We recently released our LinkedIn Guide to the public for free download. I wanted to share a few excerpts from the guide over the next few weeks to give you an idea of the value of LinkedIn…
LinkedIn is a powerful online tool which allows you to market yourself as a professional within your industry by showcasing your accomplishments, skills, knowledge, and expertise. This professional network, which is built around your employment capabilities, allows you to connect with others and learn from those in your field of work, by adding them as ‘connections’.
The unique attraction to LinkedIn includes the offer to access specific demographics – those interested in professional networking. If your aim is to build relationships and grow your knowledge of industry trends, you’ll need to join the other 1,6 million South Africans who are currently ‘LinkedIn’. LinkedIn is ranked as South Africa’s 8th most visited website by South Africans.
The professional networking site has grown by 45% in membership from 2011 to 2012, and it’s predicted this growth is only going to continue over the next few years.
Business networking
LinkedIn is by far the most useful business network on the internet. I say this because LinkedIn has grown from a social network that connects professionals, into a powerhouse of business tools that can improve your bottom line.
The business of LinkedIn shows in its share price, currently at $98.52, compared to Facebook, who is currently trading at $31,91* (share price quoted from Bloomberg on the 29th May 2012).
LinkedIn offers advertising solutions that help target business professionals to ensure your content reaches the right individuals. It also offers services that help you connect with the right people and strategically build your network. The real benefit and business value comes in their main revenue driver, LinkedIn Recruiter.
Headhunting on LinkedIn
LinkedIn allows people to brand themselves online and build a profile that will help them secure a great career in the future. This means that the information available about candidates is rich and deep, helping employers get a better feel of the candidate before calling them in for an interview. These branded business professionals reveal a new competitive advantage to headhunt our employees instead of opening up all prospective positions to large amounts of ‘job spam’. Finally, we now have a way to find and approach those hard to find passive candidates.
It has become clear that having a LinkedIn profile is no longer optional, but an imperative for the success of your career in the future. That’s why we decided to put this guide together, to help business professionals profile themselves correctly on LinkedIn. We hope you enjoy this guide and that it helps you get another step closer to realising your business and career dreams.
[box type=”download”]Download the full version of The Definitive Guide to LinkedIn.[/box]
