How to grow on LinkedIn?

Santhusha Janana Mudannayaka
7 min readJul 22, 2022

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LinkedIn

In my previous article, I discussed the topic “How to rank in Google”. If you didn’t read it yet, click here to know how to Rank yourself on Google.

In this article, I would like to tell you about How to grow on LinkedIn.

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.

Contents

  1. What is LinkedIn?
  2. Why is LinkedIn so important?
  3. Special Features
  4. How to grow on LinkedIn?
  5. LinkedIn Learning
  6. My story
  7. Extra tips
    - Sacred LinkedIn for Recruiters
    - Try Premium for free
    - Fun fact

1. What is LinkedIn?

LinkedIn is an American business and employment-oriented online service. Launched on May 5, 2003, the platform is primarily used for professional networking and career development and also allows job seekers to find jobs and employers to post jobs.

LinkedIn

2. Why is LinkedIn so important?

LinkedIn allows members (both workers and employers) to create profiles and connect with each other in an online social network that may represent real-world professional relationships. LinkedIn helps job seekers to easily and directly connect with companies and employers.

According to the stats, 77 job applications are submitted every second. There are 58 million companies on LinkedIn. Don’t you think, it’s worth having a LinkedIn profile?

LinkedIn importance

3. Special Features

LinkedIn has introduced so many valuable features to grow yourself. In this part, I’ll discuss some key features that are worth knowing as a newbie to LinkedIn.

User Profile

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  • Core

It starts with the basics. Here, you can add places you were educated, your position/job updates, Career breaks, and Skills. Filling out these sections will help you be discovered by recruiters and people you may know.

  • Recommended

These sections focus on more in-depth. So, Completing these sections will increase your credibility and give you access to more opportunities. Here, you can add a featured section to your profile, licenses you got, certifications & courses you completed, and recommendations you got.

  • Additional

These sections add even more personality to your profile. These sections will help you grow your network and build more relationships. Here, you can add your volunteering experience, publications you did, patents you got, projects you have completed or currently doing, honors or awards you got, your previous test scores, languages you speak, organizations you have worked for and causes you care about.

People Networks

On LinkedIn, you can connect with a person or follow a person. No limitations for followers. But, you can have connections up to 30,000.

  • Creator Mode
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If someone changed his/her profile Creator mode, the default button that appears on the profile will be “follow”. Unless it will be appeared as “connect”. Creator mode gives you new ways to reach your audience by enabling access to the available tools. Learn more about creator tool access.

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Frames

LinkedIn allows us to make more reveals to potential recruiters by allowing us to use Frames. There are 2 frames as OpenToWork and Hiring.

Random user from Google search
  • OpenToWork Frame is used by job seekers for showing their special skills
  • Hiring Frame is used by recruiters for showing their needs.

Generate a Resume

Using LinkedIn you can easily generate a Resume for yourself. It will be auto-generated by your profile inputs. So, using this feature you can create a Resume in no time.

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Profile video

You can upload a self-introduction video if you like. It will make more impact and value to your profile.

There are so many features and products that have been developed by LinkedIn. But here, I only discuss about growing on LinkedIn as a single person.

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4. How to grow on LinkedIn?

Connect with People or Follow People

LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional network with more than
830 million members in more than 200 countries and territories worldwide. So from LinkedIn, you can connect with more professionals all around the world.

You can connect or follow other people on LinkedIn, and even DM them.
Keeping up with LinkedIn. Although it’s focused on the professional side of life, LinkedIn is still a social network at its core. This is why it has multiple ways for you to communicate with others through messages, status updates, and groups.

You can view others' profiles. And the profile owner gets notified when someone views his/her profile. If you really want to not notice when you view someone's profile, you can also do that also.

Go to: Settings & Privacy — > Visibility — > Profile viewing options

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Tips when adding connections

  • Use your existing network. When you first create a LinkedIn profile, make sure to connect with the people you already know. Try syncing your email contacts and using LinkedIn’s search bar to find friends, classmates, and coworkers.
  • Ask for introductions. If you’re trying to connect with someone you’ve never met, you should look to see if you have any mutual connections. If so, you can ask your connections for an introduction. Be polite and explain why you are requesting the introduction, and give your connection an opportunity to decline the request.
  • Maintain your connection. After connecting with someone, remember to keep engaging with that person on LinkedIn. If they post status updates, leave thoughtful comments. If they ask for recommendations or endorsements, try to fulfill their request in a timely manner. This should strengthen your connection, which could lead to new opportunities.

Posting consistently & Engage with others’ posts

You personally will benefit from sharing 2–3x per week rather than posting randomly throughout the month. Take the time at the beginning of the week to plan out your content. Sharing, liking, and commenting on your connections’ content is also beneficial.

5. LinkedIn Learning

LinkedIn Learning

LinkedIn Learning is an online learning provider. It provides video courses taught by industry experts in software, creative, and business skills. It is a subsidiary of LinkedIn. All the courses on LinkedIn fall into four categories:

  1. Business
  2. Creative
  3. Technology
  4. Certifications.

LinkedIn Learning was founded in 1995 by Lynda Weinman as Lynda.com before being acquired by LinkedIn in 2015. Microsoft acquired LinkedIn in December 2016.

6. My story

I got to know about LinkedIn back in 2020 when I was 19 years old. I discovered LinkedIn as a social media for professionals. By consuming and using LinkedIn, I learned a lot of things about Career Development, Opportunities, and more valuable things.

Don’t forget to connect with me on LinkedIn 🙂
https://www.linkedin.com/in/santhusha-janana-mudannayaka/

You can generate a QR Code like this for yourself by using LinkedIn mobile App. And also using that you can scan others’ profiles QR codes.

7. Extra tips

Sacred LinkedIn for Recruiters

There is a special separate Paid LinkedIn version specially for Recruiters. It makes it easier for the recruiters to do their recruitment easily and more efficiently.

Try Premium for free

You can get a LinkedIn premium plan if you want to get ahead.

You can start your free 1-month trial today. Cancel anytime. LinkedIn will send you a reminder 7 days before your trial ends.

Fun fact

Recently, LinkedIn introduced Funny😄(HaHa) reaction to the platform by confirming that it’s ok to have fun at work.

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In my next article, I am going to discuss “How to optimize your LinkedIn profile?”

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Open to your responses. I hope to talk to you in my next article . . .
Welcome to my Blog : www.santhushajanana.cf

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Santhusha Janana Mudannayaka

Engineering Undergraduate at University of Moratuwa | Tech & Startup Enthusiast | Writer | Volunteer