If you have ever been hesitant about using LinkedIn, allow the statistics to erase your apprehension. It’s no myth that LinkedIn has revolutionized the contemporary workforce, and has provided proof of the powerful interconnectedness of professional networks. It’s estimated that 106 million unique users visit LinkedIn each month, and that every second two new users join the network. It’s not just the number of users that’s increasing, either. From 2016 to 2017, the use of LinkedIn company pages grew from 24% to 57%. If those facts aren’t enough to make you consider creating a LinkedIn profile or using yours more, consider that as of now, 71% of professionals feel that LinkedIn is a credible source for professional content. That means that if you aren’t using LinkedIn, you should be.
Using statistics as a guide, we’ll discuss the ways that you can optimize your LinkedIn use and profile, or create one if you have not done so yet.
Pro Tip: Get Visual
FACT: LinkedIn profiles with professional photos get 21 times more profile views, and 36 times more messages.
If that’s not reason enough to amp up the visuals on your LinkedIn account, I don’t know what is! The simple act of adding a professional headshot increases your visibility by 21 times. On top of that, you’ll be much more likely to receive messages from contacts.
Pro Tip: Flaunt your Skills, literally
FACT: Listing your skills on your LinkedIn profile results in 13 times more profile views than if skills are left unlisted.
Recently, we blogged about the importance of having a Key Skills section on your resume, and how listing your skills can help you rank higher in Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS). Turns out it’s also proven that including key skills on your LinkedIn profile can increase your profile’s viewer traffic by up to 13 times. Remember, the more people see your profile, the more of a chance you’ll have of making productive connections.
Pro Tip: Talk the talk, so walk the walk
FACT: There are 19.7 million Slideshares uploaded to LinkedIn.
Slideshares are LinkedIn’s way of showcasing work portfolios and your past presentations (in the form of PowerPoint, PDF, Keynote, and OpenDocument). We’ve already mentioned how simply adding a profile picture to give your name a face can increase your visibility and interconnectedness on LinkedIn. Apply that same logic to adding visible examples of all the great things you write in your profile. Adding samples of your work makes your project descriptions that much more credible.
Pro Tip: Get Someone to back you up
Fact: There have been over 10 billion LinkedIn endorsements
Endorsements are LinkedIn’s way of adding third party verification of your professional successes, talents and work ethic. People you’ve worked with can testify to how great you are. What better way to make other professionals want to connect with you and share opportunities with you than to have others give testament to your successes?
Pro Tip: Get Creative
FACT: The most overused LinkedIn profile word continues to be “Motivated” – which also topped 2014 and 2015.
We’ve blogged about phrases that will kill your resume. Among them are clichéd phrases that, when you think about them, seem very vague and don’t really describe anything about you. The same philosophy goes with LinkedIn language. If you use the word “motivated” in your profile, take it out and replace it with something else. Same thing goes for any other cliché words and catchphrases.
In closing, we hope you’ve now decided that you need to create a LinkedIn profile. If you’re looking for a job, know that LinkedIn now has 3 million active job listings on the platform. Out of LinkedIn’s 467 million users, you are bound to make some incredible connections that pave the golden way forward in your career.
All statistics sourced from “LinkedIn By The Numbers: 2017 Statistics.”
