5 reasons to bother becoming LinkedIn

This last week, I've been spending a lot of time with LinkedIn. I am due to present at a forthcoming leadership conference in Warwick on why having an updated profile is important for all employees and this has initially proved quite a challenge.

Personally, I've long been a believer in the power of LinkedIn - after all that is how my current company found me for my most recent role! However, I haven't always thought like this and when I first started using it about 7 years ago my opinion was that it was an online representation of what the world would be like if no-one had a personality (just a succession of listings of personal achievements!) 

This is where a number of people will be starting from so I thought the best way to approach this task would be looking at it from the point of view of a member of staff who has been with a company for 20+ years and had no intention of moving on to another job. Why would they benefit from updating their profile? Below are the key reasons which I came up with:

1. It clearly establishes who you are

Get authentically endorsed and recommended by clients and colleagues (STATISTIC: Profiles are 11x more likely to viewed if they include a photo)

2. It is an effective way of managing your address book

Cultivate your B2B relationships and follow up leads (STATISTIC: 4 Million businesses have a LinkedIn page)

3. Groups are a great way of networking online

Follow regional/sector specific groups to keep up to date with the latest trends and legislation (STATISTIC: Mashable is the LinkedIn group with the most engaged following)

4. Attract new clients

Research clients/stakeholders before you meet – they will be doing it to you! (STATISTIC: The average LinkedIn profile gets 11 views a day)

5. Find the best staff for your business

Save time and money by finding staff with authentic qualifications and experience (STATISTIC: 94% of recruiters use LinkedIn to vet candidates)

With this last point I feel that LinkedIn is definitely a great place to look for candidates. After all, if your current and past colleagues can view all of your employment history then you're a lot more inclined to make it truthful! LinkedIn have also put some major investment into both their connected and their job search apps of late to really try to position themselves as the place to go for new opportunities. I know that before undertaking any interviews or meeting new agency contacts it's the first place I turn.

Therefore, I feel that in order to network and keep up to date with other industry professionals it is essential that you have an updated LinkedIn profile. As part of our social media strategy we are regularly posting updates to our 38,687 followers who are an important audience with a real interest in what we do. This is proven by the level of engagement and also allows us to learn the best time to post content for particular demographics to inform our strategy.

My plan at the conference is that I follow up with a marketplace stall to do live health checks on delegates profiles. To save time I'm currently collating all of our staff images so I can add new profile pictures quickly and easily. This is because getting the initial buy-in is one thing but as soon as people return to their desks they'll get bogged down with their usual workload again. Doing the updates there and then will mean a quick and efficient fix. 

I do have one final trick to get people engaged after the event though and that is branded teabags! These are printed with a few quick tips on how to bring profiles up to date with the idea being the next time they make a tea is also the time for them to update their profile. By me monitoring when this happens I may even get some useful data on at what time employees like to have a brew to give to our internal communications team!