GOOGLE REVIEWS
Well it has been a while since Xposure’s last LinkedIn blog post, so to make sure that you haven’t forgotten about all its wondrous possibilities, I thought I would take some time to shed light on some lesser known LinkedIn features. Often seen as the ugly duckling of the social networks and not quite as popular as the rest, LinkedIn often gets over-looked, but its so much more than just a place to be bombarded by sales, or apply for jobs! For those of you who have created your profile, used it for a couple of weeks, connected with family and old school and work colleagues, then got bored and then moved on; here are a few things you may not know about LinkedIn. (That may persuade you to come back!)
1. Far from being unpopular, Linkedin currently has over 150 million users, although that is slightly over shadowed by Facebook’s 900 million, it’s still a figure worth taking note of! A rapid growth occurred from March 2011 to November 2011, which saw the population increase from 88million to 135 million, resulted in a growth of 2 new users per second over the 8 month period!
2. Unlike most social networks, and thoroughly emphasising LinkedIn’s business credentials, is that the most commonly looked at part of each profile is the job title and NOT the photo. On Facebook you can find hours have disappeared as you scroll through holidays snaps of your ‘friends’ (sometimes even people you don’t talk to anymore!) but LinkedIn is far more mature than that. As the dedicated business social network, job titles are very much one of the most important aspects of the site!
3. LinkedIn has further enforced its undoubted business nature by creating an app, that is extremely useful for the modern business worker, every day and at networking events called ‘Card Munch’. Unfortunately only available on the iPhone, the app allows the user to take a photo/scan of a business card, then the app will show you the individual’s LinkedIn profile and the connections you have in common. Allowing you to connect there and then, which can save you a lot of time at the end of the day!
4. LinkedIn Today is a daily digest of news and updates that your connections have shared on LinkedIn. Completely customisable, the feature allows you to modify your feed to include the topics that interest you and remove those that don’t. Laid out like a newsletter, it can be found under the ‘news’ tab on your page (if you’re lucky, you may even see your own updates within it!).
5. LinkedIn allows you to search through updates to find people who are talking about the topics that you find interesting. It’s called ‘Signal’ and once you have changed your search bar at the top to ‘updates’, you will be able to find interesting posts and statuses from those in, or close to your network, who are talking about things you like, and who also may be useful for you to connect or work with.
6. Although they have been around for a while now, recent updates have made the LinkedIn company profiles even more desirable! Now you can have all your business details in one place, with status updates, as well a dedicated area to promote your products and services. Even more recently LinkedIn has permitted company pages to talk more directly with their followers, allowing increased engagement between businesses and audiences.
7. For the job hunters amongst you, who have been using LinkedIn to find work, the capability to download your LinkedIn profile to use as a CV/Resume is really handy. You can have all your details in one place, and tweak which ones you would like to appear on your CV, including recommendations, previous roles and your personal statement. This is called the LinkedIn Resume Builder and is used by many to give an interactive CV to employers.
So next time you log into Facebook, or send a Tweet from your account, don’t forget to update your LinkedIn as well, especially for businesses who’s company profiles are more interactive than ever before.
What are you favourite LinkedIn features? If you have some that we’ve missed, let us know!
