LinkedIn is a professional networking platform that allows job seekers to post their CVs and resumes and employers to post job openings. It is an online social networking platform but for building work and professional connections.
LinkedIn can be a powerful tool for both professional and company growth. It offers professional ways to meet others, get information, and make new connections with clients, customers, and business partners.
It is especially beneficial for company owners who run their own companies from home, freelancers, and remote workers. It helps them develop their careers and businesses while maintaining an open connection to the outside world.
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Brief Background About LinkedIn
LinkedIn is a social networking website for business professionals. It was established in 2002, and its headquarters is in Mountain View, California. The company has 33 offices and facilities worldwide and employs about 20,500 professionals.
LinkedIn places more emphasis on a user’s professional relationships, unlike Facebook and Myspace, which are more personal and recreational. Users build personal profiles, much like a résumé, describing their work history, talking about their skills, and even including their academic and professional background.
The founders of LinkedIn include investment banker Reid Hoffman, designer Allen Blue, marketing expert Konstantin Guericke, and engineers Eric Ly and Jean-Luc Vaillant.
In 2005, LinkedIn launched job postings and features that enabled businesses to search for potential candidates and publish job ads. In addition to these standard business services, LinkedIn offers companies the opportunity to have their products and services advertised on the site.
LinkedIn became profitable in 2007, and that’s when things took off. In that same year, LinkedIn breached the 15 million users threshold. By 2011, there were over 100 million LinkedIn members, and the company went public, raising around $353 million.
Microsoft bought LinkedIn in 2016 for roughly $26 billion. It claimed more than 500 million subscribers in over 200 countries the following year.
How LinkedIn Works
Using LinkedIn’s platform and tools is not as complicated as using any other social networking site. Sign up for a LinkedIn account and create a personal profile first.
On LinkedIn, you will only find relevant information about jobs and business. To begin building your online presence, you’ll want to present yourself professionally as you look for contacts, endorsements, and recommendations.
Members can also “connect” through the platform’s messaging feature, reflecting their professional connection in the real world and sharing valuable business insights. Users can engage with one another in many ways:
- The interactions between connections occur when choosing to “like” posts and greet others on updates such as birthdays, work anniversaries, and landing new jobs. Additionally, “connections” may initiate private conversations by opting to message one another directly.
- Adding LinkedIn video allows users to post videos with text and filters.
- The LinkedIn platform allows users to create and share new posts, updates, and articles with their connections.
Services
The leading service LinkedIn offers its users is the ability to build profiles. The profiles of LinkedIn members usually include a curriculum vitae, which contains a description of the user’s job experience, education, training, and image.
Given the abundance of workers’ profiles in the platform, LinkedIn offers advertising to potential hiring employers targeting potential applicants. The advertising is niche-specific and highly targeted since LinkedIn is designed as a social networking platform for business professionals.
In short, LinkedIn promises that advertising your job post would be unquestionably cost-effective.
LinkedIn members use the platform to look for employment, discover new individuals to connect with, and uncover new business possibilities. They may also bookmark positions they want to apply for and use them to refine their job search. Users also have the option to follow various company pages to get regular updates and notifications.
Users will connect with one other when one invites another to join the network. Also, LinkedIn provides members with the tools they need to advance their careers by discovering new employment opportunities, locating previous coworkers, and getting LinkedIn recommendations from other members.
To encourage the creation of new profiles, LinkedIn offers its membership to business professionals for FREE. So workers can have a LinkedIn profile without any subscription.
But LinkedIn also offers several premium plans:
Career
This plan is offered to business professionals for their profiles to stand out among the sea of prospects in the eyes of hiring managers. With this plan, you’ll be able to compare your qualifications with other applicants for a position you’re applying for. Finally, the Career plan also provides courses and skills training for career advancement.
Business
For workers and business owners, this plan offers the prospect of growing and nurturing your LinkedIn network. If you avail of this plan, you’ll be to do the following:
- Find and contact the right people
- Promote and grow your business
- Learn new skills to enhance your professional brand
Sales
The Sales plan offers tools to unlock your sales opportunities and potential. You may find leads through its advanced lead research and accounts in your target market. You may also get real-time sales insights for your warm outreach.
Hiring
As a business or employer looking to hire virtual assistants or remote workers, this is the best plan for you. With this plan, you may find great candidates for a vacant position in your business faster. You can also contact top talents from LinkedIn’s comprehensive directory and allows you to build relationships with your prospective hires.
Pricing
LinkedIn Premium is available in four levels, with monthly fees ranging from $29.99 to $59.99 for job seekers, $79.99 for sales professionals, and $119.95 for recruiters. Annual payment entitles you to minor savings.
Premium Career is the entry-level version, priced at $29.99 per month or $239.88 annually. It includes:
- Three InMail messages (messages that can be sent to any LinkedIn user without requiring a connection).
- Additional information about who views their profiles.
- Different tools to help those profiles stand out to recruiters.
Premium Business is the next tier, which offers 15 InMail messages, sophisticated search filters, unlimited searches within your expanded network, and extra business data. Premium Business is $59.99 per month or $575.88 per year.
LinkedIn Premium’s Sales Navigator plan includes a lead-generation tool, lead suggestions, and real-time analytics on current accounts and prospects, as well as 20 InMail messages, for $79.99 per month or $779.88 per year.
Finally, the LinkedIn Premium Recruiter Lite will cost you $119.95 per month or $1,199.40 yearly. With a recruiting-specific design, it includes 30 InMail messages, sophisticated search, public exposure of your extended network, automated applicant monitoring, and an integrated hiring system.
Pros
- Improves SEO ranking in Google
- Increases business’ visibility
- Professional environment
- Free sign-up process
- Free research of profile
- Easy to get qualified candidates
- Manage applicants through integrated management tools
- Free demo
Cons
- Potential spam
- Time investment from recruitment to training
- More of social networking than an outsourcing company
Other Job Platform Alternatives
While LinkedIn is the world’s biggest professional networking site, you may also use these LinkedIn alternatives to expand your network.
Indeed is a well-known employment site that has over 200 million unique visits from over 60 countries. Users may establish free profiles and submit resumes and search for jobs from a variety of online sources. Additionally, the website includes a mobile application and email notifications. Employers can browse resumes in their pursuit of the ideal candidate.
Upwork is a freelancing marketplace for professionals in various fields, including writing, graphic design, and web development. It is a platform where a hiring employer can find remote freelancers that would complete tasks and projects. Consequently, it assists professionals in locating jobs, communicating with clients, and getting compensated for every completed task.
Overall Review
LinkedIn’s primary advantage is that it allows you to maintain contact with the outside world.
LinkedIn may create stronger professional relationships and enhance your online business reputation more effectively than most other social networking sites when used correctly and to their full potential.
Nevertheless, this can’t be compared to other outsourcing platforms if you’re looking for more trained and skilled VAs with software and tools specifically for virtual assistants.
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