How to Use LinkedIn for Both Personal and Professional Use

LinkedIn for business and personal useLinkedIn is a powerful social network designed for the professional world. Chances are, you’re probably one of the 107 million LinkedIn users in the US alone. The company continues adding features and creating ways for business professionals to connect with each other. Much like Facebook, LinkedIn offers the opportunity to have both a personal page and a business page. Each offers different competitive advantages, and learning how to use LinkedIn strategically for each purpose will boost your returns in using the platform:

3 Tips on using LinkedIn for personal use

  1. Use your profile as a resume. Fill out your LinkedIn sections with keyword-rich descriptions so you can be found by the right people. This is your place to show what your experience is and your level of expertise.
  2. Connect with people via groups. Join groups relevant to your expertise, experience, and industry. By being part of a group with someone, you can bypass the “1st Degree” rule on messaging them. 5-10 groups is a good number to be part of. Groups are an excellent place to learn from other thought leaders, and also position yourself as an influencer in your field.
  3. Utilize the search feature to find strategic people to connect with. LinkedIn has a powerful advanced search engine. It gives you the ability to find overlaps in your connections with influencers you want to connect with and businesses you want to associate with.

3 Tips for your company page for professional use

  1. Maximize your company page for leads by sharing links to your blog articles in page posts. Play around with the targeting tools LinkedIn provides for these posts, and be wary of over-posting or being too focused on self-promoting hard-sales tactics. Instead, post 5-7 times a week about what’s going on in your company.
  2. Use LinkedIn’s Pulse as a way to establish your company as an expert in its field and be a resource. This is a great opportunity to publish select content on Pulse, and include a call-to-action for readers to subscribe to your full blog.
  3. Hire new help by keeping the “Careers” section of your company page up-to-date. People are using LinkedIn more and more to help them find the job of their dreams. Using this platform to search for future employees will widen the pool of talent considerably.

3 important distinctions in how you should treat them

  1. Use your personal page to connect with people, and your company page to provide resources.
  2. Your personal page should be about you specifically, answering what your individual talents and skills. Your company page is the place to talk about the products and services your business offers.
  3. An area shared by both are the potential SEO benefits from setting up keyword-rich descriptions in every section of the profile. This is something you can’t spend too much time refining and continually revising and optimizing.

As a business professional, you should have a personal profile set up on LinkedIn. As a business owner, establishing a company page will ultimately be beneficial in adding authority to your brand. If you aren’t already active on the network, make it a goal for the last half of the year to continue working on your proficiency.

Additional Resources

About Sarah Gill

A talented writer and strategist, Sarah is passionate about connecting people with their unique creative voice so their message can find authentic and powerful expression.