Why LinkedIn?

Before we dive into what you can use the LinkedIn platform for, it is a good idea to ask why you should even use it in the first place. So, what is it that LinkedIn offers to you?

Networking

LinkedIn offers a good way to start building your network, organising your contacts, finding people to connect with, and keeping in touch with other professionals.

Organising contacts

LinkedIn allows you to search your connections and you may even search for new connections based on various criteria.

Define your direction

The information you include in your profile can communicate to the world about your aspirations and the experience you have accumulated along the way.

Explore career options

When using LinkedIn, you can explore both education and job opportunities around the world by searching and reading profiles, as well as through other different types of content such as descriptions of organisations and projects.

Ultimately, the greatest advantage that LinkedIn offers is a powerful platform for connecting with more professionals. You have probably heard the expression, “it’s not what you know, but who you know”. Current estimates show that about 80% of people get jobs through people that they know. Companies want to hire people that they know because then they have a better idea of what they will get. Having people who already work at a company vouch for you when you apply there can increase your chances greatly.

Remember to actively work on building and nurturing your professional relationships, since this is important in order to maximise your chances of finding job opportunities.

Think keywords

When you are working on setting up your LinkedIn profile it’s a good idea to always think keywords. This is because recruiters search using keywords when they are looking for people to hire. Therefore, including relevant keywords should be your main focus as it will increase the chances of recruiters finding your profile over others when they search for prospective employees.

Keywords can essentially be seen as your unique selling points, which together answer the question: “What do you have to offer a company?”

In the following step, we will go through some valuable tips on how you can improve your LinkedIn profile in various ways, extending beyond just using keywords.