Episode 117: Should you invest in LinkedIn Premium

Last week, while working with a client on their Linkedin strategy, we had a chat about whether or not LinkedIn Premium was worth investing in..

I currently DO have LinkedIn Premium and have had it for about six months. I am not sure if I want to keep it o – but I do find it useful to see who has been looking at my profile.

So lets dive into the detail

How much does it cost?

LinkedIn Premium is offered in four tiers, ranging from $29.99 to $59.99 per month for job seekers, $79.99 per month for sales professionals, and $119.95 per month for recruiters. Annual billing offers slight discounts.

Can you get a free trial?

Yes – they offer a free trial for 30 days quite regularly. If you click on the option for Premium on your account, you usually get offered a free trial.

InMail

You can get a block of free InMail emails with LinkedIn Premium. InMail is the LinkedIn messaging App.

What do you use it for? You are able to send messages to people who are NOT in your network. Reasons to do this? Well personally I tend to connect with people and then start messaging. But I can see if you worked in sales for example, you might want to reach out to anyone without already being connected.

Profile Views

You can see who has viewed your profile, and then reach out to connect with them. If your current network is looking at your profile, maybe send them a private message and restart your conversation.

Insights into your Views

You get good insights into who is viewing your profile. LinkedIn will mark other members as Interesting Views – this could be because you follow the company they work for, they are seen as a senior leader in yours or another industry,

There are also insights when multiple people from one company are looking at your profile. For example, having worked with InterTradeIreland this week, I am notified that 5 people from ITI have looked at my profile.

Then you can see if a lot of people with the same job title have looked at your profile – mine says that 54 people with the job title Business Owner, have been looking at my profile. These stats are based on the last 90 days.

Company Page Insights

You have access to Insights into a company page, where the company has more than 30 employees with complete member profiles.

If a company has more than 30 people with complete LinkedIn profiles, you can get a lot of insight into that company on their Company Page

• You can see a breakdown of employee distribution and headcount. For example, I can learn that 18% of Apple employees are classified under Engineer and only 3% under Marketing. Which makes sense!
• You can also see other classifications such as HR, admin, project management, sales, business development.
• New hires – you can have a look at the most recent hires within the company – this would be great for reaching out to connect with someone and give you a conversation starter.
• Notable company alumni - who worked at this company and where are they now?
• Job Openings – which department is hiring?

You can choose to opt out of this information being shared about your own profile on your company page, Go to your own profile, click on the drop down menu under Me. Go to Privacy Settings and click on the toggle where it says Representing Your Organisation and set it to whatever option you prefer.

LinkedIn Gold Badge

When you have a premium account, you get a little gold LinkedIn square beside your name. This may seem a little trivial – but for people using the platform regularly, it shows you as someone who is keen to leverage LinkedIn for their own personal brand.

Access to on-demand learning videos.

LinkedIn Learning gives you access to literally hundreds of video training modules – from Business Skills, to public speaking, from Java coding to Graphic Design.

To conclude:

Do I recommend you invest in LinkedIn premium?

I would ask you the following first –

• Have you optimised your LinkedIn profile?
• Are you making connections with personalised messages?
• Are you posting status updates?
• Are you commenting on your connection’s posts?
• Do you have a strategy for using LinkedIn?

If you need help with ANY of the above, then get in touch.

If you have all this down pat, then why not get your free 30-day trial of LinkedIn premium and see for yourself! I’d’ love to hear how you find it.

https://www.louisebrogan.com