You’ve heard this time and time again, if you aren’t already on LinkedIn, you need to be there. Undoubtedly, it’s the biggest and best online networking site for business professionals.
You’ve probably also heard that most people on LinkedIn are job seekers. That is NOT true. After all, there are over 630 Million people on LinkedIn, they certainly aren’t all looking for jobs. Just who is using LinkedIn then?
Most Popular Professional Networking Site
A recent article by Omincore Agency listed these stats:
- 90 million users are senior-level influencers
- 63 million are decision-makers
- 49% of all US LinkedIn users make $ 75,000 a year
- 190 million US workers have LinkedIn profiles
- 27% of US adults say they have a LinkedIn profile
It’s also been reported that 85-92% of all recruiters and hiring managers use LinkedIn to find and validate their candidates.
Those are great stats but they don’t explain just WHY people are using LinkedIn and why you should too:
LinkedIn is all about networking with professional people. And of course, we know that networking leads to creating business alliances and referrals. On LinkedIn, you are within three connections from almost any professional.
What’s the first thing you do when you’re looking for a new insurance provider? You reach out to your trusted network and ask who they recommend. Right?
Ok, so what if you aren’t looking to create alliances or find insurance agents? (Really? You don’t want to create strategic business alliances?) Here are a few more practical reasons why you should be on LinkedIn:
Reputation Management
In this 21st century, almost every adult has an online presence somehow, and in some way, even if they don’t realize it. I know a man that was adamant that he wasn’t online until he discovered he was listed with a short bio on his company’s website and it was written by his HR department. That bio was incorrect and did not adequately portray his expertise or experience. By creating a LinkedIn profile, he was able to tell his own full professional story, in his own words.
This can’t be stated enough, YOU control what to include on your LinkedIn profile. While it needs to be truthful, it is your professional story to tell.
Get Found
Have you ever “googled” yourself? What’s the first thing listed? Is it you or someone else? How far down do people have to scroll to find you? When you create a LinkedIn profile, they are basically giving you your own page on their website, with your own URL. The link to your profile is one of the top listings in google search results.
Goodbye Rolodex and Business Cards
If you’ve ever lost a business card or lost track of someone, you’ll appreciate this. Consider LinkedIn as your business Rolodex. (For those millennials reading this, the definition of a Rolodex is “a desktop card index used to record names, addresses, and telephone numbers, in the form of a rotating spindle or a small tray to which removable cards are attached”.) People are constantly changing jobs and when they update their LinkedIn profile with their new job, you’ll have the most recent information on how to find them.
Keep in Touch Your Network
There’s more than just knowing where your network is. It’s also great to know what they are doing, what successes they’re having and what they’re working on. You can easily send messages back and forth to schedule in-person conversations and meetings. And, if you can get notified for little things like their birthday or job changes.
Dig Your Well Before You Need It
You’ve heard that saying before. LinkedIn gives you the chance to build and nurture your professional network BEFORE you need it. When you join LinkedIn, you start connecting and building your network. But the magic happens when you start having conversations with your connections. You get to know each other. And, they become your “well” when you need to find a job and need referrals. After all, everyone knows someone and if you nurture your network, you will stay top of mind.
Demonstrate Your Knowledge
Chances are you have a varied work history and you’ve become very good at something. LinkedIn’s Skills and Endorsements section allows you to list your skills. And, the best part is that your connections can endorse you for those skills or they take it a step further and write a recommendation. When people are looking for and comparing you to someone else for a job or to do business with, these will likely tip the scale in your direction.
Gain Expertise
One of the biggest reasons people use LinkedIn is for the professional articles and industry information posted every day by experts. There are industry-specific groups to join that gives you access to experts and thought leaders. The News Feed is filled with information and it common for people to post questions looking for advice. LinkedIn has a course portal named LinkedIn Learning with thousands of courses for every industry and career level.
Career/Job Change
LinkedIn has over a million job listings on its website. Over 90% of all recruiters and hiring managers use LinkedIn to find and vet their candidates. While your profile is so much more than your resume, if you aren’t on LinkedIn, you probably don’t exist to a company looking for you.
Another benefit of having a LinkedIn profile is that you can secretly look for jobs. There are privacy settings that allow your profile to be seen by recruiters and it isn’t obvious to your employer that you’re looking.
Search to Find Partners and Service Providers Beyond your Immediate Network
LinkedIn is a powerful search engine with an algorithm that is based on many factors, some of which are keywords, location, industry, and company. It’s very easy to search for individuals who are two or three steps outside of your connected network and then trace back to see who knows who and can be a resource.
Business Development
Of course, LinkedIn is the king of all sites for finding potential customers and vendors. It’s a great tool to use for finding the decision-maker in a company and reaching out to them for the first conversation. I need to say that people are not on LinkedIn to be sold to. Spamming, cold-calling in the online sense is not acceptable and is frowned upon. Slimy sales tactics will not work and LinkedIn has processes in place to remove violators. That being said, LinkedIn is the best place to make the initial contact, work on developing that relationship that may lead to an invitation to discuss products and services.
Know, Like and Trust
People do business with those they know, like and trust. LinkedIn is the perfect site that accomplishes all three, no matter what type of business you are in. By creating a LinkedIn presence, people can get to know you from your profile and by networking with them. They can get to like you through your interactions. Trust will develop by the value you provide and the way you engage.
Still wondering why you need to be on LinkedIn? It’s a great site for visibility, gaining credibility, demonstrating your expertise, growing your network, staying current on industry trends and information, learning from others, giving and getting introductions and referrals, finding prospects, clients and service providers, finding candidates for your company, finding a new job or getting found by recruiters.
It’s amazing that one platform can do so much for you and your career.
*https://www.omnicoreagency.com/linkedin-statistics/ The LinkedIn demographics, facts and figures mentioned here are from this article dated September 6, 2019