Suitable for:
All types of organisations.
What is it?
LinkedIn is one of the biggest business networking platforms. It has over 52 million active users worldwide, half of them in the United States and about 11 million members in Europe. The platform offers to make contacts and helps professionals to maintain a list of connections.
Benefits
- It’s a great tool to maintain professional contacts and promote your organisation.
Limitations
- Not all of the LinkedIn services and applications are free of charge.
How could it be used?
- The basic functions of LinkedIn are:
- Maintaining list of contact details and connections (direct connections, second- and third- degree connections).
- Searching for jobs, people and business opportunities.
- Sharing knowledge and collect advices.
- Collecting information and data.
- Socialising.
- Promotion through participation in LinkedIn discussion groups.
Creating a presence on LinkedIn
- Create a company page – the company page created by the American Red Cross has attracted thousands of followers. Remember about your corporate identity: use your logo in place of a picture.
- Create groups. They are a beneficial networking tool and a great way to expand your network. Remember to only join groups that are related to your organisation, the rest are usually only a distraction.
Build your network of connections
- Seek meaningful recommendations: a great feature of LinkedIn is the ability to provide recommendations. This is a place for your connections to comment about your work. You may ask people to comment on your activity e.g. your campaign partners.
- Encourage your staff to create 100% complete profiles – The more complete staff members profiles there are, the more likely your organisation is to attract and connect with all your critical audiences.
- For OSH purposes you can use it as a tool to connect with your stakeholders and professional partners.