I have been effectively using LinkedIn for a while now; both for my personal and business purposes. And let me tell you a secret: it’s been worth every second of my time and effort. If you however are not already on LinkedIn, take my advice and do so at the very earliest.
When it comes to upgrading or immigrating to a paid LinkedIn account, I have listed some very convincing arguments for doing so. To see just how far you are ready to agree with me, simply carry on reading to the very end of this article.
For starters, a recent survey confirms that this year as many as 15% users have so far migrated to a paid LinkedIn account, compared to just 8% during the whole last year. Now, should this alone serve as an enticement for you, monthly pricing commences at $15.95 (NGN 2,593.50).
My logic goes, migrate to a paid LinkedIn account, should you consider yourself:
- A well-versed professional in human resources
- A recruiter
- A user who persistently encounters a screen that encourages you to migrate
If you regularly encounter a screen that strongly recommends your migration, it’s possible you could be using some feature on LinkedIn that appears to work in your favour, and it’s high time for you to consider migrating to a paid account. For instance, this would be so: if your interests include sending introductions and/or InMails, or your preference is having many saved searches.
When an increasing number of users are encouraged to migrate to paid LinkedIn accounts, new valuable features that are exclusively available for paid subscribers will naturally grow in equal proportion.
Now, features that enticed me into choosing to migrate to a paid LinkedIn account include:
1. Saved Searches: I could see evident benefits from more than the just 3 saved searches permissible to each free user.
2. Longer Search Result Lists: Although up to a hundred search results are permissible to free users, I could see that longer lists would account for more leads, which in turn would obviously culminate in higher revenue generation to my account.
3. Your Profile Views: Using a free LinkedIn account, only the last 5 users who displayed interest in my profile could be seen. However, with a paid account, I have the exclusive privilege of knowing about every single user who shows interest in my profile, provided it is so wished by the concerned individual as well.
4. Advanced Supplementary Search Filters: This gives me tremendous searching power.
5. Access to Complete Profiles Belonging to Other LinkedIn Users: As free user, I could view complete profile belonging to my first and second level connections only, whereas access to pertinent info about other far remoter connections now enables me to develop strategies that encompass these individuals as well.
6. InMails: Purchasing these for a sum of $10 (NGN 1,626.00) each, allows me to set up contacts with individuals who are not in my connections. When a recipient chooses not to respond within 7 days, I receive a $10 (NGN 1,626.00) reverse-credit to my account.
Furthermore, intently for the purpose of getting round real-life conventional obstacles, LinkedIn is resolutely structured to bring a diversified group of business people onto a single platform in a fairly new yet unique manner. In this perspective, I am convinced that you would wish to make a note of some very useful other benefits offered by LinkedIn. Some of these include:
- Finding service providers, business partners and clients
- Recruitment through easily accessible potential candidates
- Easy access to expert advice
- Making use of your blog as a promotional tool for your business
- Employing the LinkedIn Recommendations feature for boosting your business credibility and getting new clients
- Letting your company’s profile information on LinkedIn, which has been specifically designed for SEO purpose, be readily available for indexing by search engines
- Taking optimum advantage of ‘Starting Groups’ to grow your business through networking
- Drawing upon the unlimited potential offered by around 120 million worldwide users and wide-ranging LinkedIn capabilities for enticing advertisers
Here I wish to set you a personal example. As of this moment in time, I feel especially privileged to announce that I have 10,000 contacts on LinkedIn. What’s more, having achieved the top 5% in 2012, this exceptionally significant fact now encourages me to set myself a near future goal of being counted among 1% of the most viewed LinkedIn profiles before the end of 2013.
I hope now that I’ve got your attention and you know why I chose to migrate to a paid LinkedIn account, you too are ready for the same move. “Two’s a company”, as it’s commonly said. So let’s do it together; that’s obviously if you agree. Now, I’m waiting for your take!
Creative Commons Courtesy : Terry Chay
