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LinkedIn is one of the first "social networks", but with a singular focus on professional networking, professional branding, career development, and as a premier marketplace for job seekers and recruiters. LinkedIn boasts the following facts and statistics (2022):
810 million members.
57 million registered companies.
Operates in over 200 countries and regions.
91% of LinkedIn users have college or advanced degrees.
44% of LinkedIn users earn $75,000 a year or more.
60% of LinkedIn's user base is millennials.
75% of LinkedIn users live outside the United States.
87% of recruiters use LinkedIn.
14 million open job postings (this number fluctuates).
In 2016, Microsoft bought LinkedIn.
By social media network standards, LinkedIn is comparatively small, but its impact on the labor market is substantial. Like any other social media network, users can post original content on LinkedIn. However, not many individual users post on a regular basis or consume posts on a regular basis. The original content on LinkedIn, the currency of LinkedIn, is you - your professional history and story – not videos of cats playing the piano. *Full disclosure: Insider Career Strategies supports the cat piano playing community and says, "Rock on!".
LinkedIn users, new and old, can post whatever they want if they want. However, LinkedIn's culture does not revolve around the site's feed, likes/dislikes, or sharing. Users use the site to research companies and search for job openings. Recruiters use LinkedIn to find job candidates. Advertisers use the site to generate leads. That is not to say the feed algorithms aren't important. If you want to use LinkedIn for professional promotion, company promotion, or advertising, what you post, like, and share matters. So – do you need to post articles, videos, or other content (besides your profile) on LinkedIn?
1. Are you a job seeker? If you are a job seeker who wants to improve your career, employers who pay to see "into the system" will find you. A LinkedIn presence that attracts attention and advances your career goals is born through your profile and professional story, not the content in the feed. A great LinkedIn profile is as far as you need to go.
2. Are you trying to get views? Posting on LinkedIn is a double-edged sword. First, you assume content drives people to your profile. Second, you assume the people who visit your profile are somehow positioned to help your career and will (best case scenario) reach out to you. Intelligent, creative, and well-conceived content related to your profession and skills may draw attention and increase visibility with people out of your network, but sloppy, offensive, or unprofessional content can do a great deal of damage to your professional brand. Only post if you have a definitive professional purpose, and do so with caution and care.
3. What are your posts about? LinkedIn is not great for personal posts. Photos of your recent vacation are inappropriate and unwanted. LinkedIn's feed algorithm flags personal content as "low quality" even if shared by a kazillion people. If you take a content marketing approach and want to position yourself as an expert in your field, go all-in on your professional posts (but for the majority of LinkedIn users posting is not necessary). To reiterate – no videos of cats playing pianos! That is not going to help your professional brand. *Full disclosure: Insider Career Strategies supports the cat piano playing community and says, "Rock on #2!".
4. Do not post political content. Political content can be divisive. If you post content, it should relate to your profession and professional goals. Unless politics IS your job, it’s best to avoid the topic there – by posting your political views, you’ll only succeed in irritating half the audience. It’s best to keep content professional in nature.
5. Are you using LinkedIn for business purposes? To revisit a statistic, LinkedIn has 57 million companies on its site, which means 57 million companies promoting brand awareness, generating leads, and company vying for job seekers' attention. If you are a business on LinkedIn, people will find you without posts. That is because they are actively searching for companies. A company profile is more likely to get a hit after a dedicated search than a post in the feed.
6. Are there advantages to going all-in? Only 40% of LinkedIn's base are "active users." The majority of users are on the platform for only a short amount of time. If you are a regular content creator who generates "high quality" posts, it is easy to stand out and positively impact the LinkedIn community with a dynamite ROI. There are many advantages to expanding your professional network and opportunities. Just keep in mind the professional pitfalls. Keep to an "all business" script, and you could join the ranks of LinkedIn influencers!
Philip Roufail contributed to this article.
Scott Singer is the President and Founder of Insider Career Strategies Resume Writing & Career Coaching, a firm dedicated to guiding job seekers and companies through the job search and hiring process. Insider Career Strategies provides resume writing, LinkedIn profile development, career coaching services, and outplacement services. You can email Scott Singer at scott.singer@insidercs.com, or via the website, www.insidercs.com.
