Bookmark This Now! 10 Game-Changing LinkedIn Features to Help Grow Your Business (2023)
Think back to when you first joined LinkedIn. Wouldn’t it have been nice if someone onboarded you like it was your first day at a new company? Someone to walk you through the ins and outs of the platform and point out all of the LinkedIn features.
Today, my friend is your lucky day!
I am going to walk you through the 10 most valuable and useful features LinkedIn offers to help you grow an audience, create content and enhance your profile. Even if you’ve been a member for a while or are brand new to the platform, I promise you’ll discover something new you can take away from this list that can help build your personal brand or help you grow your business.
Let’s dive into the 10 most useful features of LinkedIn…
10 Game-Changing LinkedIn Features for 2022
- Creator Mode
- Audio Pronunciation
- Personalized Profile Video
- Marketplace for Freelance Services
- Laughing Emoji
- Audio Events
- Product Call Out
- Launch a Newsletter
- Promote and Market Your Event
- Embed Your Unique URL
1. LinkedIn Creator Mode
Creator mode is a LinkedIn feature that changes the traditional member profile settings to a different profile format that focuses on the person’s content. With a simple click of turning the Creator mode “On,” this feature provides access to content creation tools and viewer analytics to help members focused on growing an audience establish their personal brand and services through content creation.
This a solid feature to consider if you’re a start-up business owner, consultant, or online coach who is looking to grow their followers that could potentially turn into viable prospects for the business. This feature helps unlock other LinkedIn features that are also called out on this list, a little further below.
[in]sider Tip: Want to learn more about the LinkedIn Creator mode and features? Check out this article to see if the switch is the right move for you.
2. Pronunciation Recording Feature
If you’ve noticed that people have difficulties pronouncing your name or if you’re like me, I want to hear how someone pronounces their name before meeting with them; then the pronunciation recording is going to be your new favorite LinkedIn profile feature!
You can now record a short audio recording of your name pronunciation by simply going to your profile on your mobile device and tapping on the edit pencil of your introduction. Beneath your name is where you can record a 10-second audio of how to pronounce your name.
To learn how to pronounce someone’s name, go to their profile and look for the megaphone symbol. Tap the symbol to listen to the recording of how they pronounce their name.
3. Personalized LinkedIn Profile Video
This feature can literally help bring your cover story to life by allowing you to add a quick video to greet visitors to your profile. The video can give a visitor a sneak peek into your personality and share with the viewer who you are and how you help others. A LinkedIn profile personal branding hack that you can easily add to your cover story today!
On mobile, go to your profile and look for a blue circle with a “+” sign on your profile photo – click to select “Add profile video.” This feature will even provide you prompts to answer while you record yourself. When you’re ready, tap the red button to record for up to 30 seconds.
4. LinkedIn Marketplace for Freelance Providers
In a recent LinkedIn Survey, 82% of people hiring freelance service providers say getting a referral from someone in their professional network is the best way to find a good candidate. Enter LinkedIn Marketplace, a centralized hub for members to connect with freelance coaches, consultants, creators, and business service providers in and outside of their networks.
If you offer freelance work on the side or are a small business owner who provides services, this is a way to be discovered with a possible leg up on the competition because your LinkedIn profile is connected to your service page. Potential clients can instantly see if there are mutual connections and can easily review a brief description of your services and comments from your past clients.
The best part about this feature is you don’t have to be connected to the person hiring for the service. They can reach out to you regardless of following you or having a previous connection.
You can set up a services page by tapping on your icon and selecting “Providing services.”
5. Laughing Emoji on LinkedIn
You may LOL (pun intended) as you read this as one of the top LinkedIn features, but the laughing emoji can help make a connection with the author of the post and a way to see how people are reacting to your content more specifically than just a generic “like.” Showing signs of laughter is a simple yet powerful feature to indicate to another person that their post created a positive reaction and effect. Knowing if someone reacted with a laugh from your well-intended lighthearted posts could be a great starter for a direct message to a new connection or prospect.
6. LinkedIn Audio Events Feature
LinkedIn Audio is a fairly recent feature that has slowly rolled out to members to host an event, and it may not be available to everyone, but you can certainly join one to listen or be selected to speak.
LinkedIn Audio is similar to Clubhouse or Twitter’s Spaces- live audio events that are available for people to listen to (just like listening to a podcast, but in real-time) and a possibility for you to speak at the event by raising your hand- the host can select you to join in the conversation or ask a question. A great way to share your knowledge and showcase your personality in real time in front of an audience.
A personal brand hack that can boost your visibility that’s not linked to connections or attached to an algorithm, just you organically showcasing who you are professional.
7. Product Feature as a Skill on Your Work Experience
If your work experience involves developing and creating a specific product for a company (e.g., software, mobile app, consumer product), you can now list the product as a part of your skills under the relevant company. The only caveat to this feature is the company must have a product page to link.
Why is this a useful feature? It showcases your expertise with a direct line to the product you help build. Let’s say you’re looking to become a software development consultant; this is a simple way to highlight your work experience around the product you helped create. This LinkedIn feature allows you to show people your career “receipts!”
8. Launch a Newsletter on LinkedIn
Ding ding! Did you hear that? You just received a notification from a company or brand with new and juicy content sent directly to your inbox. Now, what if similar notifications were sent to your network on LinkedIn? Would that double or triple the visibility of your content? No more hypothetical questions because you can send personalized newsletters on LinkedIn with a creator-mode profile.
You can invite the people in your network to sign-up for your LinkedIn newsletter, so they aren’t missing out on the latest and greatest content you’ve published in the last month or week. A huge brand awareness tool that is great for budding online coaches to help a well-established content creator stay top of mind with their audience. Whether you’re looking to grow an audience or trying to keep them engaged, launching a LinkedIn newsletter is a fantastic feature to keep your network in the ”know.”
📍 [In]sider Tip: Another awesome LinkedIn feature that helps gain visibility of your thought leadership and expertise is publishing an article on LinkedIn. This feature has been available for a while, but it’s definitely one of the most effective and valuable features they offer. (Plus, the article can be found on Google search results!). Check out this blog article for more details and examples of how to create an attention-grabbing article on LinkedIn.
9. Promote and Market Your Event
Getting people to remember and attend your event can be challenging, but with the “Create an Event” feature on LinkedIn, promoting your event to your LinkedIn followers and connections just got easier.
The LinkedIn Events feature is designed to invite and remind people of an event that doesn’t have to be a part of the platform. It could be held virtually or as an in-person event, and of course, if the event is a LinkedIn Live or a LinkedIn Audio event, this is possible too. To create an event, you can tap on the “plus” sign to create a post, and the option to create an event is one of the available features. You can add images or marketing assets to the banner, and if you’re creating an event from a business page, you can even have people RSVP to the event.
10. URL Display Feature on LinkedIn
LinkedIn is a great platform to build your personal brand and get discovered by new people and audiences, but you also need to be able to direct your audience to your website or a landing page that you own and control. Great news! You can now add up to 3 URLs to your profile.
By ushering people to your website, they are one step closer to converting into a customer, and that’s one of the main goals for developing your personal brand on LinkedIn. The ultimate goal is to attract and encourage people on the platform to want to learn more about you and your services- outside of the platform.
Final Takeaway- The 10 Most Useful Features on LinkedIn
So there you have it! The 10 most useful features on LinkedIn to help you build your personal brand, grow an audience, and establish your credibility and authority in your business or profession. Now that you’re aware of these features, I hope you will begin to use them to help attract new customers and to help grow your business.
Want to learn how to use these features effectively and within a LinkedIn Marketing strategy?
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