Statista rightly points out in its report " Ranking of countries with the largest audience size on LinkedIn worldwide in 2022" that today the United States is the one that concentrates the largest number of active users in the professional social network par excellence.
Currently this country, in North America, has more than 190 million users, followed by India, with 87 million . But what is happening in Latin America?
On the one hand, Brazil has 54 million users . Mexico on its side with 18 million open accounts . What about the rest of the countries? What is happening? Are we using this professional network correctly?
Okay. We are here today to answer these questions. In the end, my goal with this Blog is that over time this growth chart will include more Latin American countries:
What points will we play in this Blog?
- Main purpose of LinkedIn
- Advantages of using this professional network in your digital strategy
- LinkedIn as a business communication and job search tool
- How to create an attractive company profile on LinkedIn
- 3 Examples of LinkedIn profiles that you might be interested in following
Shall we go for it 
? So read and apply!
What is the main purpose of LinkedIn?
As usual (and considering that it can become common in this Blog 
), we will not be alone in this reading .
I considered sharing some questions with my leader Jorge Andrés Santos Gómez , GrowthHacker SaaS and Marketing Manager for RD Station Latam
. He has extensive knowledge in Growth and Digital Marketing, he is passionate about the world of startups and loves to share knowledge.
What's more, it has a Blog in which it details very well one of the primary objectives of LinkedIn: to connect and grow the network of companies .
I will talk about this Blog later, but let me tell you what Jorge Santos says:
- LinkedIn is the most important work social network .
- It is a platform to find a job or share your development and professional growth .
- It is the most powerful tool to reach exactly the type of professional you need.
Its use is not very massive, but LinkedIn has its own platform to advertise, LinkedIn Ads. For many companies or ventures it costs a large budget and resources to start advertising .
But, by "light years", this network is more precise than Facebook, Instagram or Google, in the segmentation of the public, according to labor aspects .
I didn't want to touch LinkedIn Ads so soon, but it's worth it. If today one of your objectives in this Platform is not to create advertising growth strategies, perhaps the success of your plan is at 50% .
What's more, finish this reading and check out the Blog: How to make ads on LinkedIn Ads: the complete step by step , which we have available.
Let's keep going!
Advantages of using LinkedIn in your digital strategy
Now, if we already know about the primary objectives, because we conclude that there is not a single action, let's consider reflecting on the positive use of implementing LinkedIn in your digital strategy.
Of course, if we see it from a professional point of view or if you are a personal brand, this network is the best ally because it offers you benefits such as:
- Put aside your “analog” life with printed profiles or very dense profiles when designing.
- Share and validate your professional knowledge , projects in which you participated and tell about your experience.
- Connect with your Industry , search for that key profile to start a labor conversation and learn from those who already have a track record in the sector.
- Know who and when has consulted your profile. Know some insights (perspectives) of those who follow you.
- Make use of the new feature: LinkedIn newsletter .
If, on the other hand, we address the advantages from LinkedIn for digital, commercial or corporate marketing strategies, we could show that this robust platform is very effective because:
- It allows you to do Social Selling and combine it with Inbound Marketing . (We will talk about this point in detail with Jorge Santos).
- Show the humanitarian and cultural side of an organization or company.
- Use it as a support channel for your positioning strategy ( SEO ) to index content and spread it on the Internet (link building).
- Attract and convert new audience as leads .
- You have a free and flexible Brand Awareness channel .
- Build trust and credibility in business decision making . A very common strategy when defining providers is to consult them 7 times on the Internet . And one of the channels that is evaluated is LinkedIn.
What do you think of this last fact? Did you go through any of these processes?
To finish the advantages, I would like you to know the opinion of Guillermo González Pimiento , business strategist, mentor on LinkedIn, founder of Aprendamos and Human to Human Hub and trainer of more than 40,000 professionals.
Who points out in his newsletter on LinkedIn, "The Eight Benefits that LinkedIn offers us" , the following:
- "... 51% of the vacancies are not published, but recruiters and Head Hunters take advantage of the power of the search engine offered by LinkedIn , to find the candidates that best fit the profile and thus invite them to be part of the process...".
- "...In this sense, we must optimize our profile, having it 100% complete, including keywords and being active on the network...".
LinkedIn as a marketing and commercial communication tool
I mentioned to you in the advantages that LinkedIn is the platform par excellence for doing Social Selling and generating a mix with Inbound Marketing.
If these two terms are new or unfamiliar to you, a while ago we conducted a Webinar with Mariá Castelan D'Altoé , who was a Regional Account Executive in LATAM for LinkedIn, and she taught us how these two methodologies intersect and combine:
Social Selling , on the one hand, is a commercial technique used by teams with a commercial focus to take advantage of the connections provided by social networks and thus achieve a commercial objective.
Inbound Marketing , for its part, is the quintessential digital marketing methodology to attract your buyer persona or target audience , build a relationship from start to finish and accompany them in each phase of their purchasing journey.
We are talking about attraction, conversion and relationship marketing to lead to the sale.
How are these terms mixed?
The Social Selling technique becomes the action of an Inbound Marketing process on LinkedIn , where a seller, for example, goes from connecting to relating to the profile he wants to impact for a very close commercial approach.
So, having these concepts clear, Jorge Santos helped us with a list "in an express and methodical way" to better land what LinkedIn is for as a marketing and commercial communication tool:
According to the list on our board, Jorge tells us that a good step-by-step to do social selling in your business process , for example, is the following:
1. Prospecting: search for key profiles with whom you want to connect. Usually there are 3 from the same company (according to role and objective).
Here it will be important to have your buyer persona defined, because on LinkedIn you can segment by position, country, company, among others. The search tool will help you in this process:
2. Connection: based on the previous step, build a list of people you want to connect with. Imagine that you have to close a commercial process with 10 companies this month. It would be good for you to list 3 decision-making roles per company and start connecting with them:
3. Presentation:
Keep in mind that between step #1, #2 and #3 it will be important to carry out constant investigative actions.
The social selling technique is effective when you investigate the profiles very well before approaching them . Not when they immediately accept your connection, you start selling, because it is 99% likely that contacts will start ignoring you:
An investigation helps you understand the “background” of this person . What are you talking about, what are you interested in? You could even see his profile on Instagram to find out about his likes or passions and enter into a more genuine conversation.
With this point resolved, you can present yourself with a close message, which is not to sell and which is 0 general. Do not copy and paste a message, people have the ability to know it.
4. Interaction:
This is where Inbound Marketing is most activated. During this step it will be very necessary to share valuable content to nurture your connections. Celebrate important milestones in your career. Comment on related posts:
The idea is that in a disinterested way they know that you are there and that they can start a digital Networking .
5. Approach:
And finally, after spending a certain amount of time interacting , you can move on to boarding, to indicate your true intentions here. Obviously with a correct and concealed approach.
Avoid direct terms that indicate that you want to sell. Better hide it and comment that after talking for a while, you notice that there is an opportunity for a business relationship and they can have a meeting, have a coffee, talk. This is a perfect approach:
LinkedIn in job search projects
Following the conversation with our Marketing Manager for RD Station Latam, Jorge Santos, we discussed the idea of having a checklist to do a job search correctly on LinkedIn.
Although, and as clarification, in this part he went further, considering the following training with the fundamental points for building a personal brand .
Next, let's review the steps that we should follow to manage correctly, noted on the board:
According to Jorge, it is important that you take into account:
- Investigate:
Check what types of offers and charges are promoted in your Industry. LinkedIn has an employment section with an icon 
to see the offer, segmenting the type of contract, type of work, company:
In the end, this step will be a source of information for what is to come. Well, that way you can establish what the market is looking for from a professional and how it is connected to who you are.
This step will give you 2 possibilities: the market is looking for something that you are or the market is looking for something in which you are developing. In the second scenario it will be necessary to train.
- Analyze key knowledge and keywords (keywords):
Did you know that LinkedIn is one of the networks where you can best do SEO (positioning through keywords)?
The important thing in this step is to point out all those opportunities that appear to you and then make a list of the knowledge , skills or tools that are most repeated in order to later build a very good profile .
In a systematic way you will be able to identify which keywords are relevant for a description like this:
Observe the keywords that our guest includes in his Profile.
What we are looking for is that there is a match between supply and demand.
- Build a good profile:
The profile has different components, but there are 3 very important ones: profile photo, name and description .
The photo generates empathy. It is very typical to see that the profiles have an error: half body or full body photos, which make them look smaller or the face is not clear. Avoid photos with closed expressions. It all depends on the position you are looking for at the time.
In the case of the name, make it clear who you are, your name is your name. However, add a key reference in this one:
And, as we saw before, build a description in keywords that very well exemplify who you are, what you are an expert in and how you can connect with your Industry.
The rest will be to take advantage of the options that LinkedIn gives you:
- About..
- Experience and Studies
- Licenses and Certifications
- Knowledge and skills
- And Highlights, one that is also little explored:
- Participate in conversations:
Why be in a network if you don't interact? When you start on this platform, the truth is that you are nobody. Nobody knows you.
The strategy here will be to follow those authorities or market leaders, share their publications, comment on their knowledge and complement with what you know and can contribute.
I assure you that you will immediately attract attention:
- Set authority:
When the previous point takes a while, start creating the conversation yourself . It will be a bit frustrating at first because you won't see much participation.
However, over time (and especially consistency), you will see how the visits to your profile, the reach of your publications and the reactions or comments from your network increase.
You can include two moments: your own content or shared/quoted content.
- Connect with key profiles:
Do you remember that we talked about Social Selling? Well, here you can apply this technique in a personal way. Connecting with the people/profiles related to the selection process that you are going to start is worth and works very well:
- Apply:
And, the time has come!
Apply to the vacancy and contact the network you created to find out how they can contribute or help you. Ask and receive feedback on the spot. You will find the exercise very nutritious.
Now your network will find an aligned profile, which has activity and authority.
How to use LinkedIn to get the most out of it
Finishing the conversation with Jorge Santos, we discussed a couple of questions to identify how to get the most out of LinkedIn and these were his answers:
- Are Social Selling and Inbound Marketing enemies?
No! They are accessories. Inbound Marketing is practiced by Marketing professionals and Social Selling on LinkedIn is practiced by Sales professionals. The two can apply the 2 methods in a company and feed each other.
- Can Social Selling be automated?
You can, but it is not so recommended, because it is a more organic exercise, 1:1. LinkedIn offers the Sales Navigator and LinkedIn Ads tool to massify certain moments of the steps that we saw. However, it doesn't make much sense because it's about building a relationship.
- Is Social Selling a commercial process?
It is a technique that supports the tactical part of a company's commercial process or method, but the reality is that there are direct sales methodologies to develop this process.
At RD Station, for example, we created the PEACE methodology . It was born to help companies achieve better results, in a predictable, scalable and sustainable way.
To understand the method, sign up now for our 100% free course on this methodology and certify your knowledge!
4 Examples of LinkedIn profiles that you might be interested in following
To close this Blog and start looking for your commercial or professional growth on LinkedIn, I want you to connect with some examples of professional profiles on this network that I know will help you (like me 
):
- Vincent’s Santolo. LinkedIn Top Voice.
- Guillermo Gonzalez Pepper. Human to Human Business Strategist.
- Manuela Villegas. Full Stack Marketer.
- Milton Suárez Salazar. Full Stack Marketer. +10,000 students .
Good practice! Demonstrate and bring out the full potential for what LinkedIn is really good for
