With over half a billion users reported at the end of last year, it’s no surprise that LinkedIn, now owned by Microsoft, is the leading social media platform for the professional world. Even just a few years ago, the features available to users and the importance of using LinkedIn were significantly less than today.
LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner is the perfect example of how to use the platform to complete many tasks related to career development. If you follow his LinkedIn profile, you will see that he regularly shares inspiring posts and articles, as well as comments on employees’ (and many others’) posts with words of encouragement and appreciation.
This is only one small piece of the LinkedIn puzzle, but the overall message is still the same: you can use LinkedIn to help your team and company gain connections and share with others. By empowering your team to regularly use LinkedIn to interact with colleagues, connections in their network, and thought leaders in your industry, you are reinforcing that message. In so doing, the entire company supports the individual’s professional development and need for connection.
When your employees are active on LinkedIn and using many of the available features, they promote your company too. How can your team best use LinkedIn to benefit both themselves and their company?
Network
The first facet of networking on LinkedIn is connecting with as many people as you can think of – this includes colleagues, friends and family, industry connections, potential customers or leads, and people you meet at professional events. If you get a business card from someone, connect with him or her on LinkedIn.
After making these connections, it is even more important to interact with these users. Interaction on LinkedIn can take many forms. It is simple to quickly check your LinkedIn feed, even just for a few minutes every day, and find a few posts and articles to comment on or share. By liking a post about a connection’s new project, commenting on an article your colleague in HR wrote, or sharing a job position that opened up at your company, you are broadening your network and reinforcing that you are passionate about connecting with others.
Share Company Content
Depending on your job or company, it might be appropriate to share videos or other graphics relaying information sponsoring your company. You can share a video or graphic published on the company website, republish an article you wrote for the company blog, or write a quick blog post about a new trend in your industry or something interesting that happened at the conference you just attended. Sharing your insight and expertise is a way to be seen on LinkedIn, and helps you connect with other industry professionals. People love seeing the human side of a company.
LinkedIn also offers groups for many different topics, ideas and industries such as “Internal Communications Best Practices” and “Social Media Marketing.” After joining these groups, you can scroll through a feed tailored to that particular topic, which makes it easier to find other potential connections and content, and share your own.
Research
New articles and research materials are published and shared on LinkedIn every day. By searching keywords, locations, or job titles, you can find relevant information from other professionals around the world. LinkedIn also has a newsroom with articles and releases about LinkedIn, and this includes content that is helpful to LinkedIn users, such as: New report uncovers the factors driving contractor growth. This could be useful to a business owner who employs contractors, an employee who works with contractors, or a contractor to compare work with others.
Showcase Expertise
LinkedIn allows you to share company and individual updates in real-time. Your team can share when they receive a promotion or complete a project on their individual profile. You can share updates like adding a new feature to your website on the company page, prompting others to share with their network. By promoting what is happening with so many networks, it improves your chances of getting the word out about your company to someone who may not have heard about it before.
LinkedIn offers many features, and the best use of each varies depending on your company. LinkedIn provides many resources to understand and utilize their site to maximize traffic and connections, and other outlets are sharing their suggestions and tips for navigating the site too. By encouraging your team to regularly use LinkedIn at work, you are marketing your company to hundreds of new connections and sharing the services and opportunities your company provides to a huge, growing network of professionals.
How does your company use LinkedIn?
