever you add a new professional experience on LinkedIn, the platform will automatically create a title for that experience. However, you can customize this field to make it more specific and SEO-friendly.

What does SEO have to do with LinkedIn you ask yourself? Oh, it has to do with it!

LinkedIn works like a lot on user searches, both within the platform and in general on search engines. If you use copywriting techniques to create an engaging profile, and SEO techniques to make it understandable to algorithms, you will be shown more both on and off LinkedIn for the keywords that interest you.

For best results, use keywords that are relevant to your business or area of ​​expertise. For example, if you work with content marketing and want to be found for a new professional experience in that field, you can create a title like: “Copywriter | Content Marketing | Specialized in XXXX”.

3. Write a LinkedIn summary explaining who you are and what you do

Another very important element to make the most of LinkedIn and set up a good profile on the platform is knowing how to use the “About” section of the profile.

Obviously, here too, take a look at SEO and try to write a text that is both beautiful and useful.

What to write in the LinkedIn summary for example, you ask?
Try to answer schematically but also in an interesting way to the following questions:

• Who are you
• What are you doing
• Why are you doing it
• How do you do it better than others
• Who can testify
• What to do to find out more ( Call To Action to your site / portfolio / contacts)

4. Add all your relevant work experiences

You must keep your profile up to date with your most recent and / or most relevant professional experiences, especially those that align with your current career goals.

You can also add links in the “Media” section  to show your work a little more interactively, turning this section of the profile into a sort of portfolio.

5. Add your skills and recommendations

Nothing better than good old word of mouth, especially when it comes to work. And this strategy doesn’t just work in the real world – it’s also very important for anyone who wants to create a good LinkedIn profile.

Within your profile, you can use this aspect in two ways: with skills and recommendations.

The “Recommendations” section, on the other hand, is a bit different. Here you can request reviews (by clicking on Add section, and then on Additional Information) from people who have already worked with you or who are familiar with your services. Create a nice accompanying message and don’t be afraid to ask – this is one of the most important things to have on LinkedIn!

As in all fields, your skills take on a completely different value when someone else confirms them. Plus, having the validation of others in your network is an excellent way to add value to the personal brand you are building

6. Create a custom URL and add contact information

Whenever you create a LinkedIn profile, an automatic URL is also created, which is usually a combination of your personal name and some random numbers.

To make your profile look more professional, you can create a custom URL by clicking on the “Edit public profile and URL” option at the top right.

These are the 6 basic steps to have a good and effective LinkedIn profile. But as I told you, they are just the tip of the iceberg! Spend some time playing with your new profile, exploring all the rumors and possibilities.

Maybe you choose the languages ​​in which to display your profile (yes exactly, it can be more than one), add your achievements as books you have written, courses you have attended, take the skill tests made available by the platform (another great way to certify your competence).

The more you fill it out and make it come alive, the more your LinkedIn profile will pay off, as we will also see below.

LinkedIn Company Page – Should You Create It?

As in most social networks, there is the possibility to create a company page on LinkedIn that has different characteristics from the personal profile.

This is a public page of your company / business, which as such can do some things that a personal profile cannot do, including:

• See in-depth stats and data that personal profiles don’t have
• Be managed by multiple administrators, each with its own profile
• Create sponsorship campaigns (ads)
• Open sub-pages called “showcase pages”, to highlight individual products or services

On the contrary, with a company page it is not possible to do small but large actions that are possible with a personal profile such as writing Pulse (or articles inside the platform), connecting to people (a page can only have followers), etc.

LinkedIn Premium: paid features

LinkedIn, unlike other social networks. However, does not have a mainly free business model based on the collection of data and information. However, but also provides subscription packages, namely LinkedIn Premium or LinkedIn Business profiles.