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A Beginner’s Guide To LinkedIn: 5 Steps To Get You Started

LinkedIn

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Not got a single clue about how to get started on LinkedIn as a beginner? It’s okay, you can stop crying and rocking in the corner. This beginner’s guide is here to help you kick things off without getting overwhelmed. 

When used correctly, LinkedIn is a place of endless opportunities, all of which begin when you create your profile. Let’s get started…

Complete Your Profile Basics

When starting out, you need some basics in place on your profile. This includes a profile picture, cover photo, headline, about section, skills and experience. It’s important to have all of these ready to go before you do anything else. After all, there’s no point directing people to your profile if there’s nothing to see on there. 

Did you know that profiles with a professional looking headshot are 36x more likely to receive a message? This means it’s important, so for your profile picture, make sure it’s a headshot where you’re smiling and in natural light with a simple background. 

Create a cover photo on Canva to include some info about you, or use an image from a website like Unsplash. Use industry keywords in your headline. Show some personality in your about section. Include industry specific skills in your skills section. Finally, add all your experience and write them up using SAR sentences. Boom, profile sorted.

Follow People You Actually Care About

If one thing’s going to ruin your LinkedIn experience as a beginner or when you’re starting to use LinkedIn for the first time, it’s following and connecting with bad people. People who you find boring, people who aren’t relevant to you or people who constantly boast about stuff all day should be avoided. LinkedIn is just like every other social media platform, you don’t have to follow people who make you feel bad! 

LinkedIn’s search feature has loads of filters you can use to find people who post about stuff you’re interested in, so start here.

Personalise Your Connection Requests

If you want to make sure someone accepts your connection request, add a message to it. You can find some examples of what to write in our article, how to write the perfect LinkedIn connection request.

Don’t Accept Irrelevant People

One of the biggest mistakes people make when getting started on LinkedIn is accepting literally everyone who sends them a connection request. Though it’s unlikely you’ll max out your connections (the limit is around 30,000), the more irrelevant people you’re connected with, the more irrelevant your LinkedIn feed will be. 

Stick to accepting people who you find interesting, relevant or in a similar industry to you. Give their profile a stalk before you accept.

Create A LinkedIn Beginner Engagement Plan

The most important thing to do after completing these initial steps is to stay active. Don’t ghost! If you’re feeling overwhelmed, start small. Comment on 3 posts a day, or spend 15 mins every other day sending out connection requests to relevant people. Little and often is better than spending 5 hours on LinkedIn once every 6 months. 

Looking for someone to chat to about your posting strategy? Book a 1-1 LinkedIn strategy session with a member of The Grad Soc team today.

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