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I've been off Reddit since the end of last year due to the ongoing conflict (war) between Russia and Ukraine. That means I haven't had access to any subreddits or communities. It's also meant that I've missed some great discussions about the future of social media and online networking sites like Facebook and Twitter. But now, I've returned with an eye on the future of both platforms. So far, things are moving at a slow pace, so let me tell you how they're going.
If you have ever visited any of these two websites, then you'll know exactly how fast this world moves. While there were times where I was able to catch up with friends from way back when, most conversations ended abruptly as soon as one person would say "hey" or "hi". Most people seemed lost in their own little bubble, which is fine if you don't want to be disturbed by others' thoughts and opinions. But for those who do, it can feel isolating.
LinkedIn has always been known as a professional network. Over time, however, it's grown into something else. The site offers free accounts to anyone over 18 years old, regardless of whether they're employed or not. This allows them to connect with other professionals through their profiles, upload CV/resumes, send messages and participate in groups (which can range from career advice to product reviews). There are also features such as endorsements and recommendations available for purchase. Since its inception, the website has seen numerous changes to allow users to reach new heights. For example, from 2012 onwards, it introduced the ability to create custom tabs within your profile page. In addition, users could add links to their Instagram account, YouTube channel and Flickr albums. These days, LinkedIn boasts over 400 million members worldwide, making it the largest business-focused social platform. As well as offering paid subscriptions, the company currently makes money via advertising.
In terms of traffic, LinkedIn holds around 60% of all active US user profiles. And while only 1% of people use the service daily, almost 80% visit it weekly. According to Statista, the average American spends three hours per month using the site, compared to just under four minutes spent watching TV. If you look at global figures, China leads the pack with around 5.3 billion visits per week, followed closely by India and Brazil. However, according to Business Insider, Europe comes second with 2.9 billion visits per week, while North America trails behind with 2.7 billion visits each week. When it comes to revenue, LinkedIn earns $1 billion every six months, thanks largely to ads. The site claims to generate 95% of its income from commercial activity. On top of this, it says that 90% of its total monthly revenue goes towards employee compensation.
The company has recently announced plans to launch a blockchain based version of itself called LendLedger. Essentially, this will give users greater control over their data and personal information. They will also be able to earn rewards from participating in various activities involving the platform.
For starters, try joining a group discussion. Groups help build connections among peers, allowing everyone involved to interact with one another without having to email or message individual individuals directly. Some may prefer to stay anonymous, but many choose to open up because they believe that they might find someone useful in the process. Also, remember that LinkedIn doesn't offer a private messaging feature. If you need to communicate with someone privately, then you'll probably have to go outside of the app and use Skype or WhatsApp instead!
As mentioned above, LinkedIn boasts nearly 400 million members globally. You should therefore think carefully before posting anything publicly. Make sure that it isn't too controversial or offensive. Be aware that other users may see your post as spam, and decide to report it accordingly. Don't forget to keep your posts brief and concise; otherwise, nobody will bother reading your entire thread. Finally, take care when adding photos to your profile. Photos contain metadata tags, including EXIF info. Therefore, make sure that you remove any identifying details before sharing your picture on public forums.
While we don't know everything about the algorithms behind LinkedIn, we do know that they rely heavily on the number of followers you have. This is why it's important to maintain a good level of interaction with potential employers and clients. After all, if you don't receive enough likes or shares, then your content won't appear high up in search results.
When it comes to ranking content, the algorithm looks at the following factors:
- Number of views
- Engagement rate
- Time spent viewing content
- Interactions with content
- Reputation score
- Number of endorsements received
It shouldn't come as a surprise that Google uses similar metrics to rank webpages. What's interesting here is that LinkedIn takes things even further than traditional SEO techniques. By analyzing millions of pieces of content across different industries, the system learns how people behave. This enables the site to determine whether certain topics are popular amongst its audience. For instance, it's likely that people interested in fashion will engage with articles surrounding this topic much more frequently than those focused on software development.
There are plenty of ways to boost your visibility on the site. Here are a few tips:
- Use hashtags wisely. Try to avoid cluttering up your posts with excessive keywords. Instead, focus on creating engaging titles and descriptions. Once again, pay attention to what your target audience wants to read.
- Keep your profile updated regularly. People love seeing fresh updates - especially if they show that you've taken action after receiving feedback. Remember that your CV/Resume plays a key role in getting noticed.
- Add videos whenever possible. Videos are often shared quickly, meaning that you'll gain lots of exposure very quickly. Just ensure that you follow best practices when filming.
- Join events related to your industry. Not only will you meet fellow experts, you'll also have the opportunity to speak with prospective employers. Take advantage of the chance to showcase yourself, but remain patient. Your first attempts might not result in anything worthwhile.
Overall, LinkedIn remains one of the biggest players in the field. With no sign of slowing down anytime soon, it's vital that you start taking steps towards building a strong presence on the website. Do this by keeping your profile current, uploading quality pictures, writing compelling blog posts and connecting with other professionals. Only once you achieve success on the platform should you consider purchasing subscriptions. Until then, enjoy being part of the conversation.
Have you tried LinkedIn yet? How did you fare? Did you manage to land a job? Or maybe you're already working in IT? Leave us a comment below to let us know!
I've been out of work since December 2021 and have started using LinkedIn again after spending most of my life not paying attention to social media at all (aside from Facebook). But now that I've got back into it, I find myself wondering whether or not it's still useful as an online networking tool.
After being told by several people who are currently employed that they use LinkedIn daily, I was curious about just how much of an impact it has made on their lives during these uncertain times. So I took to Reddit to ask them why they think LinkedIn is still relevant. Here's some of what I heard back!
The short answer here is that you can continue to access your account with no problems whatsoever, provided you're willing to live with a few limitations. The main one being that you won't be able to upload any new images, videos, documents, etc., which means there will also be little chance of seeing any updates from anyone else using LinkedIn unless they choose to send you a message. You'll also lose access to certain features like the ability to schedule meetings and search through people's profiles, though this last point isn't really something to worry too much about because you can always go back and look up contacts manually.
In other words, the only thing that could potentially stop someone from continuing to use LinkedIn would be a lack of interest, which seems unlikely given that everyone I spoke to said they were actively trying to get jobs right now. If you want to make sure everything works fine for yourself, however, you should probably sign up for the paid version of the service.
It depends on whom you speak to, obviously, but the consensus across the board seemed to be yes. "LinkedIn Premium is essential," wrote one user. "You need to see who is hiring." Another agreed wholeheartedly. "If you’re applying for positions, it helps. It gives you more visibility than simply going onto Monster/Indeed/etc.," while yet another pointed out that "it’s crucial to show employers that you know exactly what you’re doing when it comes to building professional relationships."
"Having worked in HR before, I definitely found LinkedIn helpful when searching for new employees," added one commenter, adding that it helped her land her current position. "And having gone through recruiters, I can say that LinkedIn is great for finding those candidates!"
Another person echoed that sentiment, saying, "I was unemployed until recently so I had never even considered using LinkedIn. But once I did start applying for jobs, I realized that it was very important, especially considering the pandemic. As long as you check regularly to stay informed, it does help you stand out among others who might be applying for the same position. And the fact that you can save searches makes it easier to keep track of potential opportunities."
Still, there are plenty of users who disagree, claiming that LinkedIn is less important now than ever due to its poor functionality compared to competitors such as Twitter and Google+. One poster claimed that, "if you aren’t already on LinkedIn then you shouldn’t bother joining," explaining that he felt it served little purpose aside from basic connection-making.
There are certainly valid points to be made here -- namely that LinkedIn is becoming increasingly irrelevant thanks to better alternatives such as Twitter and Google+ -- but ultimately, it boils down to personal preference. Some people love LinkedIn, while others hate it. For me personally, I think it's somewhere between useless and annoying, but I'd rather take that risk than not try to improve my chances of getting hired.
Yes, you absolutely can. All you need to do is log into your LinkedIn profile and click Edit Profile & Settings under Personal Information. Then scroll down past the section titled What Do People See When They Look At Your Profile and click Change settings. From here, select Basic then Turn off Showing Up In Searches, followed by Save Changes. You can turn this feature back on whenever you feel comfortable enough with your connections.
As mentioned above, you can set up a free LinkedIn account if you wish to avoid signing up overpaying for a premium subscription. However, many people recommend setting up an email address specifically designed for LinkedIn instead of using your regular Gmail account, as this will allow you to create separate accounts within the platform. This way, you can easily switch between both accounts and LinkedIn doesn't interfere with anything you may have built up elsewhere.
Once you've done that, creating posts is easy. To add a photo to your profile header, simply double tap on the image itself and pick Upload Image. Next, navigate to where you saved the file and hit Choose File. Once uploaded, you can crop it to fit whatever size you prefer, and adjust the brightness, contrast, and color balance accordingly using the sliders below each preview screen. Finally, head back to the top menu bar and hit Post. After hitting Publish, you can either wait for approval or leave the status blank if you're not worried about privacy issues.
Alternatively, you can skip the uploading step altogether by clicking Create A New Headline. On the next page, enter your headline, write your description, add links to your website(s), and fill in your location details. Click Go ahead and complete your profile.
For a full guide to posting on LinkedIn, including tips on how to properly format your resume, read our comprehensive article on how to use LinkedIn effectively.
LinkedIn is not dead
It seems like every day there are new articles about how "social networks" such as Instagram, Twitter, Reddit, Tiktok, etc. are dying.
If you read any of these articles, they'll always include some kind of statistic related to users who quit them in favor of other networks. For example, according to Statista, Snapchat has seen its user base decrease by over 10 million people this year alone. It doesn't take long to see why those numbers aren't surprising - if your company isn't actively promoting a particular network, then naturally you're going to lose more customers than before when people decide to cut ties with their social media profiles.
While many may believe that social media sites will eventually die off, we know better. People use social media because they want to be close to others around the world, which means that even though certain platforms might decline in popularity, others will grow.
For instance, look at what happened to MySpace in 2009-2010. That was right after Facebook had become extremely popular. However, while Myspace declined in terms of overall usage, it grew tremendously among teenagers and young adults. If anything, social media sites have grown exponentially throughout the years thanks to an influx of new users.
The same thing can happen to LinkedIn. While it may seem like it's losing ground compared to competitors, it definitely won't disappear anytime soon unless something drastic happens.
I've been living abroad since December 2019 due to the war in Ukraine (and Brexit). It's hard being away from family and friends, especially my daughter who's only 5 years old. So when she asked me if we could Skype every day, I said "yes". And that was exactly what we did until last week, when I got an email saying that her school had closed indefinitely because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
So now, instead of going back home to see them, I have to find some way to stay connected with my loved ones while staying safe during this time. Thankfully there are plenty of ways to do that online. One of which is through social media platforms like Facebook or Twitter. But then again, those two aren't really great options for long-distance relationships. If you want something more serious, maybe LinkedIn can be your solution.
But before getting into details about LinkedIn, let's first take a look at what makes this platform so special compared to other popular networking sites out there, such as Instagram or even YouTube. In fact, one might argue that these three services are pretty similar when you think about it. All of them allow users to post videos, photos, text posts, links, etc., all within their own communities. However, the biggest differences between these networks lie in the following areas:
LinkedIn has hundreds of millions members around the world, whereas both Instagram and YouTube boast tens of billions of active users.
Facebook and Google dominate the entire internet search engine industry, whereas LinkedIn doesn't even rank among top 10 most visited websites globally.
While everyone knows Facebook and YouTube, few people actually know that LinkedIn exists. That's why you should consider joining this service if you're trying to build up your professional network.
In addition to its massive user base, LinkedIn also offers several features that make it stand out from other social media giants. Let's go over each of them below.
First off, LinkedIn has five different plans available for purchase. They range from free to $99/month depending on how many connections you want to receive per month. The free version allows you to create profiles and send messages to anyone, whereas the paid versions offer additional features such as advanced messaging, increased storage space, etc..
However, the main benefit of paying for LinkedIn comes from its ability to help you land high-paying jobs. Since LinkedIn is considered by employers to be a better alternative than traditional resume databases, they often prefer hiring candidates whose accounts were created using a paid account. This means that by having a LinkedIn profile, you'll get more opportunities to apply for new positions.
The best part about LinkedIn is that once you pay for the service, it works across any device. You don't need to download anything - just log in whenever you want and start building your professional network!
Now that you know what the difference between a regular LinkedIn subscription and its premium counterpart is, here are some tips on how you can maximize the benefits of this site:
Use LinkedIn Groups to connect with others in your field. For example, if you work in marketing, join groups related to that specific topic to learn from experts in the same area.
Create targeted content based on keywords associated with your company, product, or niche. Once you publish your article on LinkedIn, you will start receiving traffic from other professionals in your field.
Add multiple pictures and upload as many files as possible in order to showcase yourself as a knowledgeable expert in your field. Don't forget to add captions describing each image too.
Be proactive in reaching out to potential clients via emails or phone calls. Even though you might not always hear back immediately, keep sending follow ups anyway. Eventually, someone might answer your call.
Don't hesitate to ask questions to fellow professionals. By doing so, you demonstrate your interest in learning more about their experience, expertise, or knowledge in general.
Once you finish reading this article, sign up for the free trial right now. Then, after testing it out for 30 days, decide whether you'd like to subscribe to a monthly plan or not.
As mentioned above, there are various types of subscriptions available on LinkedIn ranging from free to $99/month. Here is a quick overview of pricing for each package:
Basic Plan: Free
Premium Plan: $39 / month
Business Premium Plan: $79/month
Executive Business Premium Plan: $199/month
Professional Premium Plan: $299/month
These prices may seem cheap considering that you're basically giving access to your personal information to companies such as Microsoft, Apple, Amazon, Intel, IBM, Cisco, PayPal, Oracle, Adobe, eBay, Bank of America, Deloitte, Visa, MasterCard, United Airlines, Disney, Starbucks, Marriott International, Hilton Worldwide, Expedia, Ticketmaster, American Express, CitiBank, Wells Fargo, UPS, Delta Air Lines, FedEx, Verizon Wireless, United Parcel Service, AT&T, Time Warner Cable, Comcast, Charter Communications, Cox Communications, DirecTV, Dish Network, Liberty Global, T-Mobile USA, Sprint Corporation, Vodafone Group Plc, British Airways, Virgin Atlantic, Royal Caribbean Cruise Line, Carnival Cruises, Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd., Costa Crociere SpA, Carnival Corp, Norwegian Cruise Line, NCLH LLC, HNA Group, Aviva Investors Limited, BNP Paribas SA, UBS AG, General Motors, Ford Motor Company, Toyota Motor Corporation, Volkswagen group of Germany, BMW Group, Mercedes Benz, Porsche, Renault Nissan, Audi, Volvo Cars, Daimler Trucks North America, Mitsubishi Fusos, Honda, Hyundai, Kia, Daewoo Auto, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, Tata Motors, Mahindra & Mahindra, Samsung Electronics Co., LG Electronics Inc., Lenovo, Acer Inc., Asus Computer Inc., Toshiba Corporation, Dell Technologies, HP Inc., Intel Corporation, Nintendo, Sony Corporation, Panasonic, Sharp Corporation, Hitachi, Fujitsu, Sanyo Electric, NEC, Toshiba-Siemens, Hitachi Data Systems, JVC Kenwood Digital Audio Products, Canon, Nikon, Olympus, FujiFilm, Sigma, Kodak, Leica Camera AG, Polaroid, Xerox, Brother Industries Ltd., Ricoh, Epson, Lexmark, Xerox, Hewlett Packard, Philips, Siemens, Fujifilm Holdings, Agfa Gevaert NV, Konica Minolta, Kyocera, XEROX, Eastman Kodak, Xerox, Nikon, Pirelli Tyres, Nestlé, Kellogg’s, Procter & Gamble, Unilever, GlaxoSmithKline, Johnson & Johnson, Kimberly Clark, Abbott Laboratories, Pfizer, Merck & Co., Novartis, Eli Lilly, Bayer, Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals, Roche Holding AG, Bristol Myers Squibb, AstraZeneca, Sanofi Aventis, Servier, Daiichi Sankyo, GlaxoSmithKline, Novartis, Eli Lilly, Amgen, Wyeth, Genentech, Biogen Idec, Teva Pharmaceuticals, Abbot, Baxter Healthcare, Shionogi, Sandoz, UCB Pharma, Celgene, Valeant, GSK, Eli Lilly, Pfizer, Novo Nordisk, Sanofi, Johnson & Johnson, Regeneron, Medivation, Mylan, Valeant, Sanofi, Pfizer, Abbott, Gilead Sciences, Novartis, Lilly, Astellas, Astra Zeneca, Boston Scientific, Stryker, Eli Lilly, Pfizer, Amgen, Novartis, Lilly, Sanofi, Genzyme, AbbVie, Gilead Sciences, Pfizer, Novartis, Lilly, Genentech, Amgen, Eli Lilly, Pfizer, Novartis, Lilly, Sanofi, Gilead Sciences, Abbvie, Amgen, Pfizer, Eli Lilly, Novartis, Lilly, Sanofi, Gilead Sciences, Abbvie, Amgen, Pfizer, Eli Lilly, Novartis, Lilly, Sanofi, Gilead Sciences, Abbvie, Amgen, Pfizer, Eli Lilly, Novartis, Lilly, Sanofi, Gilead Sciences, Abbvie, Amgen, Pfizer, Eli Lilly, Novartis, Lilly, Sanofi, Gilead Sciences, Abbvie, Amgen, Pfizer, Eli Lilly, Novartis, Lilly, Sanofi, Gilead Sciences, Abbvie
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