Case study on LinkedIn

LinkedIn, the world's largest professional network with 706+ million users in more than 200 countries and territories worldwide.LinkedIn began in co-founder Reid Hoffman's living room in 2002 and was officially launched on May 5, 2003.Today, LinkedIn leads a diversified business with revenues from membership subscriptions, advertising sales and recruitment solutions under the leadership of Ryan Roslansky. In December 2016, Microsoft completed its acquisition of LinkedIn, bringing together the world’s leading professional cloud and the world’s leading professional network.

Q) How have successful members used linkedin to their Advantage?

1. Use LinkedIn as a research tool Having a LinkedIn account also means that you can use the site to research companies, interviewers, recruiters, and hiring managers — this is helpful before submitting applications and researching who’s interviewing you and conducting interview research.
2. LinkedIn has a great job board New opportunities exist throughout the LinkedIn site that may not exist on traditional job boards. You can directly apply for roles using LinkedIn apply, save job searches, as well as flagging to recruiters that you are open to hearing about opportunities.
3.  You can gain social proof for your skills and talents Let others recommend and endorse you for your skills and past work. When others recommend or endorse you, anyone who sees your profile can see these and it shows you have other experts backing up your claims to have certain skills. This is very powerful in making connections. You can build your credibility through the endorsements and testimonials that LinkedIn allows your contacts to leave on your profile.
4. Follow Companies LinkedIn is a brilliant tool for researching organisations and people that work at them. You can use this to target people within your network that work for organisations that you really want to work for.

Q) Suggest how being a member of the LinkedIn network might help  a company to develop better customer knowledge?

 

• A good photo – that shows your face and is (reasonably) professional. I often look up someone’s photo before I meet them for the first time, this helps me spot them easily
• A descriptive summary – about yourself, your skills, anything others will find useful. Remember to include keywords, as this will help you come up in the LinkedIn search
• A list of jobs and descriptions – showcase your skills and what you’ve accomplished, the fuller your profile is the better it looks
• Recommendations – make sure you ask others (customers, bosses, ex-employers, colleagues, suppliers) for a recommendation as it will boost your credibility
• Skills – make sure you include a list of skills. They are not just something to fill up your profile with, you’ll probably see other people from your network appear at the top of your screen on LinkedIn and it asks you to endorse their skills. If you don’t add any skills then you won’t appear there. It’s a great bit of free advertising that you shouldn’t miss out on!
• Links – make sure you add links to your website(s) and social media, this will make it easier for anyone viewing your profile to see more about you