Now it is important to have a LinkedIn profile more than ever! The professional networking platform has more than 700 million subscribers and more than 55 million companies.
Connecting with professional individuals and companies through LinkedIn is necessary for establishing a network that helps you grow your own business, secure new job offers, and develop your career always.
In this article, we will walk you through some of the best practices when networking on LinkedIn to help you understand the platform more and start applying best practices for your growth.
Best Practices When Networking on LinkedIn: 7 Important Tips and Practices
1. Make sure your profile is complete.
2. Optimize your profile.
3. Secure endorsements.
4. Build connections.
5. Connect with 2nd degree, 3rd degree, and people out of your network.
6. Join groups.
7. Write content.
1. Make sure your profile is complete
If you have not created your LinkedIn profile, please create one now! And if your profile is already there, make sure it is complete and has all the required fields filled.
It is important to have a complete profile when other professional individuals or corporations check your account and connect with you. Your details need to be all recently updated to give a full impression.
Key items that need to be filled: headline, professional photo, summary, job title, location, work experience, education details, skills, and interests.
2. Optimize your profile
The second-best practice you need to follow is: optimizing your profile. You can do so by following some steps:
* Add a professional profile picture.
* Add a professional headline.
* Create a professional summary.
* Optimize your work experience.
3. Secure endorsements
Endorsements are important on LinkedIn; it is basically when your connections and colleagues validate your expertise and skills based on their work experience with you. This enhances your credibility and create more opportunities for you.
On LinkedIn, you can endorse people you are connected to and ask others to endorse you always.
4. Build connections
Build connection is one of the best practices when networking on LinkedIn! You need to have a good number of connections on LinkedIn. You can start by adding the people you know from your colleagues, family members, and friends lists. Then you can work on growing your network by connecting with people with same work fields and expertise.
You can always check the “people you may know” section to check more connections to add and network with.
5. Connect with 2nd degree, 3rd degree, and people out of your network
Opt for connecting with people out of your network and 2nd - 3rd degrees connections. It is important to build a strong network base to assist you with your career.
Some tips to help you with this:
* Send invitations to managers and recruiters.
* Personalize your connection messages, add short professional sentences to explain the reason behind your connection request.
6. Join groups
LinkedIn groups are great for meeting and connecting with professional experts and create career opportunities. Individuals tend to share opinions, knowledge, discussions, and more on LinkedIn groups.
You can search for the group that is of interest to you through the search bar by using keywords that are related to your career and expertise.
7. Write content
Writing content on LinkedIn is essential indeed! You can write your own posts or comment on other people’s updates and share your thoughts and professional opinion over anything.
Some tips to consider when you write content: follow LinkedIn’s rules, consistently post content, and try to engage more with your connections by asking questions and sharing images.
We have shared with you the 7 best practices when networking on LinkedIn. We hope you find these tips and best practices useful the next time you log in to your LinkedIn profile.
Start applying these points to get more connections, endorsements, career options, and job offers.
Enjoy networking on LinkedIn!
