5 ways to use LinkedIn more effectively
You’ve always heard people talk about get familiar with LinkedIn and how it is an excellent tool to network for freshers and seasoned professionals alike. However, when you first start using the platform, you might confused as to how you can set up stuff and get things going for get the most out of the platform. Here are five actionable tips that you can use right now to enhance your LinkedIn experience. So, let’s get started!
Step 1: Focus on building a quality network of connections
When you first start using the platform, you want to ensure that you get a vibrant feed of content, job postings and exclusive insights every time you log in. Start by reaching out to people you know personally — your friends, colleagues, relatives and anyone else who would easily recognize you.
Once you have a decent number of connections, branch out to wider aspects of your professional circle. Try to connect with alumni from your school, people from other departments of the same company, old high school acquaintances.
Pro tip — Always ensure that you have completely filled out your profile and put up a decent and professional picture for people to easily identify you. Also consider writing a headline for your profile so that it catches attention of people interested in the same domain. You can click here for more information.
Step 2: Have latest insights about the industry by following the experts
Networking on LinkedIn can happen in two ways. You can connect with a person or you can simply follow them. Once followed, you can see all their activity including but not limited to posts, reactions and comments on your feed. Kind of like virtually shadowing them. But the question arises, why would you want to follow someone in the first place if you can just send them a connection request?
There are two major reasons for this. Firstly, LinkedIn puts a cap on number of connections at about 30,000. Therefore, influential people cannot accept requests after a point of time. Secondly, you might want to connect to HR professionals but they don’t accept your requests. Many times, hiring managers post about open job vacancies that mostly people in their network have an access to. Following them ensures that you don’t miss out on any such post.
Step 3: Don’t be a mute spectator
Many times, we get accustomed with LinkedIn scroll endlessly through our feeds without interacting much with them apart from the seldom reactions on job updates. This needs to change. Ideally you should be able to provide value to your connections as well. Now you may not be any subject expert but there are certain things you can do.
Try commenting your views on posts you find insightful, or even differ from. Just ensure that you are polite and courteous. Share your experiences, lessons learnt in your day to day job and so on. If you find a relevant opportunity for someone in your connection, tag them to the post for better access. You could also do book/course review that you recently completed. Go slow and build momentum so that you can bring value and people want to connect with you.
Step 4: Have a lookout for Job Descriptions and Recruitment Cycles
This is the secret sauce I wanted to share with you. Most times, people join LinkedIn right before they start with their job hunting. They send a frenzy of referral requests, get blind sided by the long list of requirements for their dream job and seldom succeed in their conquest. Ideally, I would suggest you to start using LinkedIn actively at least 6 months before you begin applying.
Go to the jobs section and search for jobs which excite you. Go through their descriptions and identify the relevant skills required. These mostly remain same every year for a company. Find out where you need to improve and take courses/projects to ensure that you show proficiency in the relevant domain. Also note when and how these postings open up and put it all in a spreadsheet so that you don’t miss out on any deadlines in the future.
Step 5: Setting up smart filters
Many times, LinkedIn is about applying quickly. Put up notifications for all the companies and profiles you are interested in. Thoroughly scroll through jobs section. Sometimes you may find startups with less applicants and higher chances of you getting shortlisted.
Step 6: There is no step 6. Go have fun!
