All About LinkedIn

As a sophomore seeking to connect with business professionals, LinkedIn has become one of my most frequently used social media platforms. At my college, students in the business program are required to take the course Career Planning. In this class, students learn how to set up and effectively use LinkedIn as a professional networking tool. I have been active on LinkedIn for a little over a year, and during that time, I have developed a better understanding of how to engage with others in a professional setting. This includes interacting with posts, sharing relevant content and building meaningful connections. 

Image from FreePik

One example of this was when I connected with the author of the book that my honors seminar course, Wicked Problems, read. From that connection, I was then able to reach out to the author on LinkedIn’s messaging feature and interview her about the topics discussed in the class. This experience demonstrated how empowering the platform can be. 

During the Society for Advancement of Management Conference, which I discussed in a previous blog post, I attended a LinkedIn workshop that provided practical tips for improving my profile. In that session, I learned how to customize my profile URL and generate a QR code to make sharing my profile more efficient. These small adjustments made my profile appear more professional and accessible to others. I have also used LinkedIn to connect with a wide range of individuals, including guest speakers from my classes, alumni from my university and professionals suggested through the platform’s recommendation system. These connections have allowed me to expand my network and gain insight into different career paths within the business field. 

In my Principles of Social Media class, we recently covered a chapter focused on LinkedIn. From that chapter, I learned that LinkedIn was founded in 2002 by Reid Hoffman and was later acquired by Microsoft in 2016. The platform’s largest user demographic is individuals between the ages of 25 and 34, and it hosts more than 90 million company pages. One concept that stood out to me was LinkedIn’s “four-to-one” rule, which suggests that for every original post a business shares, it should also share four pieces of content from other sources to maintain engagement and credibility.

I am looking forward to continuing to use the platform and exploring all of the opportunities it continues to open up for me.