If you’ve ever opened LinkedIn and closed it 10 seconds later, this guide is for you.
The good news is that it happens to a lot of people.
You hear things like “optimize your LinkedIn” or “use LinkedIn to get jobs,” but once you sign up on LinkedIn, it feels like you’ve been dropped in the middle of a room where everyone knows what they’re doing, except you.
And it’s not your fault.
It’s just that no one ever really explained how it works.
What is LinkedIn all about? What is LinkedIn used for? What exactly is a LinkedIn profile?
Most people skip those parts and jump straight into shouting “optimize your profile!” or “start posting!” without showing you what LinkedIn is actually meant to do.
So that’s why we’re starting this series, to take the confusion out of LinkedIn.
This is Part 1, and it’s your beginner-friendly guide to LinkedIn optimization: what LinkedIn really is, what it’s used for, what your profile should be doing, and how the whole thing works.
And yeah, this is not one of those overly serious, hard-to-follow guides.
The entire series is going to be simple, relatable, realistic, and based on what you actually need.
So let’s make LinkedIn make sense.
What is LinkedIn?
LinkedIn is a professional social networking platform that helps your service, connect you with others in your industry, and discover life-changing job and business opportunities.
To put it simply: it’s where work meets social media.
While Facebook is for friends, and Instagram and TikTok are for vibes, LinkedIn is all about your work, the things you do, what you’ve done, and what you’re looking to do next.
It’s an avenue for introducing your professional self to the world, and where recruiters and potential clients go to find people like you.
The ability to use it rightly is called LinkedIn optimization.
You can use LinkedIn as a powerful tool to:
- Grow your career or business
- Grow your network
- Showcase your skills
- Land a remote role
- Attract clients
Now that you know what LinkedIn is, let’s take a look at what makes it different from the other social apps you’re familiar with.
How is Linkedin Different From Other Social Media Platforms?
1. LinkedIn is about work, not vibes
If Instagram is for vibes and X is for banter, LinkedIn is for careers.
On LinkedIn, users focus on showing their skills, goals, and professional achievements.
2. LinkedIn is your online CV — but better
LinkedIn acts as your living online résumé.
Your profile tells people about your work experience, skills, and certifications.
According to a Jobscan survey, 87% of recruiters regularly use LinkedIn to find candidates. This further shows you how much it is that you show up here.
3. The networking is valuable
Unlike Facebook or Instagram, where everyone adds friends randomly, connecting with people on LinkedIn is much more deliberate.
People connect with you either because you’re in the same field, they admire your work, or they want to learn from you.
And those connections can lead to valuable internship opportunities, gigs, collaborations, or mentorship.
4. You’re seen differently on LinkedIn
On Instagram, you could be a complete vibe.
On Twitter, you might be a troll or know how to throw the best bant.
But on LinkedIn, people see you through a professional lens.
What you say, how you say it, and the kind of content you engage with all form your personal brand, and this can significantly affect real-life opportunities.
(We will discuss more about this in the last series of this blog)
What are LinkedIn Features?
To do LinkedIn optimization well, you need to have a solid understanding of the tools available to you.
These LinkedIn features and tools help you boost your visibility, attract the right set of people, and eventually help you land your dream job role.
Let’s check out some of them.
1. The LinkedIn Profile
Your profile is where LinkedIn optimization starts.
Everything matters; from your profile photo to your headline, featured section, skills, endorsements, recommendations, and even your background banner.
They are all a chance to reveal that you’re really good at what you do.
So when you optimize them properly, you can impress visitors to your profile including recruiters, clients, followers or collaborators.
2. The LinkedIn Feed and Posts
Just like the other social media platforms you’re used to, LinkedIn also has a feed.
The LinkedIn feed is where you share content. These could be sharing your wins, the lessons you’ve learned from your last projects, useful tips, or similar conversations around your industry.
Read this if you need an effective content strategy for showing up on LinkedIn.
Posting content regularly helps you build visibility.
3. The “Open to Work” and “Open for Business” Tags
When you scroll through LinkedIn, you find some people with these tags on their profiles: Open to Work and Hiring.
This is a LinkedIn feature that allows you to advertise your career status.
And LinkedIn says users who turn on “Open to Work” are 40% more likely to get messages from recruiters.
4. The Search and Filter Tools
The search and filter tools help you find jobs, companies, content, and people based on several metrics like location, industry, experience level, and others.
One easy way to avoid LinkedIn from being too overwhelming is to start using this feature intentionally.
You can easily navigate to whatever content or profile you want.
It’s also an important part of how LinkedIn optimization works, as it makes networking smarter and less hard.
5. Skills Assessments, Certifications & Learning
With LinkedIn, you can take a skills assessment and then earn badges that are shown on your profile.
You can also get certifications through LinkedIn learning.
It boosts your skills, and it also makes your profile more interesting.
What are the Benefits of LinkedIn?
The biggest benefit of LinkedIn is visibility.
In today’s world, if you’re not visible professionally, it’s almost like you don’t exist.
So, LinkedIn makes you visible, not just to anyone, but to recruiters, clients, potential partners, and several high-profile connections opportunities that can open doors you never knew existed.
And with a LinkedIn optimization strategy, that visibility can turn into life-changing opportunities.
That’s just the tip of the iceberg, though; here are some more benefits of using LinkedIn:
1. It connects you to real opportunities
Just as we’ve earlier established, LinkedIn heavily focuses on careers and connections.
You will get connected to people who can hire you, collaborate with you, or even refer you.
In fact, 77% of recruiters say LinkedIn is the first medium they use when looking for candidates.
So your chances of being noticed increase when you have a well-optimized LinkedIn profile.
2. It helps build your personal brand
If we search for your name on Google now, what would we find?
Nothing?
Then you need an optimized LinkedIn profile.
For many professionals, their LinkedIn profile or portfolio website is what comes up first.
So when you actively post, engage others’ content, and also share your expertise, you’re indirectly building your brand and saying “I’m really good at what I do”
3. It’s the best way to grow a professional network
Unlike other socials like Instagram or TikTok, you don’t follow people randomly on LinkedIn; all the connections you make are intentional and strategic.
Do you want to connect with the CEO of a company or a thought leader that you admire? You can do that, directly.
This kind of access is what makes LinkedIn so powerful.
No other social media platform is as focused on what LinkedIn is all about, which is creating meaningful and career-focused relationships.
4. It’s a learning and growth platform
LinkedIn has a Learning Corner and key insights are often shared by industry experts, exposing you to priceless trends, skills, and opportunities every day.
A quick LinkedIn sign-in can lead you to content that’s more valuable than most paid workshops.
And when you actively engage, you learn directly from the best minds in your niche.
5. It gives you a global reach
With over 1 billion active members worldwide, LinkedIn gives you the privilege to connect with people beyond your current city or country.
Whether you want a remote job or global clients, LinkedIn is the easiest way and place to freely put yourself on the map.
What does a LinkedIn Premium subscription offer?
LinkedIn Premium helps you unlock the full version of the LinkedIn app.
Of course, the free version of the app already helps give you access to visibility and networking, but the Premium version takes you a step further.
With a LinkedIn Premium, you can:
- See who is viewing your profile: Get the full list of everyone who has viewed your profile in the last 90 days, along with insights into how they found you. This can help you identify potential recruiters, hiring managers, or other professionals interested in your profile.
- Access Applicant Insights: When you apply for jobs, you can see how you compare to other applicants. This includes insights into their skills, education, and experience, helping you understand your competitiveness and tailor your application.
- Gain Salary Insights: View salary ranges for specific job postings and industries, helping you negotiate confidently for the compensation you deserve.
- Send InMail Messages: Directly message people you’re not connected with, including recruiters, hiring managers, and industry leaders. This allows for direct, targeted communication.
- Utilize Advanced Search Filters: Use more detailed and specific filters to find people, jobs, or companies that precisely match your criteria, saving you time and improving the relevance of your searches.
- Access LinkedIn Learning: Get unlimited access to a vast library of online courses like SEO, UI/UX, marketing and leadership, to develop new skills, enhance existing ones, and earn certificates to display on your profile.
- Be a Featured Applicant: Your job applications may be highlighted to recruiters, making you stand out in a competitive applicant pool.
- Prepare for Interviews: Access tools and resources to practice common interview questions and receive feedback.
- Have an Open Profile: Allow anyone on LinkedIn to message you for free, increasing your visibility and potential for new connections.
- View Company Insights: Access detailed information about companies, including employee growth trends, hiring patterns, and engagement data, which is useful for job research or business development.
- Receive Lead Recommendations (Sales Navigator): Get personalized suggestions for potential leads based on your search history and preferences.
- Track Candidates (Recruiter Lite): Manage candidates through the hiring process with specialized tools for recruiters.
- Browse Profiles Anonymously: If you choose, you can view other profiles without them being notified of your visit.
- Bypass Commercial Use Limits: For frequent searchers, Premium removes restrictions on the number of profiles you can view and searches you can perform.
- Enhance Your Profile with AI-powered Assistance: Some plans offer AI tools to help you draft your profile summary, headlines, and even messages.
- Hide Your Connections: You can choose to make your list of connections private, which can be useful for competitive reasons.
- Save Searches and Create Alerts: Save your most important searches and get notified when new profiles or jobs match your criteria.
- Get a Premium Badge: A gold badge on your profile signals your Premium status to others, potentially increasing your credibility and visibility.
- Leverage Your Network for Sales (TeamLink): For teams, some Premium features allow you to leverage your team’s combined network to find new opportunities.
How does someone sign up for a LinkedIn account?
Getting started with LinkedIn is a straightforward process; however, the real value and work lie in what happens afterwards.
Here’s a step-by-step process of what to do and how to do it:
1. Visit the LinkedIn homepage or download the app
The first thing you need to do is to visit linkedin.com or download the LinkedIn app on your device.
Then tap on “Join now” to begin the LinkedIn sign-up process.
Afterwards, you will be asked for your name, email address, and a password.
Insert them; this is the basic part, but then, there’s more work ahead.
2. Fill in the setup details
Now that you’ve created your LinkedIn account, LinkedIn will ask you to enter important details like your country, most recent job title, industry, and your employment history.
This helps the platform to start showing you relevant opportunities from the get-go.
So this early stage already begins to answer the question: what is LinkedIn used for? It goes beyond just signing up; it’s the start of professional visibility.
3. Set up your LinkedIn profile properly
Now this is where many people get it wrong.
If you want your LinkedIn optimization to work for you, don’t just leave your profile half-filled.
What you want to do is to upload a clear, professional-looking photo.
Add your job title, then put a short but compelling headline, past roles, skills, and then add a strong “About” summary.
This is what a solid LinkedIn profile should look like:
When your profile is like this, it helps people easily understand who you are and what you offer.
Know this: complete profiles perform better.
LinkedIn even says “users with a complete profile are 40x more likely to receive job and networking opportunities than those who don’t”.
4. Start using it — don’t sign up and disappear
Now that your profile is set up, you can then sign in to LinkedIn anytime.
But you can’t just stop there.
Now is the time to connect with people. Comment. Post. Engage.
This is exactly what separates passive users from those who actually benefit from the platform.
If you’ve ever asked what LinkedIn is and how it works, here’s the simple answer: it works if you do.
And it works even better when your account is built on solid LinkedIn optimization. That’s how you get seen, noticed, and remembered.
Best Practices for Creating Your LinkedIn Profile for Effective LinkedIn Optimization
1. Start with a clear, professional photo
The photo you use is your first impression.
It doesn’t have to be 100% studio-quality, but it needs to be clear, well-lit, and feel approachable.
Also, avoid filters, dark lighting, or group pictures.
People trust profiles with photos 21x more than those without.
2. Write a headline that goes beyond your job title
Rather than just using “Marketing Manager” as a headline, use that headline space to tell people what you really do. For instance:
“Marketing | Digital Strategist | Helping Brands Grow Through Ads & Copy That Convert”
This tells people what your skills are; it’s a smart LinkedIn optimization strategy that gets you found in searches.
3. Use the “About” section to tell your story
Now this is one of the most underused parts of a LinkedIn profile, yet it works like magic.
Don’t just list your experience; rather, tell the viewer what you’re most passionate about, the problems you solve, and what kind of work excites you.
Speak in your voice. Keep it human!
Think of it this way: If someone only read this part of your profile, would they want to message you?
If the answer is no, then your LinkedIn optimization isn’t complete yet, this section plays a big role in getting you noticed.
4. Add relevant keywords throughout your profile
If people search for “freelance content writer,” and that phrase doesn’t appear in your profile, they won’t be able to find you.
LinkedIn is part social, part search engine.
So this means you need to use the right words naturally in your headline, about section, skills, and experience.
5. Customize your LinkedIn URL
LinkedIn gives you a messy link full of numbers.
However, you can edit this (on your profile page) to something more inviting, like:
linkedin.com/in/creaitz.com
It’s cleaner, more professional, and easier to share.
6. Show, don’t just tell
Don’t just say you’re good at something; everybody is. Instead, prove it.
Use the “Featured” section to showcase the links to your work; it could be certificates, client testimonials, articles, or any other thing that backs you up.
Doing this makes your profile active, not just descriptive.
7. Keep updating it
Your LinkedIn profile is not a CV you update once in five years.
Things change, you get new jobs, new interests, and new wins.
So, revisit your profile every few months to update and grow with it.
Ready to Try LinkedIn
This is the first part of a series of blog posts tagged ‘LinkedIn 101’.
Through this series, we aim to help you understand, win and make money on LinkedIn.
Bookmark our blog so you don’t miss the other parts.
If you enjoyed reading this, come join us at Creaitz; Africa’s largest digital skills community, and let’s build your LinkedIn presence and career together for free.
