Haven't logged into LinkedIn lately? 5 reasons you really should be using it

How much do you know about LinkedIn? Sure, you probably understand it’s a social network for professionals, but it’s so much more.

Unlike most social networks that are used to share the latest vacation pictures, LinkedIn was designed for more important reasons. It can help you make connections, share work experience and find or post jobs.

Your LinkedIn profile can be set up to look like a resume, complete with accomplishments and referrals from colleagues. If you’ve never experienced the power of LinkedIn, we can help. Here are five smart ways to use LinkedIn to network, poach employees, boast and more.

Visit LinkedIn.com/Kim and post a job for free.

1. Sales prospecting

If you’re wondering what sales prospecting is, it’s exactly what it sounds like — sorting through tons of companies and individuals to find prospects who will most likely turn into paying customers.

This can take a lot of time and effort and relies on knowing where to look. In the past, sales prospecting mainly consisted of cold calling and following up with every potential lead.

Now that we live in a digital world, those days are gone. Most buyers make decisions online. That’s where LinkedIn comes into play.

With about 1 billion members, LinkedIn is a leader in connecting buyers and sellers. One of the most important sales techniques is understanding how buyers behave, making prospecting easier with greater success.

An IDC social buying study revealed:

  • 75% of B2B buyers use social media to make buying decisions.
  • 50% of B2B buyers use LinkedIn to make purchasing decisions.
  • 76% of B2B buyers prefer to work with recommendations from their professional network.

Those numbers prove how important LinkedIn is when it comes to sales prospecting. Information is power and LinkedIn is packed with information buyers are looking for.

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How to find duplicate photos [phone/computer]

Running out of storage space or just sick of all the junk? I bet your camera roll is the main culprit. Here are a few tips and tricks for Apple, Android and Windows to organize and remove unwanted duplicates.

Use a Mac? Find the list of startup programs under the Apple menu > System Preferences > Users & Groups. Select your user account, then click Login Items. Easy-peasy.

Get Temu off your phone now

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TikTok isn’t the only Chinese app to worry about. A shopping app, downloaded by millions of Americans, uses sneaky tactics to monitor users. We spoke with Titan Crawford, founder of the Facebook group PDX Stolen Cars, which has helped recover over 3,000 stolen cars in Portland.

⚖️ Google’s in trouble: The DOJ wants them to sell off Chrome, saying it has too much control over online search. They aren’t wrong … it has 3.4 billion users worldwide. Google’s clapback? Forcing a sale would hurt consumers, damage the economy and pose a national security risk. The case moves forward in the coming weeks, so stay tuned.

400 million

Weekly active ChatGPT users. Whoa. That’s double their numbers last August and more than Reddit. The AI train has left the station, folks.

⚡ Power users like you: Microsoft PowerToys adds free, new features to your Windows PC. Peek gives you a quick preview of a file without opening it. If you’ve used a Mac, you can preview a file just by hitting the space bar. With Peek, select a file, press Ctrl + Space. Install PowerToys here.

Chatbot war continues: Perplexity AI just dropped a deep research tool that gives you detailed reports about nearly anything in two to four minutes. Free users get five queries a day, while Pro subscribers ($20 per month) get 500. Want to test it out? It’s live here.

You might need this: OpenAI’s fancy ChatGPT deep research agent pulls info from multiple sources but takes 30 minutes per search. It’s coming to Free and Plus tiers pretty soon, not just the $200-per-month option. The catch? Plus users get 10 prompts a month and Free users get two. I’ve mentioned before this is great to use with medical issues, business ideas and just about anything that needs a ton of research.

157 million users 

Watching ads on Disney+, Hulu and ESPN+. About half of all new Disney+ subscribers picked the cheaper ad-supported option. That’s helping the streamer rake in $321 million in operating income, a huge turnaround from their reported $387 million loss a year ago.

This is interest-ing: Parents are adding their kids as authorized credit card users. The idea is once they’re ready for a loan or card of their own, they have established credit. If the parents have good credit, it can boost kids’ scores by 20 or more points. I did this for my son.

🦈 Sink or swim: “Shark Tank” judge Kevin O’Leary and former Los Angeles Dodgers owner Frank McCourt are trying to buy Communist China-owned TikTok before the possible ban on Jan. 19. O’Leary says the big goal is protecting 170 million American users from Chinese surveillance. They’ll need at least $100 billion to get this done.

1,150% increase

In searches for VPNs after Pornhub was geo-blocked Florida. That was just hours after a new law kicked in requiring porn sites to track users by verifying their age. Friendly reminder: Free VPNs are always shady. I use ExpressVPN. Get four months free with my link.

🎉 Emoji magic: There’s a shortcut to the emoji menu on your computer. Mac users, press Ctrl + Cmd + spacebar to find that cute little slice of 🍕. Windows users, hold down on your Windows key + . (period).

Windows users, take note: Mike in Gibsonia, Pennsylvania, wrote in to ask if it’s safe to upgrade to Windows 11 version 24H2, which rolled out in October. I’m glad you held off, Mike, because there were a lot of bugs. The major kinks have been worked out now, so you’re good to go.

December 2nd, 2023

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It’s not looking good — Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt says AI will endanger humanity. Plus, the FTC says Meta ignores reports of underage users. What top shopping sites collect on you, IRS delays taxes on Venmo (again), and the sad truth about where you get your news. That and much more, plus all your calls and questions.

When LinkedIn users get personal

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Have you observed the behavior of some users on the platform? I’ve got the inside scoop, in one minute. 

China's attempt to make TikTok look legit

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Do TikTok’s new policies outweigh the fact that the company spied on U.S. users? In this one-minute podcast, I share the details.

Feds vs. Tesla, YouTube health update, Twitter celebrity exodus

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Plus, the world’s fastest shoes increase your walking speed by 250%, how to find out who’s calling you from an unknown or blocked number, signs your computer’s hard drive is failing and a new way for Android users to know if they are being tracked.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Feds vs. Tesla, YouTube health update, Twitter celebrity exodus

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Tesla is under a federal criminal investigation, new YouTube labels, celebrities want to leave Elon Musk’s Twitter, the world’s fastest shoes increase your walking speed by 250% and how to find out who’s calling you from an unknown or blocked number. Plus, signs your computer’s hard drive is failing and a new way for Android users to know if they are being tracked.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices