Social Media Platform

Generally speaking, when you hear about social media Platforms the first platforms that come to your mind are Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, or others like TikTok.

LinkedIn is a giant networking site but a lot of online users aren’t familiar with it. When you join LinkedIn, you know that it’s mainly about building business connections or finding jobs.

A vast majority of LinkedIn users will abandon their account after setup or when they find the job they’re looking for.

Even some businesses will shift their attention to other networking sites like Twitter or Facebook, and that’s because they’re not familiar with how powerful LinkedIn is.

With more than 200 million monthly active users worldwide, you know that there is a crowd you can network with and it will benefit your business in the long run.

If you want to connect with professionals, not time wasters, LinkedIn is definitely your platform, you don’t want to waste your time on Instagram viewing useless pictures of the new outfit a user bought nor the meal they have eaten.

As a career-driven person or business owner, you don’t have the time to look into other people’s lives. You want to get busy establishing business connections that will make a difference in your life and for loved ones.

In this post, we’re going to talk about whether LinkedIn is a social network or not and also discuss what LinkedIn is all about so that you can benefit from the platform in the long run.

Is LinkedIn A Social Network

LinkedIn is considered by many as a social network and I believe any top 10 list of social media sites will include LinkedIn on the list. Since you’re connecting with people, I believe it deserves to be considered as a social networking site.

It’s however designed for business networking; you can’t post the type of content you post on Instagram or Facebook and expect to succeed. You’ll look immature by doing so, you need to post business-driven content and you want to be perceived as a professional by doing so.

LinkedIn is designed to showcase your skills, talent, or business, it is for users that want to connect with other businesses or at least users with the same career path as they have. This way they can help each other with career advice and helpful information.

LinkedIn doesn’t talk about building friends or followers; they talk about building connections and we all know it’s a business connection.

Whether you consider LinkedIn as a social network or not, one thing is for sure, LinkedIn is about business networking and any business can benefit from the connections on LinkedIn.

What Should You Use LinkedIn For?

Use your profile as resume

LinkedIn is the best social network you can use to land your dream job, that’s where companies go when they’re looking for candidates with professional skills. They will not just pick anybody; they’ll go through your profile and see all that you’ve got.

Your resume will tell a lot about you including working experience, certifications, and other achievements. Even if you currently have a job, you should consider your LinkedIn profile as a weapon to attract an even better position than the one you’re currently working at.

Get in touch with your old colleagues

LinkedIn allows users to get in touch with old colleagues, it could be old classmates, teachers or individuals you’ve worked with.

When you first join LinkedIn without connections, you can grab the email addresses of your old colleagues and search for them on the network to send connection requests. You just need to connect your email address and LinkedIn will sync your contacts to trace them on the network.

Apply for jobs

There are lots of job postings on LinkedIn and since you have filled your resume, you don’t need to spend a lot of time crafting your job application. Once you apply for a job, employers can easily view your profile and see your resume and how you have been contributing to the platform.

Connect with new professionals

If you really want to reach the top of your career, you definitely want to connect with professionals who’re ahead of you. This way you’ll learn from them and you can get the best career advice.

You need to surround yourself with professionals if you want to reach the top of the ladder, LinkedIn is one of those platforms where you can identify professionals easily without any hassle. You just need to take a look at their resume and you can easily spot them based on their qualifications and working experience.

Start Blogging

With LinkedIn, you don’t need to set up a blog website to start sharing your ideas with the world, the LinkedIn publishing platform allows users to add blog posts hassle-free and you have the chance to get noticed by thousands or even hundreds of thousands of users on LinkedIn.

All your blog posts will show up on your profile, the more views you attract to your profile, the more your blog posts will be read.

Join groups

LinkedIn groups are one top of the place where you can start interacting with professionals, you can educate yourself from the content shared and you can as well share your own ideas.

These are some of the ways you can benefit from LinkedIn, let’s now take a look at the features they have.

How LinkedIn Work And The Features They Have

Home

After you sign up and log in, you’ll be presented with the news feed, you’ll receive the recent posts from the connections you have with other LinkedIn users and also the companies you’re connected with. The ones you interact with the most will show up at the top of the feed.

Profile

Your profile will display your name, location, photo, your occupation, and other data you’ve added. You can for instance add your skills or certifications in the last name field since you’re able to add up to 140 characters within this field.

Other things that can be added to the profile are a short summary, education, and work experience, and most importantly, there is a section to add your CV or resume.

My Network

This is where you find the list of all LinkedIn accounts you’re connected to on the platform, if you also hover at the top of the menu, you’ll see the option that allows you to import contacts, or you can search for new connections. It’s recommended that you connect your email so that you can locate your contacts on the platform.

Jobs

You can find almost every type of job posted on LinkedIn, you can land a high-paying job absolutely free and without putting in much effort. Whatever qualifications you might have, you can find the right match.

Under the job section, employers can post various job listings with the requirements and qualifications they need. LinkedIn users that find themselves suitable can apply for any of the job listings they want.

It’s important to ensure that your profile is complete and with a full CV/resume attached to it because employers will always take a look at your profile details before considering you.

Interests

Apart from having connections with professionals, LinkedIn also allows following a group of interests, these are the topics you’re interested in getting content from.

Once you have certain interests, it’s easier for the LinkedIn algorithm to make recommendations so that you don’t have to spend a lot of time searching for companies and individuals. Specifying your interests will also help LinkedIn to make the right job suggestions so that you don’t miss job listing offers as well.

Messages

Just like any other social network out there, LinkedIn also supports sending private messages. You can send a private message to your LinkedIn connections, but you have to be careful not to abuse the feature.

You’re limited to the number of private messages you can send every hour and every single day as well. Don’t go ahead and send bulk messages at once, the LinkedIn algorithm will raise a flag on your account and will eventually lead to suspension or termination.

Notifications

There are also notifications for the messages you receive and when users react to your content or comments on the platform. With the notification feature, you’re able to see when someone has endorsed you or when they have invited you to check a post or join a group.

The search bar

Use the search bar to look for professionals, companies, or jobs on the platform, you can always make a search but LinkedIn has limitations on the number of searches you can make and also on the number of profiles viewed at any given time frame.

You should give some space between your searches and this applies to premium and free accounts as well.

Pending invitations

A lot of users will send a request to connect with them, whenever someone invites you on LinkedIn, you’ll see the invitation and need to be approved by you. When you also send a request, they’ll have to approve you first before you can interact with them on the platform.

LinkedIn premium accounts

If you want to get the most out of LinkedIn you need to upgrade to a premium account. There are different plans for the premium account, let’s take a look at them briefly and their pricing;

Premium Career: It costs $29.99 per month, it’s ideal for individuals looking for a job and also advances their career.
Premium Business: Costing $59.99 per month, it’s a plan suitable for businesses and professionals that want to build a network on LinkedIn.
Premium Sales: This is for individuals and businesses looking for targeted leads for their business and it costs $79.99 per month.
Premium Hiring: At $119.99 per month, businesses and professionals can find the right talent for the company or business.

That’s it about LinkedIn and so far, you’ve seen that LinkedIn is beyond your typical social media networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram.

It’s a networking site for businesses and for individuals to find a job, anyone can take advantage of LinkedIn. The best way to explore the features is by joining the platform to discover what they are capable of delivering for your business.

Is LinkedIn a Social Media Platform? 2021