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Professional social-media network LinkedIn was founded in 2004 and is the largest of its kind in the world.
Its founding mission is to create economic opportunities for the global workforce by making professionals more productive and successful.
And it’s not only a platform where you can post your CV and hope for the best, says LinkedIn’s sub-Saharan representative, Marius Greeff.
“There are 530 million members worldwide, with 25 million in Africa.
In South Africa, we have 6 million members, and if you consider that there are only 7 million people who pay personal income tax, it means that LinkedIn is the meeting place for 80% of the employed professionals in the country,” Greeff says.
“The reason LinkedIn is becoming more important is because Africa is looking for economic opportunities and this social network for entrepreneurs offers an easy way to connect role players in one environment.”
If you are a bit hesitant to use LinkedIn because of all the drama on other social-media sites like Twitter and Facebook, rest assured, Greeff says.
“Every social-media platform has its dangers. Wherever there are people, there are people who behave badly. LinkedIn, though, has a lot of self-regulation. If you don’t fit in or post inappropriate content, the other members will call you out and report you.
“LinkedIn has a robust reporting system. There are simple steps for users to report abuse, mark the posts as spam, and then the LinkedIn team sorts it out,” he says.
And, because you are selling yourself and your skills on this platform, it is not anonymous. “When you create a profile, it connects you to other users as a professional, a business, an industry and there are real repercussions if you abuse the site,” Greeff says.
Why should I use LinkedIn?
The site connects professionals, which means that it provides members with amazing opportunities for economic and personal growth.
Here are three ways to create a professional identity online with LinkedIn:
. First, and most important, your LinkedIn profile can be picked up by search engines and show in the top search results.
This is a great way of managing how you are perceived as a professional, as one of the first things many people will see is your LinkedIn profile.
. Your profile connects you to your industry, clients and competitors. You are able to get a unified view of your business field by following what is happening in your industry.
Before you go to a meeting, you can go to the profile of the person or company you’re meeting with and study them.
This gives you connection points and makes for an easier professional conversation.
. LinkedIn keeps you informed. While it is a good place to host your CV, it also carries a lot of content. You can ask for expert advice, read articles published by your peers and ask for peer recommendations.
How can I optimise my LinkedIn profile?
. It is your personal portfolio. It shows your unique experience and skills, and why other professionals should to hire you, so ensure it’s up to date.
. But with that, it’s important to have a good profile picture – research shows that people are more likely to click through to your profile if you have a strong picture.
You need a clean backdrop and don’t post your trout-pout or party selfies. Your picture must show you as you would go to work in your most professional capacity.
. Include a summary of your skills, showcase your experience, and upload pictures of you on the job.
Also be sure to link back to your professional website or portfolio and upload any work that you can share publicly.
. Ask fellow LinkedIn users for recommendations and endorsements.
The more of these you have, the higher you rank on LinkedIn’s internal search engine when someone searches for users skilled in certain areas, like web development or writing, for example.
What are the dos and don’ts of LinkedIn?
Dos
. This is a professional platform. Invest your time by sharing interesting work-related posts and articles.
. Add your own insights by commenting on other people’s posts. Write an article about your industry and share with your network.
. Humour goes down well, assuming you can be funny without being offensive or inappropriate.
. Clean your network every couple of months and weed out those inactive or irrelevant users and add more relevant, professional people to your network.
Don’ts
. LinkedIn is not a dating site. Just as it would be inappropriate to hit on someone in the workplace, the same holds true for LinkedIn.
. Don’t connect with or accept invites from everyone on the platform. Your connections need to be relevant to your work and professional interests.
The value of your network is based on quality, not quantity. Make sure people you include in your network add value.
A phone that’s a mobile office
In today’s fast-paced life, we’re required to do many things at once. Our brains are busier than ever and we do most of the things ourselves: we book our flight tickets, text while we walk, check our emails and browse the internet.
We live in the age of multitasking, and, as digital natives, we’re all wired to multitask.
In just one day, we can switch to social apps around 21 times a day and to email around 74 times.
And you can do all this multitasking on one device with the Huawei Mate 10 Pro.
Unlike other smartphones, the Huawei Mate 10 Pro can function as a fully fledged desktop.
All you need is to plug a USB-C into an HDMI adapter and it will work like a PC.
. The desktop looks quite similar to any PC; you just need to rotate the screen to landscape mode and apps will automatically move to column-split mode.
And while you’re working, you can still take calls and check you social-media pages.
. If you want to check your emails while listening to some music, the Huawei Mate 10 Pro can divide its screen into two pieces, allowing you to switch easily between videos, emails, games and apps.
. Launching and switching between apps is fast and easy, and thanks to its huge screen, multitasking is simple to set up and use.
. Plus, you can run more than one program or app simultaneously without compromising the speed or the performance of your phone.
. The Huawei Mate 10 Pro can conduct graphic-intensive tasks – such as simultaneous streaming, photo-sharing or movie-downloading – without freezing or draining the battery life.
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