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LinkedIn has grown exponentially and currently has 706 million registered members in 150 countries. It allows its members (both job seekers and companies) to create profiles and connections in an online social network with two new members joining every second.

Rated as the 12^th most popular website in the U.S. and 34^th worldwide, LinkedIn revenue (US$ 6.8 billion 2019) comes from premium memberships, ads, online recruiting and providing marketing solutions.

With the number of current users active on LinkedIn, it becomes imperative to shed some light on the lesser known facts

1. Penalize people for overreaching

LinkedIn as a platform provides you the opportunity to establish connects professionally to help you achieve your career goals but one needs to be careful while sending out too many invitations to people you do not know. The account can be restricted or deleted if too many recipients indicate that they do not know you.

2. Words to avoid

As stated by the senior director of LinkedIn, the most overused and ineffectual adjectives in a profile are motivated, creative, and passionate. One needs to get creative in their profile by showing motivation by offering project specifics and jobs they are passionate about.

3. Endorsements hold no value

Endorsement boxes can easily be checked off by your connections (well-known and lesser known) that they have little or no importance for a recruiter. Instead, one should try and aim for “Recommendations” which are endorsements from collogues you have worked with.

4. Personalize connection request on the LinkedIn mobile app

Instead of sending out the default connection request, you can consciously send out a personalized connection request. This feature can make all the difference for a connection request being accepted rather than being ignored or declined.

5. Stop sending prospects to the profiles of your competitors

There is a feature of LinkedIn that shows “People Also Viewed” when checking out a prospect’s profile. This is a very useful feature when looking out for prospects to connect with but what it also does is show the profile of your competitors when your page is visited. This feature can easily be turned off in the privacy settings by selecting no under “Viewers of this profile also viewed” option.

6. Increase the followers base

LinkedIn has a network size limit of 30,000 1^st degree connections. For most of us, this number is something we do not need to worry about. For people who are into social selling or work to establish thought leadership, they may need to keep in mind this number. There is a solution provided by LinkedIn for this, follow the users without connecting with them. By following the user on LinkedIn, it allows the person to see the posts and articles. This enables the user to save the connections of potential prospects and clients.

7. Exercise the option to mute or leave conversations

Sometimes you may find yourself being pulled into group conversations you have no interest in or do not have the time to respond to. LinkedIn makes it possible for you to modify the controls of each conversation by muting, marking a message as unread or leaving the conversation. These options are available by clicking the three dots located on the top right corner.

8. Embed LinkedIn post on your blog or website

At times when you post on your LinkedIn, it resonates well with your network. You can give it a longer life and a larger audience embedding it in your website or blog. Similarly, you can share the post on all your social media channels. All you need to do is click on the three dots on the right corner of the post and use the options.

9. Boolean Search can be used to improve advanced search

This feature allows the users to filter the search more specifically to find exactly what you are looking for. This can be achieved by adding or eliminating elements from the search parameter. An example could be when you are searching for a profile with experience in “personal branding” and “social selling training”. Adding “and” will group the two terms together giving more relevant results.

10. LinkedIn offers Six different apps

Since 60 percent of users use the mobile app to connect to the site, LinkedIn introduced mobile apps to enhance the experience of the users. They are

• LinkedIn Mobile app- a free app that connects you to the LinkedIn account from the phone
• LinkedIn Slide share-where you can upload PowerPoint slide decks, infographics, PDFs, and documents.
• LinkedIn Learning- provides a platform for you to continue your learning through online courses and videos covering every aspect of the business. This is a paid service.
• LinkedIn Recruiter-the app lets you search and review the profiles of your prospects, respond swiftly to candidates, and stay organized with projects
• LinkedIn Sales Navigator- it is a tool for sales professionals, which helps them find leads and accounts in your target market, connect or send messages to prospects, and get real-time updates. With Sales Navigator, you can follow targeted companies and key members of those organizations so you hear instantly about breaking news or key personnel change. This is a paid subscription
• LinkedIn Elevate– it is a tool for large companies that create and share a lot of content on social media. As employees create social media content for your company, they add it to the Elevate app so everyone in the company can share it on their social media accounts

With the growing importance of networking online, leveraging these lesser known features can help you extract the real potential of LinkedIn and stay in control while accelerating your professional networking or career development.

To learn more about ‘How to Win High Value Business Using LinkedIn’, register now to attend the webinar at ONLY webinars https://www.onlywebinars.com