LinkedIn Learning formerly known as Lynda.com is an instructional video library designed to train people about the latest business, creative skills, and useful technological aspects. It is a website that has facilities that offer you personalized course recommendations. It is made for people to learn from experts explained in systematic videos.
This app belonging to the job training industry was developed in the year 1995 by Lynda Weinman and Bruce Heavin. As the name suggests, the parent website of this website is LinkedIn, which is currently owned by Microsoft company.
LinkedIn Learning was first founded as Lynda.com in 1995 by Lynda Weinman. It was created as online support for her books and classes. She was a special effect animator and multimedia professor. Bruce Heavin, her husband, was an artist. Hence the duo created the website.
In 2002 they started developing a paid course. By 2004, they had over 100 courses to offer.
lynda.com was merged and renamed as LinkedIn learning in 2017
In the year 2013, Lynda.com received its first investment. It was $103 million in growth equity. This was from Accel Partners and Spectrum Equity, also there were additional contributions from Meritech Capital Partner.
On 9th April 2015, LinkedIn approached to buy Lynda.com which closed on May 14th, 2015 a deal valued at $1.5 billion.
In 2016, Lynda.com was being advertised its courses in Apple’s TV application.
However, in December 2016, Microsoft acquired the parent company of Lynda.com, LinkedIn. It was acquired for $26.2 billion.
Lynda.com was merged and renamed LinkedIn Learning in October 2017.
In 2019, the site enabled individuals to have a LinkedIn profile if they would want to access LinkedIn Learning. The decision was vehemently criticized. Hence in March 2021 patrons without any LinkedIn profile could use LinkedIn Learning.
In June 2021, the website, Lynda.com was officially shut down.
Content on LinkedIn Learning
LinkedIn learning courses categories
The LinkedIn courses are divided into three distinct categories. Business, creativity, and technology. These categories are further divided into subcategories. Under business comes divisions such as online marketing training, soft skills, finance and accounting, leadership, and many more.
Again creativity faction offers courses like music, photography, web designing, and many more. Technology offers courses like programming languages, application development, etcetera.
Other than individual courses, LinkedIn Learning, also provides courses to prepare for professional certification examinations like the Society of Human Resource Management certified professional. LinkedIn Learning has 34 certification courses. There are six continuing education programs.
Using them, one can be certified for project management and more such credit-earning aspects. It gives you detailed knowledge of Adobe tools, including Illustrator, Photoshop, and InDesign. The best part of this website is that based on your preferences it will design a recommendation of courses appropriate for you.
LinkedIn Learning offers a free trial for a month which can be canceled at any desired time.
But they have limited options for payment of its courses. One can sign up for a month paying 1610.2 INR. Individuals can also for an annual plan paying 101.7 INR a month.
There are also plans for teams or organizations to take up courses as groups. The pricing designs are personalized for them. Team or organizational prices are not disclosed. To discuss one must contact the website.
Who Is LinkedIn Learning For?
Anyone keen on learning can use LinkedIn Learning. However, it is the most useful for students who are looking for supplemental education, and also for people seeking jobs after graduation.
This can be useful for office goers as well in order to update themselves to the latest technologies and so. It can be helpful even to colleges, universities, and agencies! This can be mending centers for real-life libraries too.
Basically, LinkedIn Learning is a data-driven program designed with the best skill provision method. So that using it, learners achieve the efficiency they need to succeed.
More About LinkedIn Learning
Currently, LinkedIn enjoys more than 830 million members as its users with LinkedIn learning having more than 27 million users. This fact puts them among the top 10 websites of their kind! It also has 100 companies as its learners. They have updated themselves as LinkedIn Learning pro recently.
The above graph shows the LinkedIn user base for the year 2015-2022
Talking about the utility of this platform, it had no real drawback. Doing minor studies on any subject here is very useful. Also since there is a facility of a free month trial one can check how well the courses work for them. Hence all in all it is a good platform for learning.
LinkedIn is a popular platform for job-seeking people as well as for recruiters. LinkedIn is a vast platform enjoying a user base of more than 830 million members for the year 2022. Another great opportunity given by LinkedIn to its users is the LinkedIn learning platform. The above context shares some useful information about LinkedIn learning.
FAQ
How much do LinkedIn learning courses cost?
One can sign up for a month paying 1610.2 INR. Individuals can also for an annual plan paying 1101.7 INR a month.
Is LinkedIn learning completely free?
Yes, for the first month LinkedIn learning is completely free and from the next month, applicable charges may be applied.
Is LinkedIn premium free for students?
Yes, LinkedIn premium allows students free access for three month. However, the only condition for the access is that a student must have their university email, that is the email should end in “.edu”.
Why should I use LinkedIn learning?
LinkedIn learning provides great benefits to its users such as the courses provided by them fall into a wide range of topics with the best quality content for easy understanding. LinkedIn also provides an interactive and social learning approach to its users.
LinkedIn is the prevailing interpersonal organization of the expert local area. Clients spend a normal of almost 10 minutes out of every day on the social stage. Clients of LinkedIn say they are half bound to purchase from a brand they draw in with on the stage, consequently presenting the defence that LinkedIn ought to be essential for any business’ social procedure.
LinkedIn was introduced to the world in May 2003 by the joint efforts of Reid Hoffman, Allen Blue, Konstantin Guericke, Eric Ly, and Jean-Luc Vaillant, all belonging to different fields. LinkedIn now ranks high on the list of social media platforms for professionals. It enjoys a large number of users on daily basis.
LinkedIn has introduced one special paid subscription to its users wanting more services from its platform. The majority of LinkedIn users are from its free model. Whereas some users decide to go with the paid model. If you are also confused with the options, then read further to look at basic details about both the models with their features to decide upon one option.
The above graph shows the number of LinkedIn users worldwide. Amongst them, 39% customer base is LinkedIn premium users.
About LinkedIn Free
LinkedIn offers a variety of services for free and several people do get results by using the LinkedIn free version too. LinkedIn free itself is one of the most known professional platforms, almost completed with all necessary tools. The LinkedIn business works equally by the LinkedIn premium and LinkedIn free with a slight more inclination towards LinkedIn free.
The free version is utilized by the majority and covers the online media part of the stage: singular profiles, search devices, interfacing, informing, posting articles, gatherings, etc.
Features of LinkedIn Free
LinkedIn free allows its users to easily assemble their expert character on the web with easy-to-use tools. It also allows the user the option of assembling and keeping an enormous expert organization.
LinkedIn free creates no hurdle in the basic connecting and reconnecting with friends, companions, and clients. LinkedIn free enables its user with the option of solicitations and proposals. It also allows the easy solicitation of 5 presentations at a single time.
With the LinkedIn free plan, the user can easily search and view profiles of different LinkedIn users. They can also receive the InMail messages with the free plan.
About LinkedIn Premium
LinkedIn Premium provides the profile look capacity of 300 in place of 100 if considered with the LinkedIn free plan. LinkedIn premium also increases the days limit from the normal 5 days to 90 days to know about the most recent profile visitors.
Another great advantage of having LinkedIn premium is to get additional saved quests. This is more useful in business profiles. It also provides a better-progressed look into things like organization size and rank level. There are up to 8 channels that can be applied for designated search.
LinkedIn Premium additionally offers 4 highlights just accessible on this level-Multi-included InMail, watchword ideas, candidate experiences, and open profile.
Types of LinkedIn Premium Accounts
Career
LinkedIn Premium – Career Plan
Aptly named for those looking for work openings, the jobseeker incorporates direct informing to selection representatives, candidate experiences, progressed capacity to see who saw your profile, and highlighted candidate status openings.
These plans incorporate highlights like InMail, seeing more profiles when you search, admittance to premium hunt channels, and the capacity to see extended profiles on LinkedIn.
Cost: This plan starts from ₹1,400.00* / month.
Business
LinkedIn Premium – Business Plan
Specific highlights of Recruiter incorporate InMail messages and layouts, progressed search, competitor following, plan capacities, and limitless profile look, in addition to every one of the standard premium highlights above.
These plans incorporate the ability to discover channels, saved inquiries with alarms for new up-and-comers who meet your rules, and reference search.
Cost: This plan starts from ₹1,900.00* / month.
Sales Navigator
LinkedIn Premium – Sales Plan
Features of the Navigator incorporate InMail messages, progressed search with Lead Builder, leading suggestions and saved leads, constant deals insight, and limitless profile look.
These plans can zero for on $100K in addition to occupations with itemized compensation data, capacity to climb to the first spot on the list as an included candidate, and admittance to the work searcher local area.
Cost: This plan starts from ₹3,900.00* / month.
Hiring
LinkedIn Premium – Hiring Plan
The superior business track has InMail informing, progressed search abilities, broadened who’s seen your profile, and limitless profile look.
These plans incorporate a Lead Builder coordinator, acquaintances with organizations you are focusing on, and much more.
Cost: This plan starts from ₹5,900.00* / month.
LinkedIn Premium Account Features
LinkedIn Premium Account Features
InMail
LinkedIn InMail Messaging Service
LinkedIn InMail permits you to contact anybody you are not associated with on LinkedIn. InMails will incorporate some expert foundation data about you with the goal that the beneficiary will be certain about what your identity is.
You additionally get a reaction to ensure – assuming you don’t get a reaction, you get a good representative for your record to contact another person. You can likewise buy InMails for $10 each. You can study LinkedIn InMails in the Help Center. It remembers tips for how to send InMails to get reactions.
Vast View of Profiles
The standard version of LinkedIn offers 100 search results and the Premium version offers 300 results. The Job seekers plan does not offer this feature.
See the Names of Third-Degree Associations
Some membership plans will permit you to see the complete name of your third-degree associations. This will make it simpler to perceive individuals you should interface with.
Permit Anybody to Message You With Openlink
Need to ensure you can get a message from anybody on LinkedIn, regardless of whether they are associated with you? You can do as such by selecting into being an OpenLink part. Any LinkedIn part can message you without utilizing presentations or InMails. This may make the way for additional messages that you’re not inspired by, however, it will ensure you are consistently open to messages you will be keen on.
See Who Has Seen Your Profile
LinkedIn permits you to see who has seen your profile on the off chance that you turn on the setting to permit others to check whether you have seen their profile. With a top-notch account, you can see that rundown without surrendering your survey security. Rather than simply seeing who saw your profile, you will likewise see which keywords individuals looked to get to your profile.
LinkedIn Premium Search Filters
LinkedIn Premium Search Filter
Status – Filter individuals in query items dependent on their rank titles (Director, Manager, Intern, and so forth)
Organization Size – Filter individuals in query items dependent on the size of the organization they work for.
Interests – Filter individuals in query items dependent on their LinkedIn objectives to reconnect, reference check, be an industry master, search for work, etc.
Your Groups – Use ‘individuals search’ to look for potential associations inside your gatherings.
Tenure of Experience – Filter individuals in query items dependent on their long stretches of professional training.
Capacity – Filter individuals in list items dependent on their work.
New to LinkedIn – Filter individuals in query items dependent on whether they are new to LinkedIn. This is an extraordinary method to discover new individuals joining the organization who fit your measures.
A LinkedIn Premium account works exceptionally well for some people, whereas some claim that LinkedIn free itself fulfills all their expectations. If you feel that the above extra features will make a marked difference, you can always try LinkedIn Premium for a month to see if it works well for you. If you don’t find it working for you, you can revert to your LinkedIn Free account!
FAQs
What is the difference between LinkedIn free and LinkedIn premium?
LinkedIn free is the basic model of LinkedIn distributed at zero cost. Whereas, LinkedIn Premium is the paid subscription model of LinkedIn that allows its users the facility of additional features.
Is LinkedIn premium worth it?
The worthiness of the premium account purely depends upon its use. LinkedIn premium is made for additional use. It has four different profile options to select from and an intended search filter with many other benefits. So, we can consider LinkedIn premium as a worthy option to select.
Can I cancel a LinkedIn premium subscription?
Yes, the LinkedIn premium plan can be cancelled after giving a request on its web platform.
What does LinkedIn premium provide?
LinkedIn premium gives the additional capability of profile searches, it also increases the days limit to know about profile visitors, the LinkedIn premium also gives the option of making a specified account from four given options and many other facilities are given with LinkedIn premium.
Company Profile is an initiative by StartupTalky to publish verified information on different startups and organizations. The content in this post has been approved byLinkedIn.
On the internet, there are thousands of professional networking websites. Many of us are undoubtedly familiar with a few of the leading professional networks. However, the best professional networks are those that are simple to use, including all the necessary functions and functionalities.
LinkedIn is a professional-oriented social networking site. You may use it to network and create your professional profile, but then you can also use it to explore new job opportunities. LinkedIn is used by both established business executives and recent college graduates. Recruiters and employers who are seeking applicants also utilise LinkedIn.
LinkedIn – Company Highlights
Startup Name
LinkedIn
Parent Company
Microsoft
Industry
Social media
Headquarter
Sunnyvale, California, U.S
Founders
Allen Blue, Reid Hoffman, Konstantin Guericke, Jean-Luc Vaillant, and Eric Ly
LinkedIn is a professional and employment-oriented internet service based in the United States that operates through a website and mobile application. It was launched on May 5, 2003, and is principally used for networking opportunities and career-related advancement opportunities. LinkedIn enables job applicants to publish resumes and cover letters and recruiters to offer positions.
Since 2015, the majority of the company’s revenue has come from providing recruiters and marketing experts with the availability of information about its users. It has been completely owned by Microsoft, since December 2016. LinkedIn has more than 774 million registered users including over 200 countries around the world.
LinkedIn, like any other social networking site, has an algorithm that is constantly modified to offer users the best possible experience. As a member, you’ll notice that your “feed” – which works similarly to Facebook’s feed – keeps you updated with new stuff regularly. However, before this feed reaches your profile, it passes via LinkedIn’s filtration.
Some of these rating filters are set up to check for spammers or low-quality content, or to provide permission for the information to be displayed. What you’ll be viewing has most possibly been approved by a computer bot.
You may interact with the posts in your newsfeed by leaving a like, comment, or by sharing them. You may also mark the material as spam or hide it from view to prevent others from viewing it. What you view in the future is influenced by your actions. People’s reactions to the stuff may be influenced by your behaviour.
If you give negative comments on a piece of material, LinkedIn will compare your activities to that of others to assess whether or not the piece should be in anyone else’s feed. LinkedIn is useful for both socializing and advertising.
You can market on LinkedIn just like you can on Instagram and Facebook. You can run InMail campaigns and place ads using the Campaign Manager. It’s a pay-per-click model, meaning you only pay whenever anyone clicks on the advertisement. But that’s also why you would want to target properly, so think about your abilities and who would be interested in those. The best outcomes may come from a restricted approach.
LinkedIn – Industry
The worldwide social networking platforms market was estimated at $192.950 billion in 2019, with a rate of 25.38 per cent expected to reach $939.679 billion by 2026.
A professional network platform is a sort of social communication network that focuses only on professional interactions and connections rather than private, non-business connections.
Business people utilise a professional network platform to build and retain working relationships, as well as to obtain employment or advance in their careers and to receive information and networking events.
According to LinkedIn managing director Clifford Rosenberg, “This is really a call to action for professionals to re-address their use of social networks and begin to reap as many rewards from networking professionally as they do personally.”
Businesses rely heavily upon outside information and resources, and to acquire what they require, they must go out there and establish working relationships with others, such as employees or customers, as well as possible prospects.
Companies can maintain all of their networks updated, and organised, and help find out the most efficient method to communicate with every one of them by employing a professional network solution. A business that can handle everything reduces most of the stress associated with getting things done.
Businesses can maintain all of their connections updated, organised, and find out the most effective method to communicate with each one of them by employing a professional network solution. When attempting to get things done, a service that can handle everything might help ease some burdens.
LinkedIn’s logo has been altered twice during the decades of its establishment, although only minimally, staying the same as it was at its commencement. It consists of the preposition “In” and the word “Linked.” There is a little gap between them that makes the parts appear to be merged.
LinkedIn’s principle is connecting, but here with your professional contacts, the name is as obvious. Joining allows you to get linked (or connected), in(to) your network of connections, which should provide you with greater opportunities as a result of your contacts.
The tagline of LinkedIn says, “Connect to Opportunity.”
LinkedIn – Founders
Allen Blue, Reid Hoffman, Konstantin Guericke, Jean-Luc Vaillant, and Eric Ly developed LinkedIn on May 5, 2003.
Allen Blue
Allen was previously the Director of Product Design at SocialNet.com, a social networking site that covers recreational, dating, and professional activities, where he was in charge of product design and the execution of SocialNet’s member-data-driven business model. Allen formerly worked as a freelance web designer and developer for companies such as Stanford University, PayPal, and Microsoft’s Virtual World project.
Reid Hoffman
Reid, an entrepreneur and executive, was integral to the development of several of today’s biggest consumer technology companies, including PayPal and LinkedIn. He has a distinct grasp of customer psychology and the characteristics of viral firms, as well as extensive experience leading organisations from their inception through periods of rapid, “blitz scale” expansion.
Reid invests in firms with network effects and participates in creating their product ecosystems, ranging from Airbnb to Convoy, LinkedIn to PayPal, and Facebook.
Konstantin Guericke
Konstantin Guericke is an Earlybird Partner. He works out of Silicon Valley. As Vice President of Marketing at LinkedIn, Konstantin supervised marketing operations from launch through the first six million members and sustainability.
He was formerly the CEO of Jaxtr Konstantin and has extensive entrepreneurial expertise as the creator of successful startups and as a growth advisor to established businesses. He is currently a board member of multiple firms and a Stanford University student entrepreneur mentor. Konstantin graduated from Stanford University with a B.S. and M.S. in Engineering.
Jean-Luc Vaillant
Jean-Luc is responsible for LinkedIn’s technological infrastructure as Chief Technology Officer. Jean-Luc has been one of LinkedIn’s co-founders. Before starting LinkedIn, Jean-Luc worked for Logitech as a Director of Engineering, overseeing the incorporation of video into MSN 6. Jean-Luc, also worked at Spotlife as Director of Software Development until the firm was purchased by Logitech.
Jean-Luc was previously the Vice President of Development at MatchNet, which bought SocialNet in May 2001. Jean-Luc has also worked for Fujitsu Software Corporation and France Telecom’s research laboratories in engineering management positions. Jean-Luc has an M.S. in Computer Science and a post-graduate degree in Network Engineering from the University of Marseille.
Eric Ly
Presdo, an online application that helps individuals determine the optimal time to get together was founded and run by Eric Ly. Eric. He was formerly a co-founder of LinkedIn, where he served as the original CTO and VP. Eric worked on several of LinkedIn’s fundamental product features, which helped the firm achieve profitability and a rapidly increasing number of users.
LinkedIn – Startup Story
Although LinkedIn was formed in 2002, the website did not go live until 2003. Reid Hoffman collaborated on the website with a group of employees from two of his previous businesses, Socialnet.com and PayPal. Growth was sluggish and restricted at first, but as the site’s functions expanded, it became exponential.
LinkedIn was founded in May of 2003, but it was not an instant success. LinkedIn had just 245 members towards the end of 2003, most of whom were professional links of the founding team. LinkedIn’s growth surged in its second year, thanks to new services aimed at small company owners, such as contact book uploads, Groups, and a collaboration with American Express.
Through 2004, membership grew from the hundreds to the thousands and thousands. By 2005, the site’s membership had surpassed 1 million, and it had developed two revenue-generating lines of business: Jobs and Subscriptions. The firm expanded as well, creating a fourth location.
LinkedIn transformed in 2012, focusing on 3 concepts: simplicity, expansion, and every day. Influencers were introduced, as well as platforms in eight new languages and an iOS app.
LinkedIn continues to improve and offer a more seamless user experience over the following several years, allowing users to make meaningful professional connections. LinkedIn Learning, which provides courses in several topic areas for individuals seeking continuous education possibilities, was founded after it acquired Lynda.com. LinkedIn has more than 500 million members worldwide as of April 2017.
LinkedIn – Vision, and Mission
LinkedIn’s mission is straightforward: “to connect the world’s professionals to make them more successful and productive.”
LinkedIn’s vision statement says, “transform the way the world looks for work, develop, and market professional skills.”
LinkedIn – Services
Everyone can use LinkedIn for free. However, the firm offers and delivers various premium services to its customer base. Among the most important services are:
Marketing Solutions
LinkedIn also offers marketing services in addition to recruiting solutions. LinkedIn, besides being a professional network, also allows businesses to create and execute their ideal marketing tactics in their campaigns. The firm can have a LinkedIn page.
Furthermore, the organisation can strengthen its marketing efforts by utilising technologies for the construction of text ads, sponsored email, and sponsored content. Both of these LinkedIn offerings add to the company’s income creation techniques.
Talent Solutions
All services provided to businesses, including recruiters and job seekers, are referred to as talent solutions. This is a premium tool that assists them in hiring the best qualified and relevant individual that meets all of their criteria. Apart from that, it provides entrepreneurs with the ideal partner for building their firm.
LinkedIn Recruiter, Work With Us Ads, Recruitment Media, Job Slots, and Career Pages are some of the primary services given by LinkedIn under Talent Solutions. Apart from the benefits, LinkedIn offers to recruiters, it is also beneficial to workers.
With millions of courses accessible in premium editions, it helps students improve and perfect their talents. Users of other employment platforms must search for jobs independently. Users must, however, demonstrate their abilities and qualities on LinkedIn in order to establish their brand and attract recruiters. This is, after all, one of LinkedIn’s main offerings.
LinkedIn – Business Model, and Revenue Model
The LinkedIn business model is a multifaceted system that links corporate users with employers and advertisers that want to build their own network of contacts. LinkedIn is recognised as “the professional network” because of its vast community of professionals from every industry and from all over the world. LinkedIn now has over 660 million users from over 200 countries.
According to LinkedIn’s User Agreement, its “services are designed to promote economic opportunity for our members by enabling you and millions of other professionals to meet, exchange ideas, learn, and find opportunities or employees, work, and make decisions in a network of trusted relationships”.
LinkedIn’s revenue streams are:
Marketing solutions
Talent solutions
Premium subscriptions
Pay-per-click job posting
LinkedIn’s whole business strategy is based on job searches, network interactions, and connections. They also have a huge market share compared to their competitors.
With a few tweaks, LinkedIn can maintain its market dominance while simultaneously making a more significant contribution to society, such as increasing its techniques for assisting users who cannot afford a membership to locate and acquire jobs.
LinkedIn – Funding, and Investors
Date
Round
Amount
Lead Investors
Feb 15, 2016
Post-IPO-Equity
–
–
Dec 1, 2009
Secondary Market
$51.6M
–
Oct 22, 2008
Series D
$22.7M
–
Jun 17, 2008
Series D
$53M
Bain Capital Ventures
Jan 29, 2007
Series C
$12.8M
Bessemer Venture Partners, Global Founders Capital
Oct 1, 2004
Series B
$10M
Greylock
Nov 1, 2003
Series A
$4.7M
Sequoia Capital
LinkedIn – Investments
Date
Organization Name
Round
Amount
Apr 20, 2022
Oyster
Series C
$150M
Dec 6, 2021
Trala
Venture Round
$6.9M
Jun 23, 2021
Acryl Data
Seed Round
$9M
Jun 22, 2021
G2
Series D
$157M
Jun 10, 2021
Hopin
Series C
–
May 18, 2021
Piano
Series C
$20M
Mar 24, 2021
Bevy
Series C
$40M
Nov 1, 2019
StarTree
Seed Round
$4M
Apr 25, 2019
Salesloft
Series D
$70M
Apr 3, 2018
Salesloft
Series C
$50M
LinkedIn – Acquisitions
Acquiree Name
About Acquiree
Date
Amount
Paddle HR
Paddle HR helps large enterprises match current employees with new jobs within the company, saving them millions in recruiting costs.
Mar 29, 2022
–
Oribi
Oribi Analytics gives you the actionable insights you need to make solid, data-driven marketing decisions—no coding required.
Feb 28, 2022
–
Jumprope
Jumprope is a platform where users can create, discover, and share how-to videos and tutorials.
Aug 2, 2021
–
UpCounsel
UpCounsel operates an online marketplace for businesses to find and hire legal help based on their preferences in the United States.
Apr 23, 2020
–
Drawbridge
Drawbridge uses large-scale AI and machine learning technology to build Identity solutions that connect, unify, & enhance customer data.
May 28, 2019
–
Sendbloom
Tailored outbound messaging for sales
Dec 1, 2018
–
Glint
Glint offers an employee engagement platform.
Oct 8, 2018
–
Heighten
Heighten is a software as a service company that provides a platform for salespersons to operate faster.
Jun 2, 2017
–
PointDrive
PointDrive is a sales-oriented application that improves the way you share content with customers.
Jul 26, 2016
–
Run Hop
Run Hop specializes in online content distribution to accelerate its efforts to make users’ feeds more engaging.
May 5, 2016
–
LinkedIn – Competitors
Top competitors of LinkedIn are :
AngelList
Meetup
Data Connect
Sumry
The Go To Market Company
Jobcase
Bark
Doostang
Let’s Lunch
LinkedIn – Strengths
Customer Service – Customers are really pleased with the customer service department.
Automation – Automation helped the organisation to grow continuously in response to market needs
Dealers – In addition to advertising the items, its dealers spend on sales training to demonstrate the products’ benefits to customers.
Innovative – LinkedIn has a history of developing innovative products that have been successful.
Integrated – LinkedIn has integrated and acquired a large number of complementary enterprises over the years to expand its supply chain and distribution network.
Workforce – LinkedIn spends heavily on the training and development of its workers, resulting in a highly trained and engaged workforce.
New sectors – LinkedIn is a master at breaking into new sectors, and its development continues to open up new income streams in a variety of industries.
“LinkedIn is attempting to establish itself as a hub for B2B sales and hire. Continue to do what you’re doing since LinkedIn’s value as a sales channel will only grow over time. Although the methods and platform may evolve, using it as a sales tool will only improve over time,” LinkedIn’s Customer Advisory Board member said.
What happens if LinkedIn restricts organic outreach? Simply said, they will begin to commercialize and demand fees for outbound LinkedIn prospecting. They currently have InMail, but everyone who has used the software knows it isn’t that efficient.
LinkedIn puts a lot of work into these InMail elements, such as accessible and trackable buttons and links, but the InMail messages don’t seem natural as a consequence. They resemble some spammy, blasted message with a huge “Buy now” button on it.
Adding the fact that the cost of InMail is significantly greater than the cost of organic outreach, it’s easy to understand why they haven’t gained much momentum on the platform thus far. This is something expected to change. As LinkedIn’s organic outreach is curtailed, it is expected that its paid messaging solutions to develop and grow.
This is something that is likely to change. As LinkedIn’s organic outreach is constrained, sponsored messaging solutions are projected to develop and proliferate.
LinkedIn – FAQs
What does LinkedIn do?
LinkedIn is a professional and employment-oriented internet service that operates through websites and mobile applications
Who founded LinkedIn?
Allen Blue, Reid Hoffman, Konstantin Guericke, Jean-Luc Vaillant, and Eric Ly developed LinkedIn on May 5, 2003.
When was LinkedIn founded?
Allen Blue, Reid Hoffman, Konstantin Guericke, Jean-Luc Vaillant, and Eric Ly developed LinkedIn on May 5, 2003.
How does LinkedIn make money?
LinkedIn’s whole business strategy is based on job searches, network interactions, and connections.
Gone are the days, when 9-5 jobs were most preferred and termed as the safest option. People have started indulging themselves in freelancing more. Especially after Covid-19, when work from home becomes a common process. The work from home process supported the rise of freelancers as this is what every freelancer has been doing since the beginning; they were already adapted to this. While full-time employees took time to get adapted to this nature
A report stated that 68% of workers who are working from home are showing their interest in freelancing. Millions of people lost their jobs when due to Covid the economy got hit. Plus the work from home setting gives a rise to people who show their interest in freelancing.
Freelancing can be sure a tough job. Once you realize being ‘your own boss’ means putting the hats of the legal expert, financier, routine planner, and work manager, all at once. But there are always ways to help with that, aren’t there? We have crafted for you a list of 50+ such freelancer tools that come to your rescue whenever, wherever you need a virtual assistant.
Bonsai is an integrated all-in-one software suite designed to help with all the admin tasks. Bonsai lets you create invoices, send contracts and collect payments without the least effort. Apart from its functionality, Bonsai is famous among the freelancing community for its efficient design layout. Here are some reasons you should go for Bonsai:
The interface is clean and easy to use.
Bonsai is affordable, offering multiple pricing plans.
Bonsai has you covered from proposal to tax season.
Bonsai Cash business account lets you manage your finances, save on taxes and get paid faster with no hidden fees or minimums.
The products are integrated seamlessly.
Bonsai’s products are automated.
Bonsai offers a massive library of free templates of contracts, proposals, invoices, agreements, quotes, scope of work, and briefs.
ZipBooks
Pricing- $15/Month
ZipBooks Logo
ZipBooks is founded by Tim Chaves in 2o15. ZipBooks is a free accounting tool that you can use to create invoices, manage clients, payments, and expenses and track your time. You can even set up late payment reminders for your clients.
Momenteo
Pricing- $3/Month
Memento is founded by Chelsie Patterson in 2019. Memento is a pretty convenient invoicing tool that makes generating invoices a quick, hassle-free experience. It is a paid service though and it comes with a price tag of $200 per annum.
Harpoon
Pricing- $19/Month
Harpoon is founded by Andrew Johnson, Ryan Battles in 2015. Quite a lifesaver, Harpoon is an extremely handy tool that lets you track your average revenue per project(or per month, day or hour), plan your schedules, check outstanding invoices and keep track of your goals.
Xero
Pricing- $13.50/ Month
Xero is founded by Rod Drury and Hamish Edwards in 2006. A one stop destination for all your financial engagements, Xero is a paid service that offers online accounting, invoicing, billing, and banking.
Freeagent
Pricing- $24/ Month
Freeagent is a money managing app that assists in bookkeeping and generating invoices. A well-designed app, this one is specifically designed to keep small businesses and freelancers in mind.
Freework
Pricing- Free
This freelancing tool is designed to help you manage your day-to-day work, save time, send invoices, keep statistics, manage clients, take notes, and a lot more. It is built on a mobile platform and can be assessed by both android and iOS users.
Expensify
Pricing- $5/ Month
With Expensify, you can manage your receipts better. All you have to do is photograph your receipts and upload them. It works on iPhone/iPad, Android, WebOS/Palm, and BlackBerry phones.
Freshbooks
Pricing- $13.50/ Month
A boon for freelancers in the midst of a financial lurch, Freshbooks lets you create invoices and manage them and organise them with the click of just a button. What’s more, the service is free as long as you have three clients. After that, it comes with a price tag.
Portfolio Creation Tools for Freelancers:
Behance
Pricing- $14.29/Month
Behence Logo
Behance is founded by Scott Belsky in 2006. One of the most popular websites out there, Behance is nothing but a boon for freelancers. Be it showcasing your creativity, or creating your online portfolio for work. Behance supports a variety of platforms from Photoshop to PDFs, allows you to view and appreciate other’s projects, and lets you collaborate and upload your work.
Prospero
Pricing- $8/ Month
One of the best-known tools for freelancers, proposal helps you to create a proposal for your client and price your projects. Prospero analyses your work, project deadlines, and your working rate to self-design an editable proposal that is relevant to the services you offer.
Bidsketch
Pricing- $29/ Month
Bidsketch assists you to create client proposals with its wide range of customizable templates. Besides letting you create templates, this tool also helps you distribute them and offers related analytics about the distribution, like who downloaded it, who viewed it, and for how long.
Pixpa
Pricing- $5.09/ Month
If you are looking for a space, where you can showcase the work created by you and sell them as well. This platform helps you create professional websites, where you can publish your own blogs, showcase your portfolios or set up an online store.
Squarespace
Pricing- $16/ Month
Considered to be one of the best platforms for portfolio/ website making, as a freelancer, you can carve your own personal identity on Squarespace using its wide range of customizable templates.
Project Management Tools for Freelancers:
Asana
Pricing- $10.99/ Month
A popular people collaboration tool, Asana allows you to form groups of up to 15 people. You can start group discussions, and send tasks to each other. You can even send timely notifications to group members as reminders.
Basecamp
Pricing- $99/ Month
A friendly freelancing tool, Basecamp is a popular project management tool that lets you keep track of all your projects and keep them organized. This online collaboration tool focuses on managing work and lets people communicate with each other.
EverNote
Pricing- $7.99/ Month
One of the most popular apps out there, Evernote lets you store notes, receipts, and other miscellaneous files associated with each project and also sets timely reminders to keep you on track.
Writing Tools for Freelancers:
Proposify
Pricing- $49/Month
Proposify Logo
Proposify is founded by Kyle Racki, and Kevin Springer in 2013.Proposify is a proposal writing tool that comes equipped with a host of templates and customizable features. It comes with a set of basic drawing tools and almost looks like a mini word processor to help you with the job.
Zen Writer
Pricing- $18 Onetime Fee
ZenWriter is a full-screen writing app that comes with a serene, minimalist design and friendly layout. One of the best-looking apps out there, this one promises to not only get your work done but also give you a great working experience.
Write Room
Pricing- $9.99/ Month
Designed only for Mac users, this tool comes to your rescue when you have big writing projects in your kitty. Write Room comes with a clean, minimal layout ( there are no distracting menu options or even toolbars) and a simplistic design that helps you focus on your work better.. Nothing will give you more focus than a full-screen writing tool, and WriteRoom is the original offering that is available for Mac.
Email Management Tools for Freelancers:
Sanebox
Pricing- $9.99/Month
Sanebox Logo
Sanebox is founded by Stuart Roseman in 2010.This app helps you with one of your most important handles, the epitome of your professional existence, your mailing inbox. Sanebox helps you organise through stuff and keep your inbox clean.
Inbox
Pricing- $9/Month
Call it a way better version of Gmail, this app lets you organize your mails, categorise them efficiently, have attachment previews, built-in snooze buttons, automatic labeling, and intelligent search. With its user-friendly design and easy-to-navigate layout, this one is sure to make your work easier.
MailChimp
Pricing- $9.99/ Month
This E-mail marketing platform is said to be one of the best. A fantastic promotional tool, this one helps you send your email marketing newsletters, keep your clients updated about a new post or product and market your services.
A networking and personal marketing tool, Aweber lets you build an email campaign, which can help to maintain relationships with all your previous and current clients.
Scheduling Tools for Freelancers:
Productive
Pricing- $10/Month
Productive is founded by Jan Varljen in 2014. This tool helps you form productive work habits, It comes with an easy-to-use interface that lets you plan and schedule habits for any time of the day, set smart reminders for each time of the day, and stay right on track.
RescueTime
Pricing- $9/ Month
A time planner tool, RescueTime offers to save your time by keeping track and letting you know of the amount of time you spend on each of your tasks. It was founded by Brian Fioca, Tony Wright, and Joe Hruska in 2007.
Remember the Milk
Pricing- $39.99/ Year
Remember The Milk is a reminder tool that was founded in the year 2004, it is an online to-do-list app, that lets you take care of important tasks so that you are never late again.
Google Calendar
Pricing- $5/ Month
Google Calender Logo
Google Calendar is an amazing planner tool from Google that lets you organise your schedule and plan tasks accordingly. It became available in 2009, one can create and edit events here and location can also be added.
Timely
Pricing- $15/ Month
When you take up too many projects, it can be quite overwhelming. Timely is a time tracking tool Timely helps you to maintain a time log to track the amount of time you have spent on each of the projects undertaken.
Cushion
Pricing- $36/ Year
The cushion is quite a reliable tool that helps you make an efficient work schedule for your freelancing ventures. It focuses on the time you spend on a particular project, highlights when you are overbooked, and helps you plan your time better.
Tickspot
Pricing- $149/ Month for Unlimited Projects
This one allows you to keep track of your work hours as well as the time you spend on each project. In fact, you can even see how close you are to using up your client’s allotted budget.
Klok
Pricing- $18.99 Per Feature
As the name suggests, Klok is a time management tool and it allows you track of your time. You can keep track of the time you spend on each project; just start and stop tracking by just clicking a button. You’re able to generate multiple reports based on this information.
Ora Time and Expenses
Pricing- $6/ Month
The name says it all. Ora lets you track expenses, keep a list of your tasks, run a timer on your tasks and well, keep things organised. It is where you can work with your team and have everything the team might need during the time for work.
ToggI
Pricing- $10/ Month
A productive time tracking tool, ToggI lets you track time the time you spend on each project. You can manage your own time as well as the time of your collaborator’s time to work out the total time spent on each project.
OfficeTime
Pricing- $69 Onetime Fee
OfficeTime helps manage your time better. That being said, it allows you to see exactly how much money you are earning per hour and know who is really paying you your actual worth.
Timesheet
Pricing- $4.50/ Month
Timesheet is a time tracker tool that makes it easier for you to record your work hours. With timesheet, you can calculate your estimated income, handle hourly rates, keep stats, generate time or expense reports and manage expenses, among other stuff.
MyClientSpot
Pricing- Not-known
A very handy tool, this one offers to keeps track of your billable hours and helps you keep your work organized. It provides online project management functions and helps out with time management.
Focus Booster
Pricing- $4.99/ Month
Focus Booster is a time management tool that allows you to break your tasks in segments and time them accordingly. All you have to do is start and stop the timer. Besides, the tool also makes provision for automatic 5-minute breaks after every 25 minutes of work.
Streaks
Pricing- $4.99/ Month
This app follows the model of the popular “don’t break the chain method”, everyday. Use your goals, to track your per-day activities and progress and even set up goals. This to-fo list tracks every certain goal of yours.
Azendoo
Pricing- $10/ Month
Another tool that helps you manage your workflow, Azendoo lets you view analytics, attach documents and work as your personal organiser. It also lets you add checklists, plan your calendar, send direct messages to team members, and set due dates.
Freedom
Pricing- $8.99/Month
Freedom is founded by Fred Stutzman in 2009. This tool is designed to cater to just one unique purpose that is to stop you from wasting your time on your phone. It helps bar out unnecessary distractions by letting you set a work schedule on its platform, during which it blocks distracting apps and websites.
Flow
Pricing- Free
This tool helps you to manage your workflow by letting you create workspaces and tasks, collaborate with your team members through inbuilt chat, and organise all your assignments and private tasks.
GetHarvest
Pricing- $12/ Month
A time management tool, Harvest offers time tracking and invoicing services with pricing plans from free to premium. It works on iPhone, Basecamp, Beanstalk and has a WordPress plugin and more.
Backup Tools for Freelancers:
iCloud
Pricing- $9.99/ Month
The apple app, iCloud lets you backup and sync your devices using your Apple ID. You can store anything here, from photos, notes, files to other data. While signing in this, you get 5GB free storage at first.
DropBox
Pricing- $16.99/ Month
DropBox Logo
This tool lets you upload and transfer any files of yours and share them. IT is a great backup service, DropBox automatically backs up all the data of your computer, without you having to worry at all.
Mozy
Pricing- $10/ month for 125 GB
While you are working on so many projects, you need a backup. Mozy is a backup tool that lets you do just that. It was founded in the year 2005 by Josh Coates. It can be used both in Windows and Mac.
Marketplace Platforms for Freelancers:
Truelancer
Pricing- $50 or 5% of total project value
Truelancer is founded by Dipesh Garg in 2014. If you call yourself a freelancer, you already know what a blessing Truelancer is. Truelancer not only helps you find more work but also helps you find and meet potential clients and build a network.
Upwork
Pricing- 20% for the first $500 project
Upwork Logo
Upwork is founded by Stratis Karamanlakis, Odysseas Tsatalos. Yet another platform for landing work, Upwork lets you make a free profile, crate and promote gigs, bid on projects, and meet clients.
Fiverr
Pricing- 20% of the gig fee
Fiverr is a freelance haven that allows you to find jobs or ‘gigs’. The service sellers have the option to choose a starting price for their gigs, the quote starting from $5 (hence the name!). Consequently, one gets to offer different gigs at different prices.
Workana
Pricing- $4.90/ Month
As the name suggests, this online tool helps you to find work on a variety of work genres. Businesses can hire freelancers from this site for their work. It is one of the finest places where freelancers and small businesses to big ones can get connected.
Social Media Management tools:
Social Oomph
Pricing- $13.94/ Month
Social Oomph was founded in the year 2008 and it comes with a set of some great social networking tools that help you market your services and stay at the top of your game.
Buffer
Pricing- $15/ Month
BufferApp is founded by Leo Widrich. This one is a social media management tool, it helps you manage all the social media platforms of your business. This includes a number of articles that will help you learn and run your business better.
Tweriod
Pricing- Not-known
Tweriod lets you handle your social media (especially Twitter) with ease, by constantly providing you with statistics, your campaign’s reach, their popularity, all the while, analyzing your followers, keeping reminders, and providing charts displaying the most popular hours on Twitter for your followers.
Other Important Tools for freelancers:
Linkedin
Pricing- $29.99/ Month
LinkedIn Logo
LinkedIn is founded by Reid Hoffman, Allen Blue, Konstantin Guericke, Eric Ly, Jean-Luc Vaillant in 2002. LinkedIn is a widely acclaimed platform that not only lets you establish your professional identity, but also build a network, find jobs and connect with possible clients with its built-in mailing and messaging service.
LifeHacker
Pricing- Not-known
LifeHacker is founded by Gina Trapani. Just as the name suggests, this site helps you by keeping you updated with recent technology, lessons on innovative thinkers, and daily life hacks.
Plagiarism Check
Pricing- $39.95 Per Feature
Plagiarism is a sin to any creator. Any content that is copied, this tool helps you detect the amount of plagiarism your copy contains by screening your document for plagiarism with 5 search engines- Google, Yahoo, Babylon, Google Books, and Google Scholar. You can also use other websites for it, there are tons of tools available for plagiarism checking.
Termsfeed
Pricing- $56 Onetime fee
Termsfeed comes to your rescue when you need some legal assistance. This tool offers a range of templates to help you craft statements for a variety of purposes- return policy, terms and conditions, privacy policy, and terms of service. And all you have to do is answer a couple of questions to frame the right contract.
Pro Blogger
Pricing- $5.99/ Month
Pro Blogger step into the market in 2004 and since then it has been the best bet for Freelancing, this tool helps you to curate content, organise ideas and create blogs to promote your online market presence.
LKR Social Media
Pricing- Not-known
This is a blog run by social media marketing expert, Laura Roeder. The blog is a great source of learning, for freelancers looking to promote themselves online, covering a wide range of topics, from designing an effective sales page to top tools to organize your work.
Contently
Pricing- Not-known
This platform is a SaaS content marketing platform that gives organisations an opportunity to create great content that helps them get the audience and build their brands.
Trello
Trello is a collaboration tool that lets you organise your work projects, invite coworkers to collaborate and create shared perspectives, add checklists, upload photos and videos, and a lot more. Trello does offer free service, open to one and all with some limited offers. if you want extra features, you have to pay.
TinyScanner
Pricing- Free
A handy app for android and iOS, TinyScanner lets you scan your work documents from your device’s camera and turn them into PDFs. It even lets you customize page size and share the scanned PDFs.
SlideShare
Pricing- $19/ Month
Slideshare helps you present your ideas in an organised manner and thus showcase your clients your skills, expertise, areas of interest, and competency. Any kind of presentation, infographics can be shared here by businesses.
Briefbox
Pricing- $9/ Month
Offering a collection of hypothetical briefs or templates for a variety of genres, Briefbox allows you to simply pick one of the editable briefs and start designing, as per your need.
MindMeister
Pricing- $2.49/ Month
Mind-mapping is the predecessor to great ideas and MindMeister offers you that by ditching the traditional pen and paper method. Create mind-maps on your electronic devices free or buy the premium plan and enjoy additional benefits.
Text Expander
Pricing- $3.33/ Month
Text expander helps you send emails faster, by pre storing all the information, predicting content from the stored info, predicting pictures, and making sure the content does not sound too similar or contain duplicate info. You can also pre-program to fix typos you often, use different signatures for different clients, and auto-insert forms.
Conclusion
The freelance industry is going in a tremendous way and it is not going to stop anytime soon. With the different advantages of working as a freelancer, more and more working professionals are choosing this industry. All the above tools are to make the work of a freelancer a little bit easier.
We all know that the phone directory used to be an important household for many people. It had a hold on all the numbers that are required to be there with a person. With the changing times and growing technologies, the way of operating the lists has also been upgraded. We have come up with a free business directory for enabling the user to make a list and save them.
Business listing sites not only maintain the contact details but also other required information about one and all altogether. If you are a business owner, you can make a page for your company using these.
Here are some of the top business listing sites that you can use to list your business for free.
How to List your Business on a Business Listing Website?
It is important for any particular business to get noticed easily on the internet. Any business listing site will help you to create multiple platforms for your name, address, and phone number that will be accessed by potential customers. People nowadays trust customer reviews, which is why a business must have a strong online presence.
Choose a business listing website
There are numerous business listing sites, you must make sure to choose a website that will benefit you in multiple ways.
Claim your business page
Most businesses already have their own pages on some platforms, but they tend to be incomplete or made by a user. This is why you must claim your business page on these business listing sites.
Complete your business listing
After claiming your business page, you must complete your listing with valid and up-to-date information, images and videos so the customers can get an idea of the company. Details such as an address, phone number, services offered, timings, and social media links must be added.
Verify your listing
Any internet user can claim your business listing as their own, which is why you must verify your identity before the listing goes live.
Benefits of Business Listing
Growth of your online presence
The biggest benefit for online businesses is that business listing websites help them maximize their online presence. It is vital to create a business page for your company on different review sites and multiple social media platforms to increase your company’s presence.
Making your business known locally
A business directory helps you target an audience in a particular geographic region. Local business listing websites usually have geographic filters to catch the eye of a potential customer.
Putting out information
The information based on timing, address, contact information, speciality, location, and ratings must be added to the business listing sites. This is done so a potential customer can get in touch with you or purchase your products or services.
Driving your brand engagement
Business listing sites have ratings and customer reviews which helps potential customers in checking your brand engagement before buying products. They also have the potential to attract and redirect traffic to your websites but make sure you manage your listings and engage with your visitors regularly.
Top Free Business Listing Sites in India
1. Google My Business
Google My Business Homepage
Google My Business is a basic and free business listing platform that enables local businesses to create a company profile as well as enter various information about their enterprise.
This feature in Google My Business complements the Google Maps feature and search functions. It helps you to easily connect with customers across the given time zones. Google My Business is linked to local addresses that are integrated on the very first page of organic search results as well as in Google Maps.
2. Crunchbase
Crunchbase Homepage
If finding business information about private and public companies is on your mind, then Crunchbase is the one. This is one of the best business listing websites that helps the user that includes investments as well as funding information. This gives you information on founding members and individuals in leadership positions, mergers and acquisitions, industry trends, and other news.
Founded in 2007, Crunchbase works for sourcing their data in four ways. These have machine learning, a venture program, an in-house data team, and lastly, the Crunchbase community. The information submitted is subjected to social validation, registration. These are at times reviewed by a moderator before getting accepted for publication.
Yelp is a crowd-sourced, modern and online version of the yellow pages. Yelp enables all businesses to attract customers through online word of mouth. It is a good way to reach people who actively search as well as intend to make a purchase.
It is preferable to list your business in Yelp, which is one of the free business listing sites available. In Yelp, you can update your information, comment on reviews, upload photos and can do many other things.
4. Meta for Business
Meta for Business Homepage
Meta for Business (Previously Facebook for Business) is one of the most popular business listing websites around the world. This helps you to get a supply of detailed information. There is a ‘Submit your business’ page that you can fill in to start your listing.
Facebook Business gets the users the latest news, advertising tips and best practices. It also shows various case studies for using Meta to meet the company’s business goals.
There are more than 30 million companies right now that are actively using Linkedin for listing their companies. Linkedin marketing tools have been made available for every business size and type. No matter if you are a small or a large or a B2B to B2C.
It is easy to list your business as well as you can get a hassle-free experience. This site helps you to get equipped with the best tools, making it one of the top listing sites. It also helps you get the most out of your Linkedin marketing strategy for free.
6. Tripadvisor
Tripadvisor Homepage
With great photos, updated information, and rave reviews, Tripadvisor helps your future customers see your unique business’s locations. This helps to get as many eyes as possible if you are listing your business on TripAdvisor. It gets around 730 million reviews and opinions. Also, it attracts monthly unique visitors on an average of 490 million on over 8.1 million businesses.
There are guidelines and manuals on how you would enlist your business on Tripadvisor. It is easy, free, and comes without any hassle.
7. Verizon Business (Previously Yahoo Small Business)
Verizon Business Homepage
Verizon Business (Previously Yahoo Small Business) offers a lot. It ensures your customers find the exact information about your business. You can track everything from profile views to calls. Some business listing sites like Yahoo allow you to use competitive insights in case you want to make informed business decisions.
Not only this, but you can also monitor as well as respond to reviews throughout the platforms quickly from one place, using Verizon Business (Previously Yahoo Small Business) Localworks. It also enables the user to interact with the team experts within a certain allotted time regarding any complaints or questions.
8. Glassdoor
Glassdoor Homepage
Glassdoor enables you to create an official online presence on the popular jobs website. It helps you to attract the right hires for your business needs. Glassdoor is mong the best business listing sites that hold a set of reviews for your business through which you can get the most number of people seeking your company.
These company reviews have been proved valuable for 83% of job seekers. These work especially when it comes to deciding where they want to work. They can only see those reviews if you have listed the company on the Glassdoor listing.
Bing is one of the top search engines that has taken over the world, after Google. Bing is one of the best, as it is used as a default search engine on many Windows devices.
There are mainly three categories of businesses you can list on Bing. They are first, the Local or small business with a storefront, chain business that comes with multiple locations, and lastly, businesses offering services at customer locations.
So here are a few that are running successfully. These websites have been helpful for many businesses out there, regardless of their types and sizes. If you want to grow your business and want a good takeoff, you can rely upon these websites, without any doubt.
10. Justdial
Justdial Homepage
JustDial is a well-known business listing site in India 2021 as it is free, fast, and reliable along with service activities between the business and its customer. JustDial is a one-stop-shop, where you can plan your business’s promotion so it grows rapidly. JustDial is unique compared to other free business listing sites as it has features like rate and review features, best deals, last-minute deals, and live quotes to help users get the best discounts and businesses get to showcase their specialities.
JustDial is one of the leading IT company’s in India that offers services over websites, apps, and phones. The company was founded by VSS Mani in 1998 and has its headquarters in Mumbai, Maharashtra. JustDial currently has a database of over 29.4 million listings and 536,236 active paid campaigns.
11. Yellowpages
Yellowpages Homepage
Yellowpages is the best local business listing site that is simple and easy to use. It just has the name and phone number of the business is listed alphabetically with other listed businesses in the category. Another advantage of listing your business on Yellowpages is that it will reach millions of people around the world. Yellowpages is one of the best-known and trusted providers.
The company is one of the most popular telephone and business directories. The company first started out by printing yellow paper instead of white pages for non-commercial listings. It has now well known for being a free business directory of businesses.
When it comes to listing your businesses online, there are plenty of websites now which can help you avail of this benefit. A lot of startups have gained customers whether online or offline through the listing. In today’s world, it has become easier to attract first-time audiences but to keep them as retaining users, the product that is provided must give them a good experience.
FAQ
How can I list my business online for free?
You can use free listing websites to list your business online for free.
Which site is best for business listing?
Google My Business, Crunchbase, Yelp, Meta for Business, and Yahoo Small Business are some of the best free business listing websites.
What are free listing sites?
Free listing websites are websites that help you list your business and maintain the address, phone number, services offered, timings, and social media links that are displayed to potential customers.
This article is contributed by Mr. Abdul Nasir Shaikh, CEO, Lexicon Group of Institutes & Multifit.
Networking is one of the most important things one needs to do to further their career. It gives out opportunities that one cannot find on their own. Through the help of proper networking, one gets to explore other fields and get noticed by the people that will benefit them.
Today, the notion of branding can indeed be implemented on an individualistic level. You can create a picture that will help you stand out online and reach a wider audience.
Every time we talk about personal branding, LinkedIn pops up in our minds. It emerges over the course of our daily discussions about brand management and novel media advertising. In fact, whenever someone is asked to help individuals and startups with personal branding, LinkedIn is bound to be brought up. In this article, we will talk about how we can use LinkedIn for personal branding. So let’s get started.
LinkedIn is one of the most effective business networking tools out there, if not the most. LinkedIn is definitely the best place to increase your network whether it’s for your business or as an individual.
Everything and anything that propels your personal branding and ascension lives and thrives on the network. It’s the digital meeting place for meeting people, accumulating knowledge, and forming and growing business connections.
Steps to Leverage LinkedIn for Personal Branding
LinkedIn can be your ticket to accelerate your career to a whole different level for that you need to follow some important steps and they are down below:
Make your Profile Stand Out
If you sprint through the process of making a profile, you’ll be shooting yourself in the foot. Your profile will be observed and analysed more often than on other social media platforms. Since personal branding is so important in the LinkedIn environment, you’re given a massive and dynamic canvas to portray a picture of yourself on. Delve deeper, put hard work as well as creativity into jamming your public profile from head to toe.
Think of LinkedIn as a Live Profile
Keep your profile updated. Whenever you make any career move, take a new course, learn anything new or publish a new article, everything should go on there. You cannot afford to set your profile and then forget about it. Treat it as a live resume, describing you in a professional as well as in a personal way.
Publish Articles for LinkedIn
There is more than one way of writing for LinkedIn. You can, of course, write exclusively for the platform and reach several people in doing so. You can also publish an excerpt of an article on your own blog and move your LinkedIn audience to read more on your site, creating traffic for your page. The benefit of publishing your work on LinkedIn is that every time you post, your connections get notified, generating a bigger audience.
Strategically Choose your Skills
You can mention up to 50 skills on your profile, be sure to use relevant skills to target your potential clients or employers. Strategize and add skills that work for you in creating a good impression. Remember to stay authentic!
Engage Meaningfully
Take the time to interact with posts on your feed by liking, sharing, and commenting frequently. You must build a relationship with your connections over time so if you want to work with someone in the future, they recognise you as someone they have interacted with, giving you a real presence online.
Optimize your Profile
As said earlier, LinkedIn is a search engine of sorts along with being a social networking site. The words you use matter a great deal. Use keywords for your headline, job descriptions, summary, etc. The right words can go a long way.
Build your Knowledge
Learning should never stop. Keep taking up new things, learning new skills, embarking on adventures of your own, to not only make your profile look better but also to help you grow into a richer human being.
There is another thing that can be discovered over the years, which is individuals on LinkedIn either recognize what they really want to accomplish through the platform or don’t understand what they want to accomplish at all.
While it may appear that those who understand what they want to accomplish will be more successful on LinkedIn, it’s not always the case. As a result, they operate with the wrong mindset, focusing on how many direct leads or sales they can generate.
However, LinkedIn is not really a place for people who would like to constantly hear sales pitches. It is a place for people to collaborate with other people who provide the relevant content or whose stories strike a chord with them.
LinkedIn is one of the easiest platforms to use and has more than 500 million users worldwide! While until recently, your LinkedIn profile was simply for job purposes, many professionals are now starting to emerge as leaders in their sectors and are using LinkedIn as part of that strategy.
Embrace how LinkedIn can be used to build your personal brand beyond just a place to keep up with who has employed you. Start by developing yourself, get better and stronger with personal branding and you will have the best chances of having a successful career.
In this platform, the more one will reveal about themselves, the more people will gravitate towards them.
FAQ
How should you use LinkedIn to promote your brand?
Invite your connection to follow your company page, promote your company using emails and blog posts, and optimize your page search.
Do you think personal branding is important in landing your dream job?
Yes, personal branding is really important for landing a dream job as it will help you to get in front of employers.
How do you market on LinkedIn 2022?
Publish articles on LinkedIn, Make your profile stand out, Optimize your profile, and mention your skills.
LinkedIn outreach is all about finding and reaching out to new people on LinkedIn. The group you target should be people who might be interested in your product and services.
Outreach marketing can be done manually for that personal touch, but as your business scales up you’ll need new clients fast. That’s where automation tools like Castanet come in. Castanet is an enhanced LinkedIn lead generation tool that helps expand your outreach capabilities. It does all the finicky work for you and helps you cultivate clients automatically. You may only need to step in when closing the deal or some personal interaction with your clients.
Castanet works in the cloud meaning, you aren’t required to be logged in. Once you’re done setting up a campaign, you can just sit back and watch the process.
LinkedIn is a great way of getting new, interested customers if you do it right. Using Castanet also allows you to get users from a ranked post that has the same target audience as you. Understanding how the LinkedIn marketing works is also important as you want to generate new leads and develop your customer relationships.
Castanet is a platform meant for deep segmentation. It’s meant to get you those clicks and built with features that support LinkedIn architecture. The process is simple enough for everyone to operate. You create a campaign with a target audience that you can specify, create action sequences and then monitor your progress. Some of the platform’s features are:
Multiple ways to target
Finding the right kind of people is crucial to your marketing strategy and Castanet offers you two ways of doing this. The Sales Navigator search allows you to search for users across LinkedIn using a string query.
Anything that describes or is common to the people you wish to target is a valid string query. Then there’s the option to target people who’ve engaged in a particular post. This could be your own post or any other post that has good engagements and is relevant to the topic you’re trying to get people on. Indeed it’s an easy way to get customers when you already have them assembled towards a post of relevance.
All generated leads can be viewed, including imported contacts
Create precise automation sequences with Castanet that makes your campaign run even smoother. You may also change up, stop or restart any sequence if you choose to do so.
Sequences work best when pre-planned about your campaign. Every aspect of the sequence including the messages you set can be customized according to your preference. Adding a little bit of delay can help keep the service less robotic in nature. Sequencing allows you to perform tasks like:
Keep track of your progress with the analytics dashboard, which gives you a detailed insight into how every campaign is performing. You can track your progress in real-time making sure that things go out as planned. The panel gives you information on acceptance rates, reply rates, and average message replies.
Making sure you have the right message is important as that decides the course of what happens next. Most customers tend to ignore a message within the first 5 seconds if it’s plain and cold. This applies well to LinkedIn. Putting some effort into writing messages that help connect with your targeted people can be beneficial.
Castanet analytics dashboard
Castanet Pricing
Leaning a bit towards the expensive side, Castanet’s starter plan or solo plan comes at $199/month. It comes with one LinkedIn account and includes all the primary features of the platform. The Small Team/Agency comes at $499/month which includes 3 LinkedIn profiles, unlimited sequences and unlimited campaigns. This is perfect for any medium to large-scale enterprise or marketing expert.
Bots are another way of getting automated tasks done. They’re for the most part super cheap to set up and once configured, proceed with the tasks they’re programmed with. Is Castanet any better? Well, it depends on how you perceive it.
In theory, Castanet is a front-end platform that offers you the same functionality that you would get with a LinkedIn bot. However, the amount of time it takes for you to set up and configure a bot is far greater and requires some programming skills. Both function the same way once set up.
But Castanet makes the process much easier for normal people who don’t want to be bothered with the complications of setting up a bot. So the price you pay for the service saves you much valuable time.
LinkedIn lead generation is something businesses are catching onto. Castanet is an easier solution compared to spending valuable time trying to generate leads on your own while you can focus on the actual business. Having a free 7-day trial you can try out the platform’s features to see how effective it is for your style of marketing. If getting leads on LinkedIn is something you always wanted to automate, then Castanet can be a good platform, to begin with.
FAQ
What is Castanet?
Castanet is an enhanced LinkedIn lead generation tool that helps expand your outreach capabilities. It does all the finicky work for you and helps you cultivate clients automatically.
What is the pricing of Castanet?
Castanet’s starter plan or solo plan comes at $199/month, The Agency plan comes at $499/month and offers 3 accounts with added customer support.
LinkedIn is a great platform for lead generation and hiring. Several platforms allow you to further enhance and automate the process, helping businesses reach out to more people faster. Cleverly is a LinkedIn lead generation platform that works to automate your outreach. Cleverly uses data from thousands of outbound B2B campaigns to send personalized messages to clients. That’s what they say at least, but is the platform actually worth your time and money?
Initiated in 2016, Cleverly was made to simplify LinkedIn lead generation, doing all the work for you. The only intervention needed is when your clients respond and you can take it further, hopefully getting a deal.
Getting a response on LinkedIn takes skill. As several platforms such as Cleverly are constantly messaging clients trying desperately to get those responses. People are more likely to ignore messages that seem artificial and have no connection with the client.
Cleverly’s data-driven messages are supposed to be personal and more likely to get a response on your campaigns. The platform, known for its messages, has a few other features that it advertises.
Cleverly is kept updated with user data, meaning it improves itself based on responses acquired in the past and successful lead generations. The service is meant to be used by growing businesses, startups, and freelancers.
Although the platform is simple enough with a clean UI, it doesn’t seem to have any exceptional features that make it stand apart from other B2B campaign tools. Here’s what we know about the platform:
Prospect Builder
Cleverly has a built-in prospect builder based on LinkedIn data that you can use to build your client lists. Based on actual data that’s collected from LinkedIn, Cleverly makes a list of potential clients who may be interested in your product.
This data is acquired through group participants, post comments, and profiles. It lets you add custom entries as well as importing your own lists for your campaigns.
Once you have built a list of clients you want to connect to Cleverly moves ahead with your campaign and onto the next stage of lead generation that is messaging the clients on your list.
Personalized Messages
Data-driven personalized messages for your campaign sounds great on paper. Sending those eye-catching messages that get people interested all without any effort on your part is unfortunately too good to be true.
Based on Cleverly customer reviews on several platforms, the messages sent aren’t really personal. Although data-driven, the messages fail to generate leads as promised. According to users of the platform, the messages appeared to be way too direct, spam-like and inconsistent with the campaign theme.
For a lead generation tool that relies on its messaging feature, this is something that Cleverly needs to improve. The company offers to guarantee that the service will generate any leads at all. The service isn’t liable to get you leads even though that’s what it’s supposed to do.
Automation of your workflow is a standard feature when it comes to any lead generation tool. The whole idea of paying for a service like this is to simplify your efforts and get more work done.
Cleverly does indeed automate messages to clients and lets users set a time interval based on your campaign for sending those messages. Automatic follow-up messages and quick reply functionality is provided as well.
When required, the Cleverly account manager is present to make better decisions on message and campaign timings. However, the reasoning and reliability of this feature are questionable.
Customers have complained previously about unplanned actions taken by the platform because they had been provided with campaign data. Taking unauthorized business decisions is certainly bad for both the platform and the client using the service.
Pricing of Cleverly
For a lead generation tool that’s supposed to be versatile to conglomerates and small businesses alike, the pricing certainly isn’t appropriate. Starting at $297/month for the Silver plan that offers just 250 prospects, there are certainly better alternatives to the platform.
Spending almost $397/month gives you almost all the functionality of the platform along with its integrations, customer support, and account manager with the only limit being the number of prospects. There is no free trial which means you have to make a purchase even if you wish to try the platform.
Additionally, it’s worth mentioning that the only difference between all 3 plans is the number of prospects available.
Priced much lower than Cleverly, CASTANET is another tool for LinkedIn lead generation. It offers similar features, except that it doesn’t create messages for you. Instead, it offers a dedicated message sequence builder that allows you to craft your own messages and replies with ease. This makes sure that the messages you send are personal, relevant, and natural. Besides messaging sequences, the platform also has:
A Dedicated IP Address per profile
Randomized Delays between actions
Cloud-based
Intelligent Limits
Deep Segmentation
Starting at $199/month for the solo plan, you get one LinkedIn profile and access to all the platform’s features including unlimited campaigns and sequences. CASTANET is surely a better alternative for those who wish to automate their B2B lead generation.
It also offers a free 14-day trial for all the plans so you only pay if you like the service. Considering the price and features you get, it’s clear that CASTANET is much more versatile and a better alternative to Cleverly.
Conclusion
Having the best tools doesn’t necessarily mean you will get more leads. It’s about your product and the type of messages you send. That being said it’s always better to use a service with more value and good reviews.
Cleverly was a great platform back in 2016 but with the progression of time, there are better alternatives out there. Making the right choice can mean more leads for your business and that’s all that really matters.
FAQ
What is the pricing of Cleverly?
Cleverly has three plans, the silver plan which is priced at $297/month, Gold plan which is priced at $300 and platinum priced at $597/month.
What is Cleverly?
Cleverly is a LinkedIn lead generation platform that works to automate your outreach.
While talking about platforms where one can build a professional relationship with clients and employees, then LinkedIn tops the list. Founded by Reid Hoffman, this platform has been increasing its user base since its birth. It has also successfully placed itself among the list of fastest-growing social media networking platforms.
However, even today, many people aren’t aware of this platform. LinkedIn is a professional platform where clients and employees can build professional relationships with each other. With about more than 660 million users and 9 million companies, LinkedIn is still expanding its community of professionals. Before moving ahead, let’s have a look at some company highlights about LinkedIn.
LinkedIn – Company Highlights
Company Name
LinkedIn
Founding Year
2003
Headquarters
Sunnyvale, California, United States
Industry
Professional Networking, Social Media
CEO
Ryan Roslansky
Founder
Reid Hoffman
Parent Company
Microsoft Corporation
How does LinkedIn make money? Did this question pop up in your mind? Well, we have discussed the company highlights of LinkedIn. Now, we shall be unveiling the revenue sources of LinkedIn. But, before that, let’s discuss the services offered and provided by LinkedIn? So, what are you waiting for? Just keep scrolling and knowing.
LinkedIn is a free platform for everyone. However, there are some premium services which the company offers and provides its user base. The key services include:
Talent Solutions
Marketing Solutions
Talent Solutions
Talent solutions refer to all those services which are offered to companies, including recruiters. This is a premium feature that helps them to hire the most suitable and appropriate candidate who would meet all their requirements. Apart from this, it even offers businesspeople the perfect partner for expanding their business. The key services offered by LinkedIn under Talent Solutions includes:
LinkedIn Recruiter
Recruitment Media
Work With Us Ads
Job Slots
Career Pages
Apart from these advantages which LinkedIn provides to its users registered as recruiters, it’s also a boon for employees. It helps them enhance and hone their skills with millions of courses that are available in premium versions.
Now, you might be wondering why LinkedIn? While there are other job portals, why is LinkedIn so popular? Then, let me tell you this. On other job portals, the users need to look for jobs themselves. However, on LinkedIn, users need to exhibit their skills and talents which will make them their brand and attract recruiters. Well, this is one of the key services offered by LinkedIn.
Along with talent solutions, LinkedIn also provides marketing solutions. Do you want to know how it does so? Then, let’s dive deeper. Besides being a professional platform, LinkedIn also lets companies launch and execute their perfect marketing strategies in their campaigns. The company can have its page on LinkedIn. In addition to this, the company can also improve their efforts in marketing by using tools for the creation of:
Sponsored Content
Sponsored Email
Text Ads
Both these services provided by LinkedIn also contribute to its methods of generation of revenue.
LinkedIn Business Model
We know that Facebook and other social networking sites make their money by advertising. However, LinkedIn has an entirely different model for the generation of its revenue. The business model of LinkedIn may be classified into the following types:
LinkedIn is the most popular professional platform where everyone can join. Every user joins LinkedIn for various purposes. Some users join to find suitable jobs. On the other hand, some others join for generating leads or learning key concepts of business. LinkedIn has solutions for satisfying every user’s needs. The two basic business solutions provided by LinkedIn include talent solutions and marketing solutions.
Talent solutions contribute about 65% to the business model of LinkedIn. In addition to this, marketing solutions are about 18% of the business model of LinkedIn. This is how LinkedIn provides a vast arena for recruiters and employees. Both of these communities are benefited from this learn and earn platform. This is how LinkedIn makes money by providing business solutions.
Premium Subscriptions
Not all users join LinkedIn for the same purpose. This is why LinkedIn offers certain features and plans for its premium users. These premium features and plans are specially designed according to the demands of the user. The basic premium subscriptions available includes:
Career
Business Plus
Sales Navigator
Recruiter Lite
Let’s know more about each of these subscriptions.
Career Solutions
The features offered to the users by the Career Solutions subscription of LinkedIn include:
The features offered to the users by the Business Plus subscription of LinkedIn include:
Search for and look at an unlimited number of profiles.
Gain access to the InMail feature of LinkedIn by which one can connect and contact any LinkedIn user.
Sales Navigator
In this Sales Navigator subscription, premium users enjoy the privilege to boost up their strategies of social selling. There are various tools such as InMail, enhanced search, saved leads, sale insights, and lead recommendations. All these tools are very beneficial for marketers and businesspersons.
Recruiter Lite
This feature can be called the simpler version of the Talent Solutions Feature. Apart from the basic features, the other features offered to the users by this subscription includes:
Automatic tracking of candidates.
Smart and enhanced suggestions.
Designing websites specific to those of ideal recruiters.
Integrated hiring of employees.
These premium subscriptions of LinkedIn help LinkedIn to generate revenue.
LinkedIn Acquisitions & Partnerships
LinkedIn Learning logo
LinkedIn has acquired and has extended partnerships with other brand platforms which contribute to its business model. The platforms and companies acquired and partnered by LinkedIn include:
LinkedIn Learning is an acquisition of LinkedIn which was previously known as Lynda. However, the operating model of the platform remains the same where it continues to be an e-learning platform. The users can have a revenue model after buying a subscription. They can even learn various professional skills via videos.
LinkedIn Acquisition of SlideShare | LinkedIn SlideShare
SlideShare is a slide hosting platform acquired by LinkedIn in 2013. This platform allows users to upload and post their PowerPoint, OpenDocument, keynote, and PDF both in public and private mode.
All these acquisitions and partnerships have even helped LinkedIn generate its revenue.
Conclusion
The business model of LinkedIn is quite different and unique from other networking platforms. It’s a very beneficial platform where even surfing and scrolling helps you in your growth and development. This is how it stands away from Facebook, Snapchat, Twitter, Instagram.
The platform hasn’t gained enough popularity. However, with its amazing features both at free and premium platforms the company is growing. Over the years, it has gained the trust of its users and has been the first preference both for recruiters and employers.
FAQs
What is LinkedIn How does it work?
LinkedIn is an online platform to connect with professionals and grow your professional network worldwide.
Does LinkedIn cost money?
LinkedIn provides free Social networking service. There are additional features provided by LinkedIn which are paid services.
How does LinkedIn make its money?
LinkedIn’s makes money through its talent solutions, marketing solutions, and premium subscriptions.
Is LinkedIn for business free?
Anyone with a company name and company email address can create a LinkedIn Company Page within minutes. The best part is that it’s free and easy
When most people think of social media, they think of Facebook or Instagram, but LinkedIn is rarely seen as part of the broad array of social media platforms accessible.
Reid Hoffman envisioned a location where professionals could meet, interact, and exchange knowledge when he founded LinkedIn in 2003. He desired a platform that would allow business experts to easily locate one another.
Reid’s initial venture was a social networking site called Socialnet, which he launched before LinkedIn. That was seven years before Facebook, in 1997. The events of Socialnet, according to Reid, “left wounds and spilt a lot of blood.” The most important lesson he learnt was the need of concentrating on one single subject, business.
He saw a rising demand for a one-stop network where professionals could further their careers, learn and share information, create brands, and recruit talent; LinkedIn was created.
We have a tendency to believe that LinkedIn isn’t as useful as it appears, and many organizations fall into this trap, believing that it would be considerably more helpful to focus on their presence on Twitter, for example. There’s a logic to this: LinkedIn is for companies, but I’m seeking to promote to actual people, and they’ll be on other, more relaxed platforms, so I might as well go there too.
This logic is incorrect. Why? Well, here are a few reasons as to why is LinkedIn a better platform for building a brand better than other platforms?
This is true for both individuals seeking new career opportunities and businesses seeking to extend their brand. Where can a potential employer find you as an individual? On Facebook or Instagram, for example. But do you really want them to see that photo of you at the beach in your funky clothes, or the nasty joke you posted the night before? Most likely not. These are personal information about you that detract from your professional image.
You’ll need a location to put all of your professional skills and expertise on display. A place where you may write clever, well-thought-out posts that are both casual and personable while also displaying your professionalism. That’s how LinkedIn works.
The same is true for enterprises. Another company you’re interested to partnership with doesn’t want to see your funny Instagram marketing campaign, no matter how brilliant it is. It wants to perceive you as a worthwhile long-term investment.
Linkedin- Relevant Search for Your Business Connection
The power of search is something that most people overlook when it comes to Twitter, LinkedIn, and social media in general. While posting, sharing, tweeting, and updating are all important, the true strength of these platforms lies in their ability to search and engage.
When it comes to searching and engaging, the difference between Twitter and LinkedIn is what you’re looking for. On Twitter, the emphasis is on content, tweets, and subjects, but on LinkedIn, searching for companies and individuals to connect with is more powerful.
Of course, you can search for information and individuals on both platforms, but Twitter excels at finding relevant people in your industry to connect with, and LinkedIn excels at finding relevant people in your business to connect with.
Linkedin- Professional Networking
There are 61 million senior level influencers on LinkedIn, with 40 million of them being decision-makers. There are 87 million registered members in the Millennial group alone, with 11 million of them in decision-making positions. It’s a plethora of chances for professional networking.
It’s a sensible entrance point for business-oriented people who don’t have time to wade through a lot of personal messages, unlike Facebook and other social media sites.
On LinkedIn, there isn’t much enthusiasm for revealing trivial or intimate information. Instead, you’ll primarily discover professionals looking to network with other like-minded businesses and organizations.
Linkedin Brand Building
Linkedin- Easy to Track Rivals
Because, let’s face it, every company has them. And, in order to stay on top of the game, you have to keep track of what they’re doing, right? There’s no better site than LinkedIn to achieve that. Your rivals’ Facebook page will not tell you what they’re up to, just like your Facebook profile won’t tell you what they’re up to for a possible business partner.
And you must remember this in order to flourish as a business.
Remember that amazing young professional you met three years ago at that conference? Or that buddy of a friend who wanted to work for your firm as a freelancer?
To be honest, I doubt it.
When you meet new people, instead of throwing their business cards in your desk drawer or adding their email addresses to your out-of-date address book, add them to your LinkedIn professional network. Keep them in your contacts so you may reconnect with them when the moment is perfect.
Linkedin- Customer Satisfaction
Because LinkedIn’s platform allows you to quickly engage with your consumers, it can help you increase overall customer satisfaction. You may conduct surveys, request testimonials, and even send direct notes thanking consumers for their continued support. This will let you identify what works and what doesn’t over time, while also demonstrating to your consumers that you care about them and the business they provide. Because the feelings of gratitude that come with being heard are unrivalled, encourage a balance of public and private contacts. LinkedIn, like Facebook, provides a means to handle customer care and address any concerns that may emerge, although on a smaller scale. LinkedIn, like Facebook, provides a platform for handling customer service and resolving any concerns that may emerge, but on a more professional level.
When you log in to LinkedIn, it creates a timeline similar to other social networking sites. You’ll discover the latest news from your contacts, organizations, and company there. Keeping track on industry trends and reports is both entertaining and prudent.
Linkedin Vs Facebook
Despite the fact that Facebook provides a variety of useful networking and advertising options, both paid and free, an increasing number of users are quitting the popular social media site. Businesses and customers alike are abandoning Facebook in favor of alternative, more trustworthy platforms due to a significant number of data breaches and confidentiality issues. LinkedIn is one of these sites, and while it may not have all of the features that Facebook has, it isn’t far behind. In reality, we feel LinkedIn offers certain benefits over Facebook, particularly in the corporate world.
Here are a few reasons why:
Multilayered Targeting
You may target individuals based on their job titles, degree of seniority within a business, and the talents they possess, in addition to targeting based on corporate relationships. If you’re looking for a business development manager, or any other job title for that matter, you can just type in a search query and get a slew of results, regardless of the firm you work for. This is ideal for companies looking for a point of contact, to fill a position, or to just expand their network of individuals in similar professions.
Sponsored Mail
The chances of someone clicking on a sponsored ad on Facebook are minimal to none, and if they do, the majority of people will be upset and may even ban your business. Sponsored in-mail on LinkedIn, on the other hand, is well-known and well-received. This is due to the LinkedIn user attitude and the value that most sponsored in-mail offers. All you have to do when creating your marketing campaign is put together content that will be relevant and helpful to the people you’ll be reaching out to. Include a clear and responsive call to action, and distribute it to your target audiences using the lists you’ve built.
The fact that your message will only be delivered to your audience members when they are active is a significant advantage of LinkedIn mail, which boosts open rates and overall replies.
Contact Information Is Easily Accessible
Although Facebook has a retargeting tool, it may be tough to find— especially if you’re looking for company-specific data. LinkedIn has more easily available contact information and a direct message system that is not subject to the same stringent screening methods as Facebook. Due to LinkedIn’s algorithms, there are a variety of ways to run sponsored advertisements to a list of matched audiences using their email addresses or just a list of corporate contacts. This means you’ll be able to reach a wider audience with less work, improving your lead list and sales potential in the future.
You may also search by seniority if you know you need to speak with someone with a lot of power in a company. Again, the purpose of these searches is determined by your requirements, but eliminating people who aren’t decision makers is a great approach to save time in the long run. Finally, depending on your objectives, LinkedIn offers the opportunity to search for people who possess a certain skill set. Because LinkedIn primarily relies on third-party recommendations, you can immediately discover what they’ve been ranked best at, allowing you to swiftly determine why they’d be valuable to your company.
If you require a more refined audience, LinkedIn also allows you to perform focused searches and create lists based on certain demographics.
LinkedIn VS. Twitter
Here are some key distinctions between Twitter and LinkedIn, as well as what you should know while developing your strategy:
The way you communicate on LinkedIn is significantly different from how you communicate on Twitter.
This is arguable, but Twitter is more suited for informal everyday material like photographs of your meals or selfies than LinkedIn. It is not suggested that you just use Twitter to post photographs of your food, nor that taking a selfie on LinkedIn is a crime, but keep in mind that LinkedIn is a more professional network, whereas Twitter is better for short-form casual conversation.
On each website, look for the differences in relationships.
This is an important issue that is frequently missed. Twitter was created with one-to-one connections in mind: a follower and a followee. LinkedIn, like Facebook, is more bidirectional; it is a two-way street. Of course, you can follow individuals on LinkedIn, but it was an afterthought in the platform’s design.
A reciprocal connection is more important and relevant from a psychological standpoint than simply following someone and them not following you back. This is a significant distinction that should not be overlooked when customizing the material you post on the two sites.
Recognize when self-promotion is appropriate.
This might be my own interpretation of the two platforms. However, although updating your network on LinkedIn about your job, company development, and team success is okay, doing it on Twitter is frowned upon.
Self-promotion on Twitter is frowned upon, and businesses who exploit the site to market are immediately branded as spammers and abusers. Of course, it is not suggesting that you should use LinkedIn for shameless self-promotion, but individuals on LinkedIn are looking for more professional updates, and they have a higher tolerance for semi-promotional content.
Conclusion
If you were unsure about how many advantages LinkedIn might offer, perhaps this list has persuaded you that it is one of your most valuable professional tools. You may use it to expand and maintain your network, look for employment, and improve your professional reputation. It’s also completely free. So, what are you waiting for?
FAQs
Why is LinkedIn important for branding?
It is a professional way of branding and an effective tool for brand awareness and brand promotion.
Why is LinkedIn so popular?
It has more than 600 million professional profiles to help you build a good network connections, job opportunities, brand building and marketing.
Who is the CEO of LinkedIn?
Ryan Roslansky is the CEO of Linkedin.
How do you use branding on LinkedIn?
Linkedin branding can be done by effectively optimizing your profile, page, content and posts.
Yash Gupta
