While LinkedIn is a “Social Network” like Facebook, Instagram and such, it is designed to be a professional networking site. A place that can help you make business connections, share resumes, find jobs and employees, and grow professionally.
Posts on LinkedIn are generally “work” related and help you grow a network of individuals and ideas to build your knowledge and worth.
Your profile is essentially a resume. It includes work experience, accomplishments, recommendations and referrals. LinkedIn even has a career board that is useful for finding jobs, or if you are an employer, finding potential employees.
Many companies use LinkedIn to take a look at applicants to see just who they are. It saves time and effort on their part and helps weed out those who are an obvious non-fit. That’s why treating it like Facebook can hurt you professionally.
As a company, LinkedIn provides you with the ability to build your brand. You can showcase accomplishments. You can post intelligent articles that show you are a professional and know what you are doing. That’s one of the big points of LinkedIn. It’s a place for networking – finding other individuals and businesses with skills and interests similar to yours on a professional level. It allows someone in Colorado to connect with someone is Georgia to collaborate on a project that is beneficial to both. Without LinkedIn they would have never met.
There is a survey conducted by a content marketing institute which concluded that over 97% of B2B marketers use LinkedIn for content marketing purposes and 78% agree that LinkedIn is the most effective content marketing tool.
It also allows you to keep track of competitors. It never hurts to know what your competition is doing in today’s world, and keeping an eye on them is a lot easier when they tell you what they are doing.
People may get upset because I don’t accept their connection on my profile. They are handling it like Facebook. While a friend of mine may be a great guy, networking with an auto mechanic in Iowa doesn’t really build my network as a Web Developer. I generally link up with someone with a similar professional interest, or someone who can provide insightful information that I can use to better myself professionally. Seeing a picture of someone’s cat just doesn’t do that. Save it for Facebook.
So, if you request a connection from me on LinkedIn and I don’t accept, it’s nothing personal. Hop over to Facebook and we can trade cat pictures.