Nowadays, LinkedIn It is considered as the largest professional social network in the world and, for this reason, has more than 150 million active users and of them, 3 million are in Spain. Taking into account that, it is a platform that is present in more than 200 countries.
Now, this great fame is mainly due to the fact that, both personally and business, LinkedIn is ideal for optimizing your brand, obtaining greater visibility, getting contacts, attracting traffic and even networking. Reasons why, is in full swing.
That is why, today, it is essential to know how this social network works and, in addition, put into practice certain recommendations with which it will be easier to grow in it. Therefore, through this post, we want to teach you How LinkedIn differs from other social platforms and the best tips to enhance your personal brand from there.
How is LinkedIn different from other social networks on the Internet?
Since the end of 2002, it was founded LinkedIn as a social network that is aimed at facilitating the connection between various users worldwide for professional and commercial purposes, beyond supporting personal relationships. Therefore, from said platform, there are numerous companies, companies, organizations and personal brands that seek to promote themselves and network.
Now, compared to other social networks, LinkedIn stands out for being a purely professional online site. Since, unlike Facebook, Twitter or Instagram, for example, LinkedIn It works as a virtual directory for business people. That is why, the most famous professional social network allows the connection between professional contacts to look for work and offer or select jobs when companies need to make a new contract.
So, it promises assist in active job search and professional networkingbasically. Thus, the main objective of the platform is allow community members to maintain a list of contact details of users with whom they have some level of relationship, known as "Connections".
Therefore, people have the freedom to invite any other member to become a connection so build a network of contacts and find job opportunities more easily. Since, they can see these lists to search for candidates.
That is why, LinkedIn works as a useful window for create, promote and enhance your personal brand, display updated information about your work experience, locate people from different sectors to contact them for professional purposes and get new knowledge about your subject by participating in discussion groups anywhere in the world. Which it's, not possible with other conventional social networks.
Learn the best tips to grow on LinkedIn and enhance your personal brand
Now in view of the fact that it is helpful to stay active in LinkedIn and to have a presence in this social network, it is of great relevance to know how can you grow in this social network and enhance your brand to gain greater visibility.
Therefore, below, we mention some recommendations of interest that you can put into practice to achieve your professional goals with the help of this online site:
Optimize your profile picture
One of the most fundamental keys to obtain visibility in this social network is display a profile photo that generates completely professional expectations and characterizes the value of your personal brand. In this way, focus on showing a current photograph that manages to reference what you are today, so build trust in other platform members.
In addition to this, you choose to use a photo that contain a neutral background and prevent someone else from going out with you there, since it only matters that they know you. Of course, Do not forget to smile to indicate that you are a pleasant person and thus, transmit the best possible energy.
Use a good profile background
Just as your profile photo is essential to attract the public, A good background is also a great help in building your personal brand on LinkedIn.. Which, by default, is a kind of blue background that does not produce any interesting effect on people.
Therefore, the most recommended is to modify and personalize this background in your professional network profile. For this, you can choose to use the appropriate measures (1,584 x 396) and generate an original image with the help of a graphic design program that offers quality results and is associated with what you hope to convey. Note that, this background is a key visual support of what you post on your profile.
Place a perfect professional headline
If you want the other users of LinkedIn are impressed by visit your profile, it is important that you know how to make the most of the 120 characters available to present there what you do and for whom you do it. To do it correctly, start with use keywords wisely, since this will be the most important part of SEO in the platform's search algorithms.
Therefore, using the appropriate keywords, you can attract the attention of bosses, clients or suppliers without much effort. In addition to that, it tries to expose attractive information that can "Sell you well" Avoid using abbreviations for your target audience as this will reduce the readability of the text and use fully optimized spelling.
Focus on showing off your personal brand through the extract
Basically the excerpt from LinkedIn is a 2,000 character space in which the members of the professional social network have the opportunity to introduce themselves and expose what kind of professionals they are or what they do, so capture the attention of other users. Consequently, it is classified as one of the most fundamental parts of the profile of LinkedIn.
In this sense, so that you can differentiate yourself from other professionals, target your target audience in a special way, show off your personal brand through said space and use it as a cover letter where you can make a good sale of yourself.
It is valuable that you take into account certain recommendations, such as:
- Before building your extract, answer the following questions: What do you want them to know about you? How do you want to tell them? And how do you want them to feel when reading your excerpt?
- Use keywords to influence, again, the SEO of the search algorithms of the social network.
- Focus in write short paragraphs. In other words, three or four lines are sufficient.
- Share your achievements and your aspirations in the form of a storyIn order to avoid boring viewers with data based on your work experience.
- To further attract attention, includes visual elements such as URL links, images, videos or presentations. Which will give more life to your extract.
- Do not forget add calls to action and contact details (email address or phone number). This will be essential to facilitate the I will contact you, in case they require your professional services or want to establish a connection.
Customize your profile URL
By default, the URL of LinkedIn profiles not well optimized And, given that, it is essential to personalize it in order to enhance your profile and improve your personal brand. Which is completely useful for position yourself better in the search results of the social network and show a much more professional appearance to the audience.
Now, when modifying it, keep in mind that this URL may have between 5 and 30 characters (only letters and numbers). Also, you must not use spaces, symbols or special characters. Additionally, it considers that, it is not possible to customize your URL more than three times in a period of 6 months.
For its part, in order to customize the URL of your profile, you must follow a series of steps that we will detail below: Click on the icon "Me" > Select "View profile" > Click on "Edit URL and public profile" > Click on the icon "Edit" next to the URL of your public profile, in the Edit custom URL> Enter the last part of your new link in the text box > Click Save.
Interact with your contacts
Too it is very important to interact with your network of contacts within LinkedIn, either by replying to their messages, commenting on the updates of your potential contacts and taking actions that encourage your open participation in the social network, without falling into spam. That way, you will make a greater impact on your audience and make them remember you.
Also, keep in mind that, it is essential to be kind and polite to all these members, in order to receive the same from them. In addition to that, you can find some reason to write to them and show them that you really care. Thanks to this, your online visibility will increase and you will be able to establish strong ties with many users on the social network.
Always personalize your invitations to connect
Basically invitations are the primary means of networking on LinkedIn and that is why, every time a user sends an invitation to another member and he accepts it, both will become first degree contacts. Now when you do that, you can add a custom message to introduce yourself and give the recipient context.
In this sense, it is considered relevant to always personalize your invitations to connect, because that way you will make your personal brand stand out much more than the rest and, apart from that, you will get accepted much faster.
Valuing that, to make totally irresistible invitations, you can take advantage of the following recommendations:
- Put your education, kindness and sympathy in the foreground at the time of writing a new invitation. Which is an infallible help to inspire confidence and acceptance.
- Choose mention common contacts, areas of interest or all those aspects that have caught your attention in the profile of the user in question. With this, you will demonstrate that you have read their profile and have some professional or commercial interest.
- Although it is decisive that you name areas of interest or special aspects of your professional profile to the user, avoid being commercial on the first invitation. On the contrary, you had better be nice and interested in the form of a "greeting".
On the other hand, to personalize your invitations correctly, go to the profile of the member with whom you want to link and click the "Connect" button. Then click on "Add a note" and add your personified message in the text field for like this, click on “Send invitation” and ready.
Post consistently
Another effective tactic to grow on this site and maximize your personal brand, is based on constantly posting. Considering that these elements are the first that other people can observe when accessing LinkedIn and therefore, It is the best way to be active, please the algorithm of the platform and thus, gain more visibility.
In this way, focus on publishing from time to time to give a distinctive value to your profile. LinkedInof course taking great care in share content that reflects your way of thinking and you know it, Besides that match what your target audience is really interested in. Since, in this way, you can get them to comment and share their opinion about it, thereby generating a remarkable interaction for your profile.
List of the best alternative social work networks to LinkedIn
Although, LinkedIn is the queen of the professional social media segment, a very common mistake lies in regret that there is only this platform to establish business or business connections on the Internet. Since, today, there are other alternatives that offer you greater coverage to build your personal brand and not having to limit yourself to using a single social work network.
Consequently, from this section of the post, we want to introduce you three of the best alternatives to LinkedIn that are currently active.
So that you can explore new solutions that bring you effective results for your professional life:
Xhing.com
Viadeo.com
Yammer