Everyone seems to have it on their phone and I see people scrolling through their feed all the time.
Like me, you have a LinkedIn profile. It’s sort of up-to-date but we’re not avid posters or provide regular engagement on posts.
How has LinkedIn stayed relevant over the years? And how has it changed the game? Let’s discuss LinkedIn’s impact on job hunting, resume writing and more.
1. Replacing Resumes
Recently I shared my resume with management at my workplace. After five minutes of internal panicking, wondering where my resume-2016-v2.docx is. I remembered I have LinkedIn. Why couldn’t I share my LinkedIn profile? It has my work history, education, projects and recent activity all in one convenient URL.
Documents are never going away, but 99.9% of what is on that resume is my LinkedIn profile, it’s the same. Which begs the question- why not completely replace resumes with LinkedIn?
LinkedIn promotes career capital, a long-term mindset showing what you know how to do and who you know. Recruiters seeking anti-fragile employees will find them as active LinkedIn users.
It’s a dynamic stage for people displaying effort in their chosen area, more appealing than a text doc if you ask me. The traditional route of typing a resume will always remain. But AI tools like Rezi leveraging LinkedIn profiles is a step in the right direction.
2. Digital Marketing Alternative
If you’re like me, you dabble in digital marketing quite a bit. That means tools for email marketing, blogging, posting, scheduling events and advertising.
Writing is a massive part of life, in and out of business. You can write articles within LinkedIn, ditch Medium and WordPress if you so desire. Turn that article into a newsletter, that’s a MailChimp alternative my friend.
LinkedIn is a social platform, so publishing articles also acts as sharing them. I’d argue from watching LinkedIn’s algorithm, it can act as evergreen content too. By default, feeds are set to order content showing engagement, that’s why you see post’s from 5-7 days ago.
Webinar’s are everywhere and LinkedIn offers online or offline events scheduling PLUS broadcasting. Ditch Eventbrite and Facebook live for one platform.
Pair your articles and events with a Pay Per Click (PPC) campaign. You’ve got yourself a complete lead generating machine.
3. Job Hunting + Up Skilling Solution
We’ve all been between jobs which can be a scary place sometimes. Facing rejection can be an uncomfortable mountain to climb while job hunting. LinkedIn may not be able to suppress our internal fears but it helps with the job hunt.
With more than 20 million open jobs, LinkedIn is a good Job Seeker alternative. Recruiters are on there, logically, they’re going to look at your profile.
Again, LinkedIn can replace the traditional resume as a career capital alternative. If you haven’t already, go update your profile!
To assist you with your job hunt, you’ll need to upskill and learn some new stuff. LinkedIn acquired Lynda.com in 2015 for $1.5 billion. Tanya Staples the VP of Learning Content at LinkedIn says “we publish about 60 new courses a week, bringing the total portfolio to over 13,000… courses.”
Even though LinkedIn Learning is not LinkedIn, it’s a subscription-based learning platform. You can access a large part of material from Lynda.com. For me, as a member of the Queensland State Library, I get access via their proxy Lynda site. Do a bit of research as there might be something similar for your local area.
4. The “Uncool” Social Media
It’s fair to say LinkedIn isn’t “cool” like TikTok or Snapchat, it appeals to a different audience. Without stating the obvious too much it’s designed for professionals by professionals.
LinkedIn has the unique ability to attract a wider demographic to its platform. You won’t find a lot of professional veterans on Insty, but a lot of the time they’ll have a LinkedIn profile.
This does not mean LinkedIn isn’t updating with the latest social media features. They released LinkedIn Stories, a direct response to Snapchat, Instagram, YouTube and TikTok.
There’s a balance here of keeping current users happy while attracting younger members. LinkedIn’s in between the “cool” platforms as a more refined, elegant selection for professionals.
5. Deeper Organisational Integration
While reading a post on Sharepoint from a colleague, I noticed I could link LinkedIn to Office 365. “How exciting!” I thought. I don’t see outside integrations like this often, so it’s a refreshing moment for me.
As Microsoft owns LinkedIn, this integration is a logical one. But it shows the larger scope of it for LinkedIn. Internal recruitment can access profiles and share articles from LinkedIn to SharePoint.
Now there’s no need to search via LinkedIn and hope it’s the right Allen H. who I have a meeting with next Friday. Make your meetings more effective and personal by seeing their profile.
You can find my blog on my website mrash.co. I post about design, entrepreneurism and technology. Also, I have a newsletter for my friends to stay connected and support one another.
If you’d like to learn more about me, please visit my about page or my LinkedIn profile. That reminds me, I should update my profile more often.
