Let's look at an example of why LinkedIn is needed.

Maxim - developer software. His one-year contract to work in the Czech Republic is ending and he is looking for an interesting vacancy abroad, preferably in the USA. On the advice of familiar colleagues, Maxim registered in social network LinkedIn is where American companies often look for employees. I filled out my profile and found contacts of former colleagues and classmates. Having free time, he actively participated in groups and discussions, gave advice and shared his experience. Within two months, I received three offers from employers to take part in a competition for a vacancy. I found a temporary remote job on a project with good pay. Continues to browse other options offered online. The portal allows you to save on the services of recruiting agencies and directly contact employers.

LinkedIn - what is it?

This social network is intended for professional communication, not for entertainment. This is what distinguishes it from other social networks, such as Facebook, Odnoklassniki, VKontakte. Here you can establish business connections with colleagues and find vacancies. It is convenient for HR managers to find specialists to attract, and for users to keep abreast of news related to professional issues. Business pages of companies, with articles and news, thematic communication, joint resolution of complex issues - all these are options for using this portal.

How LinkedIn works

To access the service you need the Internet and a computer. You can also enter with mobile devices– designed for convenience special applications for Android or iOS OS. They are downloaded for free from App Store or Google Play.

Registration

To start using, you need to go to the site and register - create an account.

It is worth considering that this professional communication and opportunities.

Therefore, it is advisable to provide complete information that may be of interest to employers. And the automated search for interesting vacancies and social circles offered by the service works based on this data. There is also such a thing as “profile efficiency”. It is measured in percentages from 1 to 100. The higher they are, the sooner the profile will be shown in search results.

To get the maximum, you need to fill out all the fields provided:

• photo;
• place of residence;
• education;
• current and two previous job positions;
• skills and qualifications;
• interests;
• Total information;
• contacts.

There is a “View more” option, which opens additional lines to fill out. The profile is a resume - it contains all the required information.

Contacts

Please note that during the registration process you are asked to indicate your email address and the password for it. You can skip this step. But if you specify this data, the social network will count all personal contacts from your email and send them an invitation to register. This can happen either immediately or after a while. Moreover, the mailing will be periodically repeated to those recipients who are not registered on the network. Such mailings may be considered spam and may cause complaints.

However, on the other hand, this is one of the secrets on how to effectively use LinkedIn to network and increase your authority. If you specify your work email when creating a profile, this will allow you to communicate with partners or invite them to it. If the specified mail contains only personal contacts, or access was opened inadvertently, then everything can be corrected. Mail changes in the account and settings section. You can cancel sending invitations if you go to already sent messages and select the “revoke” option for each of the contacts.

How to search for contacts on LinkedIn that are important for profile status? On this network, you will not be able to invite as a friend a person whose profile was seen or found based on some criteria. You will need to know his email. This is a kind of protection against the intrusiveness of unfamiliar participants.

Groups

Create groups, join them, communicate with participants - this opportunity is also provided on LinkedIn. Groups can be either open or closed (participation only with the permission of the administrator). In them you can consult with people on various issues, help others using your experience, and learn something new and useful. In this way, you can both get help from more experienced colleagues and draw attention to your knowledge and interest potential employers.

If you would like to find a job in the USA, consider the geography of the group. The desired country must be specified in the filter.

Search for vacancies

This is precisely why many people register on this network – looking for a good job or part-time job. The service itself will select and offer available vacancies, according to the data specified in the profile. Just go to the “Vacancies” section located at the top of the page. If you don't find anything interesting, you can set your own search using certain criteria. To make sure you don't miss out on new exciting options, set up email alerts.

If you are interested in an employer, you can go to his page, read about the company, and look at the list of employees. Some of them may be familiar, which will allow you to learn more about the potential place and team.

Be careful when looking for a new job if your current employer is also registered on the portal. Changes in profile status, activity and tracking of other companies and vacancies will be visible to everyone. The option can be disabled in the “Privacy and Settings” section.

Recommendations work well to attract the attention of employers. These are the reviews and characteristics that colleagues and acquaintances give. You can start receiving them yourself - by writing a recommendation to someone you worked with. In return, you can get feedback about yourself.

The same is true with the skills that are indicated during registration. The more they are confirmed by other people, the more attractive the profile is to the recruiter.

To get your own approvals and confirmations, start rating others.

If you want to expand your opportunities, get in touch with people who have 500 or more connections in this network. Such participants are called LIONs (LinkedIn Open Networkers). Their acquaintances are a whole world of business connections and unique opportunities.

You can get attention by:

• publishing useful and interesting information at least once every few days;
• adding your skills, showing growth;
• actively participating in group discussions to be included in the list of the five most active for the week;
• liking and sharing others' posts;
• by organizing your group.

Paid account

The network offers expanded functionality when purchasing a paid account on the portal.

Its capabilities:

• you can see who viewed the profile;
• advanced search filters;
• saving participant profiles in folders;
• adding notes and additional contact information to saved profiles;
• more detailed information about other users.

The cost of premium access is several tens of dollars or euros per month (from 24.95 USD). For the average person, this amount may be high, and the features offered are not that important. But companies, recruiters, and hiring agents will appreciate them fully. It will be more convenient and easier to find the right candidate among dozens of others.

LinkedIn for Business

The social network is used not only by individuals. Enterprises can also register in it and create their own page. In some ways, this is reminiscent of Facebook business pages. But the goal is not finding clients and advertising the brand. Here you can find information about the company: employees, news, vacancies and requirements for candidates. Refreshing the page too frequently may result in blocking or deletion from the portal.

1. It is unrealistic to spend time on entertainment - no personal photos and information, advertising or spam.
2. The filter system allows you to find candidates with the required parameters. You can view them, select them as favorites, see activities and recommendations from other participants.
3. The likelihood that the information provided in the account is true is much higher than in a regular resume or other social networks. This is explained simply - the system tries to select contacts for the specified place of work and study. And the facts are confirmed by real people. It is difficult for professionals to deceive this service.

By knowing how to use LinkedIn, you increase your chances of finding interesting job opportunities, partners, and colleagues to network with. This social network, unlike others, will not take away time for extraneous activities: viewing photos, advertising, cats and other time-consuming content.

From time to time questions come to me: What do you eat it with? What are the pros and cons of this network? How to use LinkedIn effectively, and what can you use it for? I decided to collect all the questions and answers in one place, I hope this series of articles will help you understand everything.

A short introduction, or why you need this at all. LinkedIn is not a fancy social network. Not bright. Not noisy. “The sleeping giant of social networks” was dubbed in the English-language press. However, despite this "quietness", LinkedIn is exerting more and more influence, connecting headhunters and job seekers, recruiters, colleagues, competitors, brands and entire industries.

The average LinkedIn user spends much less time online than the average FaceBook or VKontakte user. You won’t find here humorous videos, photos of cats, reposts of graffiti, heated discussions of the status “It’s raining outside, how to live on?” This workplace. People come here to do business. LinkedIn directors have said more than once: “We don’t have a goal to keep users on our site as long as possible. We want a person to come in, do what they need to do in a few minutes, and continue with their work day.”

LinkedIn has been growing slowly but surely since 2002, already works in 19 languages ​​(Russian included) and is approaching the mark of 200 million users. I think the globalization of the Internet space, as well as the current crisis with free-lance.ru, and the lack of decent alternatives will push many freelancers to register on this resource. And this is good. Well, I was planning a short introduction 😉 It’s time to get down to business.

First steps after registering on LinkedIn, or a Manual for beginners.

1. Profile.

Yes Yes. Like any social network, on LinkedIn it all starts with creating your own profile. When filling out your profile, we remember that we are here on business, not here to have fun. To make the most of LinkedIn, it is very important to fill out everything in detail and give maximum information to potential employers about your knowledge and skills.
LinkedIn has a metric "Profile Effectiveness", measured as a percentage from 0 to 100. The higher it is, the more seriously they will take your profile. Additionally, if you've listed, say, copywriting or SEO or SQL in your Skills and Qualifications, the more effective your profile is, the more likely it is that a potential employer searching for employees using those keywords will view your profile.
Here is a list of all the fields that LinkedIn recommends filling out for maximum efficiency:

• Photography (choose wisely 😉)
• Industry of activity and geographical location
• Current position - title and description
• Two previous positions
• Education
• Minimum five skills in “Skills and Qualifications”
• Minimum 50 contacts (more on this later)
• Two or three interest groups (more on this in the continuation of the post)
• General information

2. Contacts.

So, in order to reach the aforementioned “50 contacts,” you need to start building your network on LinkedIn. If this seemed difficult to you, don’t be afraid, I’ll tell you how now. So there are two ways, I recommend using both.
Method one. Notice the old traditional search at the top of the screen? Great! We enter the name of a person we know, find it among the results and “establish contact.” When you land on the results page, LinkedIn shows additional search filters. By default, they are all set to “show all,” which is what we need at the initial stage.

After you have added several contacts, refresh the page and go to your profile. In the top left corner you will see "People You May Know" with several photos. If you click on the inscription, it will open full list people, some of whom will probably actually be your acquaintances. We establish contact with them and continue :)

Where do "people you might know" come from on linkedin? Based on the information you entered (place of work, study, etc.) and existing contacts, the algorithms make assumptions. The wider the circle of your contacts, and the more information you have entered, the more accurate these assumptions will be. After all, it’s logical to assume that if you work with someone in the same company, and you have ten mutual friends, you might know him?)) But we digress, let’s continue:

Method two. Any modern service has the “import contacts” function. Of course, LinkedIn also has it (how can you work effectively if you manually search 100 people one by one?). Top menu >> Contacts >> Add contacts.

As you can see, you can easily and automatically transfer and add your contacts from Outlook and any mailbox Email. Be careful at this stage, and carefully look at what boxes are ticked where during this process. It is not a fact that you will want to add everyone with whom you have ever corresponded to your contacts.

After you've added your email contacts, you can go back and look at what people appear in your "people you might know" list. After adding new contacts, the algorithm will offer more options.

3. Groups.

Groups on LinkedIn are gatherings based on common interests. Places where people ask and give advice, look for jobs or employees, communicate with industry colleagues, etc. Groups can be created as groups of graduates of a university or department, or groups of former and current employees of the company (not to be confused with the official page of the company!), or broader ones - say, groups of employees of the Nth industry.

The group can be either open - i.e. Anyone can join it, or it is closed. In the second case, the group administrator must approve your application to join. Most often this occurs among groups of graduates, and in very narrow professional groups.

4. Company pages.

Many companies, especially international ones, have their official pages on LinkedIn. Unlike similar official pages on other social networks networks, they do not serve for communication with the audience, branding, etc. LinkedIn even officially warns those who like to engage in self-promotion: “Posting updates too frequently may also be subject to legal action by LinkedIn, which may result in the removal of your company page.” On the company page you can see a list of employees, important corporate news, press releases and often hiring announcements are published 😉 You cannot “connect” with a company on LinkedIn, but you can “follow” its updates.

Following a company page can be useful if it is important for you to be aware of what is happening there. Observe the industry leader or competitors, take a closer look at potential partners. Well, most often - to receive notifications about the opening of new vacant positions)
Also, if you are going to send your resume, or are already going through an interview, it is useful to see if someone you know works in this company, or has worked, or is a friend of an acquaintance. It may turn out to be a valuable source of information at the right time, because a spoon is dear to dinner))

5. Vacancies, or Job Search.

The ability to find a job (or workers) through LinkedIn is one of the biggest advantages of this network, if not the very best. By clicking on “Vacancies” in the top menu, you will see “Vacancies that may interest you,” which LinkedIn algorithms have selected for you based on your personal data and open employer offers. At the very least, it's interesting to watch. Write the name of the desired position in the search bar, and you will be taken to a page with results and additional search filters. If someone in your network of contacts (direct contacts, or contacts of your contacts) works for a company that appears in search results, it is immediately visible. There are currently 80 open manager positions in Thailand. Anyone interested?

This was an introductory tour of LinkedIn. I hope this article will help you understand the basics, take your first steps, and effectively use LinkedIn for your purposes.
I will write about other services, elements and applications of LinkedIn in the future, so if you have questions or topics you want to know about, leave a comment.

) is not a very typical social network. There is no typical communication here, as on Facebook or Vkontakte. Initially, LinkedIn was the same social network, but with poorer functionality than it is now. However, after Facebook appeared and almost completely destroyed all the social networks of the past, LinkedIn did not compete with the social network of the future and went to the side in order to repurpose itself. As a result, LinkedIn is now the largest business social network and one of the largest social networks in the world. Today, the presented social network sets trends not only for social networks, but also for many job search sites, being a leader in this area.

Registration will not force you to fiddle with it for a long time. Registration consists of 8 stages. Basically, the stages are divided into tabs, which alternately ask you to fill out information about yourself, find connections or companies. All you need to do is go to the registration page www.linkedin.com/reg/join. Enter your data there: email address, last name, first name and patronymic, password. Be careful when registering on this social network; you only need to enter your full name; nicknames and pseudonyms are prohibited, referring to the user agreement.

LinkedIn functionality

It’s worth noting that I call linkedIn the second Facebook, but professional activity. linkedIn is primarily a social network not for idle communication, but for finding a job, improving skills in your field and for professional communication.

This social network is constantly looking for ways to improve. So, the company is buying up other smaller social networks in order to increase its audience. Currently, the number of users who use linkedIn reaches 175 million. Why do professionals choose this social network, you ask? Yes, because there is more user-friendly interface than on job search sites and more opportunities.

If you don’t see an employer on job search sites, and he and all actions are performed blindly, then this social network allows you to see the employer, see reviews about him and learn more about the scope and methodology of his work. This layer of information is very useful at first. So, let's get back to the interface and functionality.

At the top of the profile there is a search bar where you can try to find your colleagues, acquaintances, companies or groups that interest you, and yes, there are groups here too. When you set the cursor to search, you are immediately offered four categories in which you can search for the object or person you are interested in. Thus, the problem with confusion and chaos was solved when all categories with the same name are presented in the form of a list.

At the top of the console there are three icons:

• messages
• events
• adding as friends

There is no need to explain anything here; it is very clear that messages are responsible for dialogues and communication, etc.

The next element that clearly catches your eye is the large space with the inscription Home. This tab button is responsible for the news that you have chosen to watch. For example, when registering, you indicated that you are interested in business, and all new posts about business will be displayed in this tab.

Now let's move on to the main thing. 7 tabs located at the top:

• Home page, all information about your profile is located here;
• People you should know, here you are automatically invited to make friends with people you may know or who are in your professional circle;
• Connections or contacts, simply “Friends”
• Work, this tab distinguishes this social network from the rest. Here are posted vacancies that may be of interest to you. It is thanks to this function that you can find a job directly with the employer, without going through interviews, but simply by talking and communicating, possibly on distant topics;
• Companies. Here are the companies that suit your interests.
• Groups. There is nothing to explain here, just the groups you are in;
• Pulse. This point is also particularly interesting and has no analogues on other social networks. User blogs are published here, ranging from the most popular blogs and news from the entire Internet, and not just those posted within the network;

Benefits of linkedin

• Exchange messages with users;
• Search for contacts and companies, expanding your business network;
• Blog;

LinkedIn is a social network for finding and establishing business contacts, launched in 2003 by Reid Hoffman. The site currently has more than 380 million registered members representing 150 business sectors. The resource is available in 24 languages, including Russian.

LinkedIn is an unusual social network. This is not Facebook or VKontakte. There are no cats, funny videos, “life” statuses or debates in the comments. This is a purely business space where you can post a vacancy, install useful contacts with partners and clients, as well as just to chat about interests - business interests.

Using your LinkedIn profile, you can make something beautiful or create. We’ve already talked about how to promote your LinkedIn resume. Today we will talk about how to create a profile that allows you to present yourself as a super professional and earn respect in business circles.

Why fill out your profile?

According to statistics, only 51% of LinkedIn members have a 100% complete profile. And in vain. After all, the less information, the lower the effectiveness of the profile.

Profile efficiency is an indicator showing whether there is enough information about you and your professional qualities to establish new business contacts. The corresponding icon is located on the right side of the profile and is measured as a percentage: from initial to “star” level.

The search algorithm on LinkedIn is such that profiles with the highest performance scores are displayed first. Therefore, it is recommended to fill out your page as accurately and thoroughly as possible. Otherwise, recruiters and potential partners simply won’t notice you.

For maximum efficiency, you need to install a photo (more on the intricacies of its selection below) and indicate:

• field of activity and place of residence;
• current position (with description);
• two previous places of work;
• information about education;
• skills (minimum three);
• interest groups (at least a couple).

You also need to establish at least 50 connections with LinkedIn members. Read below to learn how to properly form your network and receive recommendations.

Basic settings

Do you want to stand out among millions of users? Please pay due attention to completing your profile.

Name

LinkedIn is a business network; nicknames and humorous nicknames like “sales star” or “development ninja” are not appropriate there. Please indicate your real name, surname and patronymic.

Professional header

This is the most important element on your page. His maximum length- 120 characters. Be brief but creative. The title should make it clear who you are and what you do.

The professional title, as well as the job description, should be optimized for search engines. But don't stuff these fields keywords, like a duck with apples: two or three relevant keywords are enough.

Use standard job titles and professions: not “copywriting guru,” but “copywriter.” However, it is acceptable to include any academic degrees you have in the title. For example, not a psychologist, but a candidate of psychological sciences. This not only speaks volumes about who you are, but also indicates how successful you are in your field.

Be sure to indicate your field of activity to be more visible in searches.

Link to profile

It should be simple and short so that people can easily find you. Your URL is in the light gray box below your name and title.

Click on the "Change your public profile settings" button and update your LinkedIn address to a readable format. It must contain from 5 to 30 characters.

Correct: linkedin.com/in/jameseaton.

There is no shame in placing a beautiful LinkedIn address on your business card.

Contact details

Be sure to fill out your contact information: number mobile phone, email, Twitter and so on.

General information

In this block, briefly (maximum 2,000 characters) describe career achievements you are proud of and your business ambitions.

Education

This block is most important for those who do not yet have work experience. Some HR specialists are interested in graduates of certain universities.

Members' profiles with educational institutions are viewed seven times more often. Be sure to indicate the name of the university (up to 100 characters), years of study and add a description (maximum - 1,000 characters), that is, provide several details. For example, “graduated with honors”, “defended a dissertation on the topic...”, “published in a scientific journal...”.

experience

68% of participants use LinkedIn to connect with former business partners. Be specific in your descriptions of past and current projects.

Be sure to include your position (up to 100 characters), company name, and period of employment. Don’t neglect the “Region” and “Description” fields either. Why miss the opportunity to highlight your mobility and the profit you brought to this or that company?

When describing a position, you should avoid pompous words and superlatives. Fewer adjectives, more verbs. Instead of writing “I am an excellent salesperson,” list your sales awards and performance in numbers.

Media content will also add loyalty points to your profile. Add links to presentations, videos, podcasts, blog posts, quotes, and more. This will allow recruiters to understand who you are and what you are worth. In addition, the longer users look at your profile, the higher the chance that you will collaborate.

Projects

Regularly update information about projects you have worked on. This is a great way to demonstrate your competencies.

Essentially, this is your portfolio. 66% of companies hire employees based on their past projects. Don't forget to put links (if any) to the projects you participated in. Users viewing your profile should have the opportunity to get to know them in more detail.

Skills and their evidence

Profiles of members with skills are viewed four times more often. State what you can do and ask friends in your contact list to confirm those skills.

Tracked Content

Follow topics that interest you to stay up-to-date on what's happening in your industry, and join industry groups and communities.

In groups you can ask questions and give advice, communicate with industry colleagues or people from your alma mater. The group can be open, that is, anyone can join it, or closed - you need to submit an application and receive approval from the administrator.

A group should not be confused with a company page. Many corporations, especially international ones, have their own pages on LinkedIn. But, unlike pages on other social networks, this is not done to promote a brand. On the company's page you can see a list of its employees (maybe some of your friends are among them?) and learn about its news. By monitoring company page updates, you will be aware of open vacancies.

Profile blocks can be moved. Highlight what you are proud of and what might be of interest to potential employers.

Profile Pictures

“You're greeted by your clothes” - this saying is completely true when it comes to your profile images. To make it pleasing to the eye and load quickly even for users with slow Internet, use high-quality images of the correct size.

Background image profile must be 1400 × 425 pixels in JPG, PNG or GIF format. The size should not exceed 4 MB.

Profile photo(avatar) must be 400 × 400 pixels, minimum 200 × 200 pixels, format - JPG, PNG or GIF. The maximum size is 10 MB.

If you are a Business Page Administrator, review acceptable and recommended image and logo settings. Everything is described.

Special attention You should pay attention to choosing a profile photo. Browse through the avatars of other users in your industry and put a photo that they and your customers will like.

Network of contacts

Without networking, it is extremely difficult to achieve success. For a LinkedIn profile to be effective, you need to add at least 50 contacts to your network. In general, it is recommended to have at least three hundred, but not more than three thousand friends. Otherwise, it will be difficult to manage communications.

So how do you replenish your network? First, import contacts from address book Email. At the same time, send invitations to those who can really be useful to you in business.

In LinkedIn, you can not only import, but also export contacts: menu “Network” → button “Export contacts” in the lower right corner of the page. This function allows you to create backup copy contacts to protect your business connections.

Secondly, use search to expand your network of contacts. Moreover, it is an expanded version: this way you can find people who are part of not only the first, but also the second or third circle of acquaintances.

When the first contacts appear in your network, the system itself will offer you new friends. On home page in the upper right corner there will be a block “People you may know”. These recommendations appear based on your profile data. Most likely, these will be your classmates and colleagues.

How else can you expand your network?

• Meet through friends of friends. A second-level contact is a friend of your friend. If you need to start communicating with such a person, go to their profile page and see if you have mutual friends. If so, send a request for an introduction or click on the “Ask to meet” button.
• Take advantage of groups. You can send private messages to members of the group you are in, even if you are not in direct contact.
• If a member's profile is open, you can send him a message - InMail. Perhaps you will start a dialogue, and then friendship.
• Check who has viewed your profile. If these people are interesting to you, try to establish contact with them.
• Monitor news feed. It also helps you develop your network and interact with potential partners.
• Link your Twitter and LinkedIn accounts. Then you can post your LinkedIn updates on Twitter.
• Do you want to attract the attention of someone? Mention her in your posts using the @ symbol.

Offline employment in nine out of ten cases occurs through patronage. Employers ask their partners to recommend a smart employee, and the latter, in turn, ask their partners to put in a good word for them.

The role of recommendations on LinkedIn is also very high. They should not be confused with skill confirmations (Endorsements). The latter simply state the facts: “Yes, he can do it.” Any person from your contact list can confirm this or that competency in just two clicks.

A recommendation is a detailed review of your past and present colleagues, partners and clients about you and your work. The more recommendations, the higher the level of confidence in the data specified in the profile. Recommendations are displayed in the appropriate section of your profile (menu “Privacy and Settings” → “Manage Recommendations”) and are only available to registered LinkedIn users.

• Five to ten recommendations in your profile are enough to interest recruiters.
• Ask for recommendations from the most reputable people in your network.
• Try to get at least two reviews of your work in the company that you consider most meaningful.
• When recommending someone, include how you know the person and provide specific examples that demonstrate their professional strengths.

Show mutual respect. If someone validated your skill or gave you good recommendation, don't forget to thank him for this.

How to protect your profile

To take full advantage of LinkedIn, your profile must be public, that is, visible to potential clients and partners.

Public Profile is created automatically when registering on LinkedIn and published in the user directory. Google and other search engines periodically check the LinkedIn directory so that public profiles can be found online.

However, you can set individual privacy settings. For example, hide the display of websites, current position and other parameters in the profile from unregistered users.

You can also adjust your profile to suit your purposes in the “Privacy and Settings” menu. For example, if you're looking for a new job and don't want your current boss or colleagues to know about it, exclude them from the list of those who can see your activity feed.

There you can also specify who will see the list of your contacts, information about your rank, your photo, and so on.

To protect your account from hacking, you must:

• come up with a complex password (at least 8 characters, upper and lowercase letters plus numbers and other characters; the password should not include vocabulary words and your name, as well as used on other resources);
• enable two-step login verification: “Privacy and Settings” → “ Account» → “Manage security settings”.

6 Secrets to Using Your LinkedIn Profile Effectively

1. Create posts on LinkedIn. This a great opportunity demonstrate your professional knowledge and present yourself as a leader in your field.
2. The best time to post on LinkedIn is Tuesday and Thursday, between 7 and 9 a.m. local time.
3. Enter self-censorship. Don't say anything on LinkedIn that you wouldn't say out loud on .
4. LinkedIn can be integrated with . Then your business cards, resume and notes will be in one place.
5. Users who regularly update their LinkedIn profiles receive more collaboration offers.
6. Install a LinkedIn button on your blog or website so that your followers and readers can share your posts on their LinkedIn profile.