Joel Elad - LinkedIn For Dummies

Perform an unlimited number of searches for LinkedIn members in your extended network of first- and second-degree members plus group members.

If you want to step up to a paid account, some of the main features include these:

Send a message to anyone in the LinkedIn community — regardless of whether he or she is in your extended network — through an InMail messaging service. ( Note: You get a limited number of InMail credits depending on your paid account level.)

View more LinkedIn profile information of people not in your LinkedIn network when you conduct advanced searches.

See more LinkedIn network profile information when you conduct advanced searches.

See who has viewed your profile (if those viewers have not configured their settings to be anonymous when viewing profiles) and how they arrived at your profile.

Obtain membership in the Open Profile program, which gives you unlimited Open Profile messages.

LinkedIn offers a few levels of paid accounts, each with a specific level of benefits. For the most up-to-date packages that LinkedIn offers, check out the Free and Paid Accounts Help page at http://www.linkedin.com/premium/products , as shown in Figure 1-7. You can also click the Try Premium for Free link at the top right of your screen to see a comparison of the paid accounts.

Every premium account comes with certain benefits regardless of the level you choose. These benefits include

Open Profile network membership

Unlimited Open Profile messages

Ability to see who viewed your profile

Access to premium content

One-business-day customer service for your LinkedIn questions

FIGURE 1-7:Learn about different paid account features on LinkedIn.

As of this writing, LinkedIn offers a variety of premium packages targeted at individual users: Premium Career, Premium Business, Premium Sales, and Premium Hiring. Each account level comes with specific benefits:

Premium Career: $29.99 per month, billed monthly, or $239.88 per year when you buy an annual subscription, at a 33 percent savings. This account includes the following:Five InMail credits per month, which allow you to contact any LinkedIn member regardless of whether he or she is in your network, as long as the other member agreed to receive InMail messagesAbility to see who viewed your profile in the last 90 days and how they located you Even with this feature in a premium account, if the other person has her privacy settings configured to remove her visibility, you won’t see her name when you look at who viewed your profile.Access to millions of online video courses taught by industry experts in the LinkedIn Learning librarySalary insights that show you salary details when browsing job listings, without having to share your own personal dataApplicant insights to see how you (and your skill set) compare to other candidates for a potential jobFeatured Applicant status when a recruiter searches for applicants, which means you are moved to the top section of a recruiter’s search screen

Premium Business: $59.99 per month, billed monthly, or $575.88 per year when you buy an annual subscription, at a 20 percent savings. This account includes the following:Fifteen InMail credits per month (see Chapter 6for more on InMail)Ability to view unlimited profiles when you perform a LinkedIn search, including any third-degree network membersAbility to see who viewed your profile in the last 90 days and how they located youBusiness insights that give you the most up-to-date trends and information on how a company’s growth rate and hiring trends are projecting, so you can research companies more effectivelyMany of the benefits of the Premium Career account, such as LinkedIn Learning, and applicant and salary insights

Premium Sales (or Sales Navigator Professional): $79.99 per month, billed monthly, or $779.88 per year when you buy an annual subscription, at a 19 percent savings. This account includes the following:Twenty InMails per monthHelp in finding recommended leads to reach out to, insight into how to reach out to them, and the ability to save the leads to your account and to create, organize, and keep track of leads and accounts through listsReal-time updates on your leads and accounts when they post updates such as job changes or company growthLead Builder and Recommendation tools to help you find the right people to close the deal in your sales life

Premium Hiring (a.k.a. Recruiter Lite): $119.95 per month, billed monthly, or $1,199.40 per year when you buy an annual subscription, at a 16 percent savings. This account includes these features:Thirty InMails per monthAdvanced search engines geared for recruiting to help you find top talent even faster, and a guided search experience to navigate the LinkedIn network efficientlySmart Suggestions tools to help you find potential qualified candidates for your job listing that you may not initially consideredAbility to create projects in LinkedIn, where you can track the progress of multiple applicants in a potential pool, categorize people in folders, attach notes to profiles, and set up automated reminders

What’s the value in getting a premium account? Besides the features listed in the previous section for each account level, premium accounts are designed to give you more attention in areas such as job searches. When an employer lists a job posting and collects applications through LinkedIn, premium account holders show up at the top of the applicant list (similar to the Sponsored result in a Google search) with a Featured Applicant status next to their name. LinkedIn provides special content in the form of emails, video tutorials, and articles that provide job search and professional development tips and advice from leaders in the industry. Finally, you get to see who has viewed your profile, which can be helpful when you’re applying for jobs or trying to set up business deals. A premium account is not essential for everyone, so consider what you need from your LinkedIn experience and decide if upgrading is right for you.

As of this writing, LinkedIn gives you the option to try any premium plan for free during the first month, and it automatically charges your credit card each month afterward for the full amount, unless you bought a yearly plan, for which the charges renew every 12 months.

To upgrade to a premium account, I highly recommend starting by creating your free account and using the various functions on LinkedIn. If you find that after some usage, you need to reach the larger community and take advantage of some of the premium account features, you can always upgrade your account and keep all your profile and network information that you previously defined.

If you’re in charge of human resource functions at a small, medium, or large company and you are interested in using the Recruiter functions for your company, don’t follow the steps in this section. Instead, visit https://business.linkedin.com/talent-solutions for more information on its Talent Solutions.

To subscribe to a premium account, just follow these steps. (You must have created a LinkedIn account already; see Chapter 2for details.)

1 Go to the LinkedIn home page at https://www.linkedin.com .