Create or update your profile on LinkedIn

The issues were faced by free and premium users and with both the desktop and mobile versions of the site. The ‘About’ section is where you give your professional summary, highlight your accomplishments and aspirations, and show what makes you unique. No need to list all your career accomplishments, that’s what the Experience section is for. Adding a summary of 40 words or more makes your profile more likely to appear in a future employer’s search. Now you know what LinkedIn offers and what kind of people typically use it, but that probably doesn’t give you any specific ideas for how to start using it yourself.

In fact, members with industry information are discovered up to 38X more in recruiter searches. It’s simple, click the pencil at the top of your profile where your name is and scroll down to edit or add your industry. Every corner you’ve turned, or ladder you’ve climbed, is part of your professional story.

Lead with featured content

Since 2015, LinkedIn has published annual rankings of Top Voices on the platform, recognizing “members that generated the most engagement and interaction with their posts.”145 The 2020 lists146 included 14 industry categories, ranging from data science to sports, as well as 14 country lists, extending from Australia to Italy. In January 2013, LinkedIn dropped support for LinkedIn Answers and cited a new ‘focus on development of new and more engaging ways to share and discuss professional topics across LinkedIn’ as the reason for the retirement of the feature. The feature had been launched in 2007 and allowed users to post questions to their network and allowed users to rank answers. The ‘featured’ section lets you showcase the work you’re most proud of right at the top of your profile.

Add your work experience to showcase your accomplishments, the impact you had, the results you delivered, and the change you created. Try to write in short paragraphs rather than bullet points to help you tell a story. We also recommend adding a brief introduction to the company before jumping into your experience. Whether you’re searching for that next opportunity, building your team, or growing your network, adding at least 5 or more skills can get you up to 17X more profile views. It’s simple to do, just click the pencil at the top of your profile. Members with a profile photo on LinkedIn can get up to 21 times more profile views than those without.

  • Whether you got a degree at a school or university, or gained a certification to become an expert in your industry, your education tells people that you put in the hard work to get where you are.
  • With carousel ads, businesses can showcase their products or services through a series of swipeable cards, each with its unique image, headline, and description.
  • Since 2015, LinkedIn has published annual rankings of Top Voices on the platform, recognizing “members that generated the most engagement and interaction with their posts.”145 The 2020 lists146 included 14 industry categories, ranging from data science to sports, as well as 14 country lists, extending from Australia to Italy.
  • LinkedIn is similar to Facebook in terms of its layout and broad feature offering.

Browse LinkedIn

You might even find that you’d be interested in using LinkedIn’s Business Services and/or Premium account upgrades, which allow users to post jobs, take advantage of talent solutions, advertise on the platform and expand your sales strategy to include social sales on LinkedIn. The sign-up process includes users entering their email password (there is an opt-out feature). LinkedIn will then offer to send out contact invitations to all members in that address book or that the user has had email conversations with. When the member’s email address book is opened, it is opened with all email addresses selected, and the member is advised invitations will be sent to “selected” email addresses, or to all. LinkedIn was sued for sending out another two follow-up invitations to each contact from members to link to friends who had ignored the initial, authorized invitation.

Role in networking

  • Whether you’re searching for that next opportunity, building your team, or growing your network, adding at least 5 or more skills can get you up to 17X more profile views.
  • You converse via private message (or available contact information), and you have all of your professional experience and achievements laid out in a neatly organized profile to show off to other users.
  • Now you know what LinkedIn offers and what kind of people typically use it, but that probably doesn’t give you any specific ideas for how to start using it yourself.
  • You get to try any premium plan for free for a month, after which you’ll be charged a monthly fee depending on which plan you choose (plus tax).

In fact, many users create an account and then abandon it because they have no idea how they should be using LinkedIn. In February 2015, LinkedIn released an updated terms of use for their developer API.101 The developer API allows both companies and individuals the ability to interact with LinkedIn’s data through creation of managed third-party applications. Applications must go through a review process and request permission from the user before accessing a user’s data. Adding your education elevates your profile to All-Star level by showing a more rounded level of experience. Whether you got a degree at a school or university, or gained a certification to become an expert in your industry, your education tells people that you put in the hard work to get where you are.

Learn the skills you need to succeed

On LinkedIn, you network with people by adding them as ‘connections,’ similar to how you’d make a friend request on Facebook. You converse via private message (or available contact information), and you have all of your professional experience and achievements laid out in a neatly organized profile to show off to other users. LinkedIn is a social network for professionals to connect, share, and learn. Despite being one of the most popular social platforms today, many people still have no idea what LinkedIn is supposed to be used for or how they might benefit from being on it. Here’s everything you need to know about getting the most from LinkedIn. The site also enables members to make “connections” to each other in an online social network which may represent real-world professional relationships.

Malicious behavior on LinkedIn

With over 740 million professionals and counting, a complete profile can make all the difference in landing that next opportunity. Start updating your LinkedIn profile to connect with like-minded people and get found by recruiters. Clicking here will expand the ‘create your profile and grow your network’ section. You can think of LinkedIn as the high-tech equivalent of going to a traditional networking event where you go and meet other professionals in person, talk a little bit about what you do, and exchange business cards.

In 2014, LinkedIn retired InMaps, a feature which allowed you to visualize your professional network.121 The feature had been in use since January 2011. LinkedIn ‘applications’ often refer to external third-party applications that interact with LinkedIn’s what is a geocoin developer API. However, in some cases, it could refer to sanctioned applications featured on a user’s profile page.

You can link to articles or posts you’ve written, or simply share content that’s meaningful to you. Whatever content you feature, make sure it’s professionally relevant and helps to bring your story to life. Adding your industry is really important as it helps others find you and add you to their professional network.

Users can obtain introductions to the connections of connections (termed second-degree connections) and connections of second-degree connections (termed third-degree connections). As a final note, don’t forget to take advantage of LinkedIn’s mobile apps. LinkedIn has its main apps available for free on iOS and Android platforms with various other specialized apps for job search, SlideShare, Linked Learning, and premium accounts. Many people can do just fine with a free LinkedIn account, but if you’re serious about using LinkedIn and all of its most advanced features, you may want to upgrade to one of the four available premium accounts. As you go about exploring the platform, you’ll notice that certain things like various advanced search functions aren’t available to free users.