Must-try features of your free LinkedIn account (before you decide to go Premium)

Hi all! As I promised in the last week, for those of you who are new to LinkedIn, I would like to share some “cool” features of your FREE LinkedIn account. So, if you’re confused about whether to sign up or not for the Premium account, give this a read and then take the decision.

Taken together, these features will make LinkedIn a tool for you, far more than just ‘job-hunting’.

#1 - Responding to new connections on LinkedIn

LinkedIn has made it easier than ever to accept a person’s connection request quickly and easily. And while you can quickly hit Accept to any new connection request and move on to other tasks, this won’t help you get to know or build a relationship with your new connection. The key benefit of using LinkedIn, other than to find your ideal connections and establish your authority on your topic is that it is the ideal place to build a relationship with your connections. I recommend that you take the few extra minutes and reply personally to everyone who sends you a connection request. So, before you click “ACCEPT” the next time, take a look at the “See more” link that appears in your connection request window. It lets you see the personalized message request sent by the person. Don’t just hit the Accept button, “Reply to NAME” instead to send in a quick note of thanks for the connection request.

#2 – Bypassing LinkedIn’s search limit

With your free account, you get limited commercial search. It’s meant to cut down on “commercial usage” of the profile search feature and push power users to premium accounts. Hey, they have to make money somehow, right? There is a cool new tool that you’re going to love if this new change has affected you that could delay your need for a premium account. What’s super cool is that the searches are unlimited and not related to your network so you get different results then you normally would. The tool was developed by Shane McCusker. Just Google it!

#3 – Avail free InMails

With your free account, you can send up to 15 InMails per month. So, if you use them wisely, you don’t need to spend money on the Premium account. When you find a person who is a second- or third-degree connection to you, you can see if he/she shares any common group with you from the profile. You can go to that group and find the name in the group member search box. You can then click the message button to the right and send them a message.

#4 – Get an idea of someone’s network on LinkedIn

When you look someone up on LinkedIn, you might be interested in how well connected that person is. There is a simple trick to just do that: Go to the person’s profile page. Go to his/her activity box. You will see the number of followers being listed there. These are the number of people who chose to follow the person.

#5 – Following influencers

Influencers are the people who are seen as authority in their respective niches. To find influencers, go to Home, and then on ‘Who to Follow’ widget, and then click on ‘View all recommendations’.

#6 – Bullion searches

To make quick searches on LinkedIn more targeted, you can combine or limit terms with certain modifiers to create Boolean searches. This is similar to the bullion searches that you might be familiar with on Google. his makes it possible to search for profiles that contain exact phrases by surrounding the phrase in quotation marks. “Technology Journalist” Search for profiles containing at least one of many terms by separating the terms with “OR” (capitalized). “Technology Journalist” OR “Technology Reporter” Search for profiles containing two or more separate terms or phrases by separating the terms with “AND” (capitalized). “Technology Journalist” AND “San Francisco” Be more restrictive in your searches by limiting results with the “NOT” modifier (capitalized). “Technology Journalist” NOT “Gawker” And combine different modifiers for more complex searches. “(Technology OR Tech OR Startup) AND Journalist”

#7 – Save your searches

When you’ve created a fruitful search within the People tab or Jobs tab (these are the only areas where you can save a search), hit the Create search alert button on the right-hand side of the search page. Choose your preferred settings, and click Save. You’ll now receive regular alerts showing you the most recent results for each of your saved searches.

#8 – “People also viewed”

If you find a great looking potential connection, be sure to check out the People Also Viewed feature down on the right-hand side of the page (some people may have this turned off). This can be an excellent source to locate other similar potential connections.

#9 – Control what you see

By default, LinkedIn will always show “top updates,” which are dictated by the platform’s algorithm. But if you don’t want LinkedIn deciding what you should and should not be seeing, you’ll need to change your timeline to show “recent updates”. The option for this is right below the compose box on your homepage. Click the dropdown menu, then select Recent. Your feed will (for now) be in chronological order. Each time the feed is refreshed, it’ll reset back to top updates, so you’ll have to do this each time you’re scrolling through your feed.

#10 – Keeping your connections private

You’ll want to make sure your network is private so only you can see your list. To do this, click your profile picture, and select Settings and Privacy. Go to the Privacy tab, click Who can see your connections, and change this to Only you.

#11 – Reorder your skills

You can reorder your skills and endorsements so that you can keep the ones at the top that showcase your profile the best. Click the pencil icon in the Featured Skills & Endorsements box. Click on the four lines icon located to the right of each skill, to move it up or down in the list. Arrange your skills in the order you want them to appear. Remember that the top three are visible when people scroll through your profile. To remove a skill from your list, click the X located to the left of that skill.

#12 – LinkedIn extension on Chrome

You can install the Chrome extension for LinkedIn. Visit this page for more information: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/linkedin-extension/meajfmicibjppdgbjfkpdikfjcflabpk. This way, even if you don’t have LinkedIn open on your browser, you’ll still be able to immediately see when you receive a new notification.

#13 – Post analytics

For each piece of content you post on LinkedIn, you’re able to see analytics on how well it performed. At the bottom of the analytics window are suggestions for pieces of content that are likely to perform well if you share them. This is all useful for choosing which content to post in the future that’s most likely to engage and intrigue your network.

Did I miss anything? Do you know any special LinkedIn tricks that you would like to share with all? Let me know in the comments below.