LinkedIn…ever heard of it?
What's LinkedIn ?
LinkedIn is THE unmissable professional social network.
Created in December 2002 and then officially launched in May 2003 in the United States, the network has more than 985 million members across 200 countries in the world.
In 2006, Microsoft bought LinkedIn for a few billion dollars, about $26.2 billion. Since June 2020, Ryan Roslansky has been its CEO.
In 2023, LinkedIn is a booming "trendy" professional social media.
3 new members register each second. More than 80% of these members come from outside of the US.
💡Fun fact : In May 2023, LinkedIn decided to withdraw completely from China as competition was too high.
Today, in 2023, LinkedIn has more than 19 400 employees across the world and an Annual Revenue of more than 13,8 billion in 2022 - a number that has kept on increasing since the network's creation.
LinkedIn worldwide
LinkedIn is now available in 26 languages 🌎
The 10 biggest communities in the world are:
- 🇺🇸 The United States : 211 million users
- 🇮🇳 India : 117 million users
- 🇧🇷 Brazil : 70 million users
- 🇬🇧 United Kingdom : 37 million users
- 🇫🇷 France : 28 million users
- 🇮🇩 Indonesia : 25 million users
- 🇨🇦 Canada : 22 million users
- 🇲🇽 Mexico : 21 million users
- 🇮🇹 Italy : 19 million users
- 🇪🇸 Spain : 18 million users
In 2023, LinkedIn represents :
- More than 5% of users publishing content on the network;
- 20% of users interacting;
- 58 % of users connecting to LinkedIn with their smartphones
- 61% of users who read publications without reacting
- 74% of companies of more than 1000 employees that share content each week
- 57,2% of users are between 25 and 34 years old and 21,2% between 35 and 54.
- 47,4% of users are women and 52,6% men.
LinkedIn in the US
En 2022, the US went over the 205 million LinkedIn users mark… and in 2023, there are more than 211 million Americans on the network.
In the US, LinkedIn is the most used network by B2B Community Managers.
Why should you create a LinkedIn account?
Nowadays, being on LinkedIn is almost a requirement when you're a professional.
As an individual, LinkedIn allows you to:
- Find a job: In 2023 in the world, more than 11 million job offers are published on the network. 52 million individuals use LinkedIn everyday to find work.
- Monitor your industry: On LinkedIn, you can follow or connect with people or companies of your industry, or simply with the people who share topics in which you are interested.
- Have visibility: By publishing and commenting, you actually raise your chance of building your personal brand.
As a company, LinkedIn is a way to:
- Hire people: Each second, 101 applications are sent through LinkedIn, and each minute, 8 individuals are hired in the world thanks to the social network.
- Network: With more than 211 million super qualified members in the US… LinkedIn is the most complete and most updated professional database. It's become really easy and accessible to connect and start a conversation with people from your industry or with future customers.
- Increase your reputation: Publishing posts and commenting regularly on LinkedIn is a way to increase your visibility with your network but, most of all, with your network's network… that's what we call a real snowball effect ⛄️! With LinkedIn you can now even create events or lives directly on the platform.
- Widen your target:
Ads: LinkedIn has its own Ads platform to help you promote your posts, create sponsored messages or text advertisements.
LinkedIn Pulse: LinkedIn has it own platform to optimize writing. Pulse lets LinkedIn users create content like blog articles, news, or company ideas, and then share them with their network. - Generate new leads: thanks to LinkedIn various filters, you isolate and navigate from profile to profile so that you can find new leads and contact them directly on the platform… or even better, find their email (with Dropcontact for instance) and enroll them in your hyper-personalized Cold Email campaign.
How can you create your LinkedIn account and keep it updated?
To enjoy all that LinkedIn has to offer… you just have to set up an account!
It's pretty simple:
- Create your account on LinkedIn signup page and add your first name, last name, email address and set up a password. Pretty straightforward. Since LinkedIn is a professional network, you must give your actual name.
- Choose your professional profile photo. This is the thumbnail everyone will see on your profile, your comments and your posts… This picture will reflect your image and your professionalism.
- Create a personalized banner. You can for instance add a banner with your corporate identity.
- Think about a catchy professional title. With a maximum of 220 characters, you can sum up and catch the eye of your next leads or of future headhunters… It can truly make a difference.
- Create a powerful summary.
- In creator mode, you can add a "talks about" section.
- Add your education and professional history.
- Personalize your profile URL.
- Start sharing and commenting.
💡 Make sure you update your activities, your experiences and your various certifications
The Social Selling Index
To go further, you can calculate. your Social Selling Index.
It indexes your performance and your level of influence on LinkedIn. This score is based on 4 metrics:
- Your online presence
- Your ability to find the right people
- Your ability to engage with relevant content
- Your networking skills
Is LinkedIn free ?
LinkedIn is 100% free and intends to stay that way.
The platform also offers paying solutions like LinkedIn Sales Navigator, LinkedIn Ads or LinkedIn Pulse.
But LinkedIn's free version already allows you to have an optimal presence.
What's LinkedIn Sales Navigator?
LinkedIn Sales Navigator is the Premium version of LinkedIn, meaning it's the network's paying solution.
What can you do with LinkedIn Sales Navigator ?
LinkedIn Sales Navigator allows you to :
- Make an advanced search for each lead: LinkedIn Sales Navigator has several filters to help you find targeted leads, i.e. the people fitting your ICP (Ideal Customer Profile): current company, past company, company type, function, current job title, seniority level, company change, geography, activity on LinkedIn… and many more.
- Make an advanced search by account: LinkedIn Sales Navigator enables you to create an ABM (Account Based Management) by finding the companies that fit your targeted criteria: annual revenue, industry, geography, number of employees, company headcount growth, tech stack…
- Save your search: Each search can be saved, saving you a precious amount of time.
- Update your lists: by creating lists that answer your segmentation criteria, your leads and targeted companies' information are updated in real-time. This enables you to create a dynamic prospecting list.
- Detect company changes: LinkedIn Sales Navigator can help you identify the people who just changed companies - the ideal momentum to contact a lead (again).
- Set up personalized alerts
- View profiles anonymously: With LinkedIn Premium you can discreetly view all the profiles you want 🦝
- Import your company list
LinkedIn Sales Navigator's price
Besides its free plan, LinkedIn offers 3 Premium plans :
- Core: 79,99 $/month for an advanced prospecting
- Advanced: 129,60 $/month and per license, ideal for teams
- Advanced Plus: Price on demand
What about LinkedIn's algorithm?
There's been a lot of talk around LinkedIn's algorithm in the tech world lately. But how does it work? What are its secrets?
The success of a post depends on several factors:
- The chosen format: PDFs, surveys, carousel or [Text + picture] formats will have more impact than a simple article or video.
- The relevance of content: Technically, the more suitable for your audience your content is, the more relevant and engaging it'll be.
- The engagement generated by the content: All actions do not have the same influence on a post. A comment will have more impact than someone sharing the post, a "see more" click or a mere "like".
- The SSI (Social Selling Index) of the writer: the higher your SSi, the more important your impact will be.
- Dwell time (time spent on a post) seems to have less importance than before.
💡 LinkedIn's algorithm is a bit like Google's algorithm or like Coca Cola's recipe… nobody knows what's really in it. That's why each and everyone should test it several times to find their own recipe… which will necessarily evolve with time.
Have fun 😘
