LinkedIn, the world’s largest professional network with more than 100 million members globally, has surpassed two million members in Australia.
LinkedIn set up its direct presence by establishing an office in Sydney in January 2010 and has recently opened an additional office in Melbourne. The company has also grown its local team to 20 staff working across sales, marketing and recruitment solutions.
“Given that we focus solely on the professional audience, this is a significant milestone for us,” said Cliff Rosenberg, Managing Director for LinkedIn in Australia and New Zealand. “Our growth has been driven by Australian professionals using LinkedIn to network, build their online brand, gain insights from the community and find new career or business opportunities.”
Rosenberg also urges small businesses to join the network saying LinkedIn is an ideal tool, with new functionalities like ‘customer recommendations’ adding to the list of benefits.
“First and foremost it enables businesses to leverage their brand and get it out to market. It gives them the opportunity to broaden and establish their business network while also providing the opportunity to leverage their network to further the success of the business.”
The LinkedIn team also recently launched ‘LinkedIn Today,’ a news resource that’s customised, based on your network.
“For small businesses, this is a very useful tool because it’s all in once place.”
Rosenberg’s 5 tips to LinkedIn success for small business
Talent acquisition
Rosenberg explains that the network is a great recruitment tool. “There’s a need to surround yourself with the best possible talent in the market. In a recruitment capacity we look at active VS passive. Most businesses default to listing jobs on job seeker websites. LinkedIn opens you to a talent pool of professionals in the market who aren’t looking for jobs, but are open to a discussion.”
News
LinkedIn also assists small businesses with gathering professional marketing intelligence, news, and allows owners to see what competitors might be doing. You can also receive updates from suppliers and partners. LinkedIn Today provides customised news based on your network.
Personal profile
To build a successful personal profile, don’t use too many jargon words and use practical examples to demonstrate your experience. Also aim to have as many recommendations as possible. Make sure you have a professional looking photo of yourself as this adds to personal credibility. It’s also very important to have a complete profile. The more complete your profile, the more chance you have of appearing first in search results.
Company page success
The Company page allows any small business owner or large enterprise to very quickly build a profile and list their services and products.
Customer recommendations
There’s also the capacity to have customers write recommendations, which is of exceptional value as the recommendations are linked to personal profiles making it a credible resource VS an anonymous style review.
