Abhyank Srinet is back with another inspiring guest blog highlighting an eye-opening set of new LinkedIn features you’ll find indispensable.
– Coach Wolfgang

Are you someone who checks LinkedIn only to look up for employer’s email ID, or a connection request?

If yes, then you are missing out on great LinkedIn features that can help you grow professionally.

Benefits of using LinkedIn go beyond prospecting and recruiting. Its an incredible marketing tool for both employers and employees, and even for job seekers. As it turns out that it could get a little intimidating to some, we have tested the waters and have figured out how to make the most of all the LinkedIn new features available.

1. USE LINKEDIN APP’s “SMART NOTIFICATIONS”

Along with providing users with a summary of the day’s top news, you can also receive a weekly notification of how many people found you from a LinkedIn search. In addition, you can find out the top companies your searchers work at. This can help you understand how you’re being discovered so you can optimize your LinkedIn profile for the opportunities you want to be found for.

There are additional linkedin features such as calendar sync, which helps with scheduling a meeting with someone. You can view their updates such as the projects they are working on, or a new job they might have grabbed. These can truly help you prepare you for the conversations on the right path.

2. LINKEDIN FEATURES: SALARY CALCULATOR

In 2016, a LinkedIn new feature launched called salary calculator. It uses anonymity to support this feature which lets users submit and view salary information across fields. It displays a base salary range for a particular role as well as insights into equity and bonuses. The tool can be adjusted to reflect a professional’s experience, skills, education level, company size, industry, and location. The ultimate goal of the tool is to help professionals optimize their earnings by suggesting steps they can take, skills they can build or changes they should consider to earn more or boost their long-term potential.

It’s necessary to keep in mind that not all data is reliable. As this data is dependent on the information given by the users, it could give a wrong picture even if a handful submit inaccurate salaries.

3. SHOW SOCIAL VALIDATION

Social validation helps convince people how good your work is, not only for businesses, but also for individuals. Like Facebook and twitter, your shares and the likes you receive do count.

It may so happen that since you are new to LinkedIn, you may not have many likes or comments to showcase. In that case, you could ask your friends or family members, who found your work to be worthy, to write a detailed recommendation. The testimonial can include why they find your work worthy. Sometimes, a well-written testimonial can help you gain more trust than the number of retweets.

4. LINKEDIN FEATURES: BOOLEAN SEARCH

With over than 500 million profiles, 2 million jobs, 9 million companies, more than 3 million active job postings and more, LinkedIn can still help you find exactly what you are looking for.

How is that possible?

By implementing the power of Boolean search Linkedin feature. Here is how you can use it:

• [Term] AND [Term] – Will produce results containing both parameters.
  e.g. Sales AND Marketing will only show profiles containing both Sales as well as marketing keywords.
• [Term] OR [Term] – Will produce results containing at least one of the parameters.
  e.g. Sales AND Marketing will show profiles containing either sales, marketing or both.
• NOT [Term] – Will produce results excluding the said parameter.
  e.g. programmer NOT manager will only show profiles of programmers and will exclude those that contain managerial experience.
• “Term” – Will produce results containing the exact phrase.
  e.g. “product manager” will show profiles of Product Managers. It’s especially effective when looking for someone in a niche category.
• Parenthetical searches – To do a complex search, you can combine terms using parentheses.
  e.g. to find people who have “VP” in their profiles, but you want to exclude “assistant to VP” or SVPs, type VP NOT(assistant OR SVP).

5. EMPLOYER PAGES

It is extremely important to gain a fair idea of the company you might be applying for.

What kind of work would you get? How is the work-life balance? What are the basic statistics and data? For all of this, the employer page is a one-stop-shop!

On the page, there are 3 main tabs – 1) Overview for the basic info about the company, 2) Job openings, and 3) Work culture of the company. In addition, you may also find some graphs about the kind of employees present in the company, and statistics about their qualification.

6. BE A PART OF THE RIGHT LINKEDIN GROUPS

The LinkedIn feature, Groups, allows you to create or participate in dedicated discussion forums on moderated business-focused topics. Groups can give you direct communication to members, you may not even know who could be your potential employer – all for free.

This can also be used to gain influence quickly and as a platform to get feedback. Posts which engage in groups, require time, interest and experience to do well. Hence it’s very important to be a part of the right group and post information that other members find valuable.

7. USE LINKEDIN ALUMNI

This is one of the most underused LinkedIn features!

You can check out your fellow alumni who are currently in your career, track their career trajectory to see what they do professionally and how they got there. This is a highly effective way to get insight into your future career goals and an easy way to target your job search.

Here’s how it works:

Scroll to “My Network” tab and select “Find Alumni.” Then click on field and locations, and narrow it down as much as you can. Then… follow their footsteps.

8. MENTOR MATCH

This is a free service provided by LinkedIn.

This LinkedIn new feature will match users looking for mentorship with potential mentors. Mentors and mentees can select parameters for matching: Within their network, within their work area, from their Alma Mater, etc. Once that’s done, a match occurs and then they can send messages to each other. LinkedIn also gives you liberty to end the relationship at any time by either side.

Though this is still under testing, it’s a great way to seek guidance from an experienced individual. Another great feature is that it’s free.

Facebook, Twitter, Instagram are changing every day and LinkedIn is at the forefront of all channels in adding new features and engagement tools to improve content sharing, relationship development, and recruitment.

By mastering the above 8 features, you can level up your presence and strength your personal brand to achieve your career goals. Looking for more tips? Check out the Top 33 Linkedin Profile Tips for Job Seekers In 2017.

Author bio:
Abhyank Srinet holds a Masters in Management degree from ESCP Europe & has an engineering degree with a specialization in Instrumentation & Control. His interest in the digital landscape motivated him to create an online start up for Masters in Management application consulting (MiM-Essay.com), focused on spreading quality information about the MiM degree & performing application consulting services for clients. He is the chief consultant of the company and takes care of the Business Development and Digital Marketing side of the company. He is very passionate about writing and marketing.