If you’ve been to uni then you’ve probably had the LinkedIn conversation. You’ve probably been told to connect with your lecturers so that after you’ve graduated they can see whether or not you’re putting your degree to good use. If you haven’t jumped on to LinkedIn before – it’s basically a more professional Facebook.
Here are five ways that you can use LinkedIn to your advantage…
Keeping on top of trends
A lot of the time I find news and updates about social media on LinkedIn before I’ve seen anything on Twitter, Instagram or Facebook. Because there are so many experts from every industry constantly publishing articles and updates about emerging trends, you’re always bound to stumble across at least one piece of useful information when you log on.
Job hunting
Whether you’ve just graduated from uni, looking for a career change or simply exploring job opportunities, you shouldn’t just be relying on Indeed to get you by. Don’t get me wrong – Indeed, Reed and all of the other job hunting websites are good but you can always dig a little deeper with LinkedIn.
Just like all of the job sites, you can search and apply for jobs. However, it’s much easier to filter your search by company, location, role and industry. You can also switch on a little feature on your profile to let recruiters and employers know that you’re either actively looking for jobs or considering new opportunities. This way, they know that you’re open to being contacted about available roles. LinkedIn is quite well known for being a playground recruitment agencies and head hunters.
Expanding your team
One for the employers. If your business is quickly expanding and your current team are already spreading themselves too thin then it might be time to grow your team. Whether you’re looking for people with years of experience, uni graduates or maybe even interns – looking on LinkedIn is a great starting point. If you’ve stumbled across someone you think would bring new skills and thinking to your team then it’s worth giving them a message to find out if they’re either looking to take on more work or if they’re looking for a new job completely. A simple message could be the beginning of your next hire.
Connecting with like minded people
Sometimes you might have questions about your industry, a technical issue, or a new role you’ve just started that your Twitter followers can’t answer for you. Or, you might just want to connect with people that share the same interests as you. Searching and connecting with people who work in the same position or industry as you will help you start those conversations.
Doing your research
There might come a time where you need to do some research on a company. Let’s say that you’re a freelancer and you’ve been asked to do some contract work for a company you haven’t heard of. A quick search on LinkedIn will tell you what the company does, who works for them and how established they are. If you need to contact industry professionals directly it’s very likely that you’ll find them on this platform. A lot of the interviews I had to do for my dissertation at uni came from looking people up on LinkedIn.
As always, thank you for reading!
Let me know if you’ve used LinkedIn before and how you use it.
Ways you can reach me:
- Email: courteneynoonan@hotmail.co.uk
- Twitter: @courteneyjn
- Instagram: @courteneynoonan
Bye for now,
Courteney x
courteneynoonan.co.uk 
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