Osa sisällöstämme on saatavilla myös englanniksi. Tämä artikkeli on julkaistu suomeksi täällä.
As with every social media channel, even LinkedIn has its own (unwritten) rules and you might be breaking them without even realizing it. So what can you do, what should you do and what should you avoid? We have gathered some of the most important things that you should consider when using LinkedIn. Whether you’re a new or a longtime user, these rules will help you get the most out of LinkedIn!
1. Contact requests
DO send a contact request right away
LinkedIn and Facebook do not have the same rules. While it would be weird to send a friend request on Facebook to someone you barely know and just met, on LinkedIn the best strategy is to send a contact request as soon as possible. The longer you wait after meeting someone, the more unlikely it is that they will remember you. So don’t be shy and send a contact request right away.
Use personal messages and avoid the default ”I’d like to connect with you on LinkedIn”. It doesn’t sound as good as ”Hi! Great ideas at the innovation seminar today!” With a little extra effort you can make the receiver feel special and strengthen the bond between you two.
DON’T send requests more than twice
If someone doesn’t respond to your contact request, don’t send it again. Resending it doesn’t make it any faster or more likely for the person to accept your request – on the contrary, it can be annoying. LinkedIn sends automatic reminders about contact requests that haven’t been responded to – so you don’t need to do it yourself.
2. Recruiting and looking for a job
DO use LinkedIn to network with professionals within your field
Would you like to approach someone working in an interesting company? Do you know they’re really busy? LinkedIn is a great channel for approaching people in a professional sense – you can send a contact request and a message to someone you find interesting. Let them know you value the work they do and would like to get tips on how to start working with the same kinds of tasks yourself. It might be that they never reply, but the best-case scenario is that your message will prompt an interesting discussion and you might get valuable insights from an expert!
DO network with people working at your dream company
Do you know what your dream job is but don’t know anyone working there? Don’t worry – LinkedIn will help you make the connection between the employees and your friends. Do a search with the company name and look for the company’s employees and LinkedIn will let you know how many friends away you are from your future colleague! Networking is important as you will be more likely to be noticed during your job search if you know someone inside the company.
3. Publishing and activity
DON’T publish too much or too little
Try to find a happy medium of publishing stories on LinkedIn. Heavy users who publish several articles a day might be annoying. At the same time too little activity is not good either. Ideally you should publish something a few times a week, but not more than once per day. This won’t leave you as a wallflower while at the same time it won’t annoy anyone either.
DO congratulate on a new job (the right way)
If you want to network the proper way, remember to congratulate your contacts on for example new positions. The easiest thing would be to just press ”like” or write a quick ”congratulations”, but if you really want to make an effort and make yourself look good to others, put some thought into your congratulations. Your effort may be small, but the impact is big.
4. Give endorsements
DO give endorsements when you can
People can list their skills on LinkedIn and others can endorse them if they think the person really has the skills. You should endorse your contacts’ skills as soon as you have witnessed a specific skill. For example, if you colleague or study friend gives an exceptionally good presentation for a large crowd, you can endorse their Public Speaking, Presentation or PowerPoint skills. A general rule is to endorse skills that you know the person really has. Otherwise the system will lose its significance.
DON’T be afraid to ask for endorsements
If you need endorsements on your LinkedIn profile, ask your contacts for them by sending them a personal message. If your contacts know that you for example have great social media skills, at least a few of them will surely be happy to give you endorsements.
5. Recommendations
DO be generous with your recommendations
Be generous with the amount of recommendations you give – but always stick to the truth. If you receive too many requests for recommendations, you can always ask people to write a list of their skills and qualities. This will save you some time and won’t force you to say no to writing a recommendation.
DO ask for recommendations with customized messages and remember to thank you
When you want recommendations from someone else, be careful when formulating your message. The likelihood of someone writing you a recommendation is higher if you invest in the content and are specific. When you get recommendations, remember to thank the person with a private thank-you message or by writing them a recommendation in return. If you prefer to go old school, drop a hand-written thank-you note on your colleague’s desk – what a great way to be remembered by! Also remember that a bad recommendation will not look good on your profile – hide bad recommendations and ask old ones to be updated.
Suomeksi: 10 LinkedIn-sääntöä, jotka jokaisen kannattaa muistaa