Potentials of Linkedin, with a Focus on What Makes It Such a Powerful Platform

As a professional platform, LinkedIn is the largest social network on the internet, with over 500 million members in 200+ countries.

According to LinkedIn press, professionals are signing up to the platform at a rate of more than two new members per second, making the platform a suitable destination to carve a niche as an expert in your industry, network and communicate with influencers, HR professionals, recruiters and potential connections.

Want to know the best (most amazing) thing about LinkedIn? It’s free!

Before we begin, let me mention that if you already have a profile, you have to keep an open mind and use the tips here to improve the attractiveness of your profile. Otherwise, use the lessons that would be learnt over the next few days to build a Professional LinkedIn Profile that is uniquely you.

So, without further ado, let’s dive into reasons LinkedIn is such a powerful platform.

LinkedIn aligns perfectly with Google’s Search algorithm

Google search favours LinkedIn results over search results of other search engines. That is to say, Google would display search results of what it gathers about a person on LinkedIn over the information of the person from other platforms. The only exception to this are websites which are personal and/or used to promote a brand.

By this, people learn much about you in minutes before they ever shake your hand.

LinkedIn improves personal connections

In LinkedIn, there are a large number of groups, communities and other resources. Harnessing the best from these requires you to make guided decisions. These decisions are necessary for guided connections with groups, communities, alumni and other resources. And done right, these connections come with inspirations, insight, opportunities, distinct experiences, and even jobs.

But before you put pen to paper or fingers on a keyboard, here a few tips to keep in mind as you begin to craft your LinkedIn profile.

Know your audience

To truly resonate with the readers of your profile, you need to be certain of your audience. If you write without a clear sense of who your audience is, it is as good as you writing for no one. A crucial understanding of who your audience is would enable you to use a language familiar to them and weave relevant stories needed to interact with them. By so doing, your profile offers a win-win scenario when they eventually come across it.

Avoid buzzwords

Avoid buzzwords like a plague when drafting your LinkedIn summary. The notion of using these jargons and adjectives (Buzzwords) is to draw the attention of recruiters, HR professional and readers. These words get you noticed in most cases for the wrong reasons and deny you of potential opportunities.

Yearly, LinkedIn releases a list of overused buzzwords. To mention a few, here are some words that are yearly chart-toppers on the “LinkedIn’s list of the most overused buzzwords”, they are: strategic, specialized, responsible, analytical, and creative.

Surprising, isn’t it?

However, the point here is, instead of using this words as standalone words in your profile – which seems vague, tell a story using actionable words which indicates you as the initiator of the action.

Understand LinkedIn keywords

There are millions of people on LinkedIn, and if your profile is void of the right keywords, your LinkedIn profile will not stand out or show up in the search result.

The more specific you are at what you do and what you are looking for, the more likely you are to be found.

It is quite daunting getting the right keywords for your niche, but, done right, it would improve your search views, which can be of great benefit, whether you are a business professional, job seeker, or in the process of a career transition.

To use the right keywords, think of who your ideal audience is. This would give you a pretty good idea on what keywords to use. But as much as keywords are important, be careful not to overstuff your profile with them, for if you do, it would not speak well for your communication skills.

Communication and interaction are crucial elements to building your LinkedIn profile. Acknowledging the importance of this enables you to successfully maximize the network. A question we get quite often is, how can it be of benefit to me to optimize my LinkedIn profile?

Although, there are a number of expert opinions on these questions, the version of Professor Austin, of www.professoraustin.com covers this in its simplest form as quoted below.

“A LinkedIn profile is a combination of your resume and accomplishments put together in a format that opens doors to new opportunities, get you noticed and allows you to land top-notch career opportunities!”

And done right, a LinkedIn profile puts ground under our feet and gives us handrails to hold on to—to make us feel grounded.

Tools needed to run this course

A smartphone or computer;

An internet connection, and;

A personal commitment to learn

These tools are recommended to enable you to get the most out of this course.