Introduction

Social network sites (SNSs) such Facebook and Twitter have been deeply integrated with our daily practices and people rely on them in every aspect of our lives (Kapoor et al., 2018). While the fundamental technologies of these sites are similar, the primary purpose and function of each site are different. Some sites help you maintain existing offline social networks, share your interests and hobbies, but others assist you in finding new friends bases on common language or political views (Boyd & Ellison,2010). LinkedIn in particular was designed specifically for professional use, it allows you to create a profile as your CV, build your network, search for a job, publish content, attend webinar and so on (Utz, 2016). It has been widely adopted by recruiters and employers in searching for candidates in recent years (Florenthal, 2015). As a result, many universities start to incorporate LinkedIn as a learning tool in various courses to prepare students ready for the workforce. This essay will discuss mechanisms underneath the huge networks that been built by LinkedIn, what are the key features and capabilities of it, how can it benefit students or fresh graduates in getting a job when they have little or no working experience, and some case studies of how universities incorporate LinkedIn in their curriculums and help students develop their own professional online identity.

LinkedIn as a social network site

LinkedIn is a social network site designed for career developments. According to Boyd & Ellison (2010), we define social network sites as

web-based services that allow individuals to (1) construct a public or semi-public profile within a bounded system, (2) articulate a list of other users with whom they share a connection, and (3) view and traverse their list of connections and those made by others within the system. The nature and nomenclature of these connections may vary from site to site.

 For instance, Facebook mainly provides general social networking service, helps you maintain existing offline relationships with your family and friends (van Dijck, 2013), while LinkedIn focus on professional development activities.  According to LinkedIn.com (2021), “It’s the world’s largest professional network with 810 million members in more than 200 countries and territories worldwide.” It has successfully built networks between professional workers, job seekers, recruiters and employers (Mayers et al., 2011). It allows users to create a profile which summarizes your educational background, professional experience, skills and interests. You could firstly build your network by connecting with your friends, classmates, colleagues and then expand to second degree connection of people who works in your interested companies or industries. Once you are ready, you can start on your job search, make connections with recruiters, perform research on your interested companies, understand your competitors and finally apply directly for the job through LinkedIn. (LinkedIn.com, 2022) It works more than a job-seeking sites, but with core features of community-building and people often comment it as the “Facebook for business” (Hutchins, 2016). You could follow entrepreneurs, companies or university’s pages to get their updates; send message to people in your network or recruiters; participate in conversations or publish articles; join groups with members who share your interests and experience; and also attend networking events, seminars or workshops (Hutchins, 2016). While LinkedIn encourage users to highlight your experiences and skills but not life stories. Thus, it can be considered as a self-promotion or branding site, where you only provided information that you want people to see and evaluate. The users feel more secure in terms of the privacy as their personal lives are not exposed to the public compared to Facebook users (Cooper & Naatus, 2014). Besides providing network capabilities for individuals, LinkedIn also provides business solutions for recruiters and companies using their world’s largest professional network including a hiring platform to helps you target and reach out to the most appropriate candidates using personalised message; a digital marketing platform to allow companies to build brand awareness, generate leads and drive traffic to their website; a sales navigator to help you find the right sales prospects and decision makers, and use LinkedIn insights to communicate effectively; and finally a learning hub designed for online employee training and professional development with personalised courses and community support for each learner. (LinkedIn.com, 2022)

Capabilities of LinkedIn

The most basic feature of LinkedIn is to allow you to create a professional profile, which can be viewed by other members including friends, colleagues, potential employers and recruiters (Cooper & Naatus, 2014). Similar to the other social network sites, you need to first provide some general information like your name, profile photo, contact details etc. In addition, you need to complete your profile by adding education background, work history, professional association, skill set, language and interest. LinkedIn tracks progress of profile completion and encourages you to provide as much valuable information as possible so they can get enough information for their algorithms to work, which will increase your visibility in their search functions. They will then make recommendations on companies you may interested in, people you may know or want to connect with, articles you might want to read or discussion you’d like to be involved in. One study shows that people who completed their LinkedIn profile are 40% more likely to receive a job opportunity (Hutchins, 2016). Unlike the Facebook timeline allows you to freely add important life points, attach your emotion and self-expression; LinkedIn profile interface has been designed to look cleaner and more homogeneous with a strong focus on presenting concise professional image, with information in chorological order and dot points listing out key facts. Each profile looks like a CV, presents a professional self by showing your education, experience and skills to potential recruiters and employers (van Dijck, 2013). However, it works like more than a CV, you online behaviour activities, i.e. connections you made, forums and conversations you joined, readings you commented on or shared can all help shape your professional identity. People use them to identify how well you connected, sociable, knowledgeable and skilled (van Dijck, 2013). Building professional connections is another key feature of LinkedIn. Robert & Howard (2014) states “Oftentimes, when looking for a job, it’s not what you know, but who you know that makes the difference.” LinkedIn helps you build connections by recommending members who has similar education background, work experience or has common connections. In addition, it also makes suggestions based on companies’ pages or entrepreneurs’ account you visited and even articles you shared or commented. The more connections you made, the higher chance you could get an opportunity from your network. LinkedIn further facilitates this by constantly inviting new members to its sites and reminds them to join-in, connect with your classmates and colleagues who are already the LinkedIn users, and build more connections to make a difference in your career development (Brandon & Joseph, 2020). Moreover, LinkedIn helps reduce the imbalanced information between interviewees and interviewers. Traditionally, job seekers need to submit their CV before their interview with no idea of your interviewers, what are their positions and background. Now they could do intensive research on the companies that you are interviewing with, check their structure, mission and vision, news updates or even jobs they are hiring for. You could also view your interviewer’s profile, make a connection with him or her, check their background and experience, which helps enormously in making a good impression before or in the interview (Sharone, 2017). Overall, it’s not the technology that makes LinkedIn unique, but the behavioural changes that it brings, of how people present their identities, make connections, build communities and share ideas (van Dijck, 2013).

How can LinkedIn benefit students?

Increasingly, recruiters are using social and professional networks to identify potential candidates. In fact, one study shown LinkedIn has been adopted by 90% of the companies they sampled (Florenthal, 2015). When aiming recruiting college students and fresh graduates for internship or graduate position, LinkedIn is on top of recruiters’ list for job hunting (Amanda & Amy, 2016). LinkedIn itself keeps implementing new features that can benefit students including the establishment of university pages listing on-campus opportunities and dates for career fair (Florenthal, 2015). While students are frequent users of social media platforms, they are actively using Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat or TikTok to engage with their friends, share interesting life moments, have fun and make new friends with the same interests (Mayers et al., 2011). They may already have a well-established personal self-presence online, however not many of them are aware of their online professional presence or we can call personal branding to promote or market themselves for entering the job market. Personal brand is a marketing strategy to create a positive public presence of one’s abilities and skills through appearance, presentation, mannerisms and communications (Brandon & Joseph, 2020). Students are lacking of strategies to manage their personal brand effectively and consistently (Hood & Hopkins, 2014). By creating a professional profile, summarising your experience, highlight your achievements in LinkedIn, students are being more visible to other students, professors and potential employers (Florenthal, 2015). In fact, in most Google search for names, LinkedIn profile is usually at the top of the search results and push off other social media profiles that may not be helpful for your professional presence. With LinkedIn profile comes first, recruiters will know you are well-prepared and ready for the workforce (Cooper & Naatus, 2014). Once the profile is created, students can start to expand their network by connecting with people which helps the development their interpersonal communication skills (Mayers et al., 2011). Students can fist make connections with classmates, alumni, tutors and professors and take advantages of their endorsements and recommendations and then expand network to the people they may know. The more connections you made, the more endorsements you will receive and the higher chance you will be visible and valuable to potential employers (Cooper & Naatus, 2014). In the process of making connections, students could learn how to target and reach out to the right person, how to be proactive and communicate efficiently in getting your desired outcome (Mayers et al., 2011). Moreover, LinkedIn is an information hub of most of the industries and companies. Students can easily access articles of newest research outcomes, industry insights, company product release and so on. Not only educating them about the real world of work, but also providing essential information for their interview. By researching company’s information and structures in LinkedIn, students can get an idea of their potential career path and evaluate if the company is the right place to go in the long run (Florenthal, 2015). In summary, LinkedIn helps students build their professional online presence and networks, develop their interpersonal communication skills, understand the workforce they are about to join, and better develop their career and path.

LinkedIn as a learning tool in university and some case studies

Internet revolution and thereafter the expansion of social media has reshaped the education sectors and transformed the relationship between teachers and students. In fact, more and more universities are now using social media as a teaching tool, and students acknowledge the positive changes it brings to their study journey given they are already the frequent users of social media (López-Carril et al., 2022). Students found they are more engaged while studying via social media, it can help stimulate creativity, facilitate collaboration and foster social cohesion (Habets et al., 2021). While among all the social media, LinkedIn specifically focus on professional developments, and with its industry networks that are highly related to higher education courses, it has been adopted by many universities as a learning tool in delivering their curriculums (Florenthal, 2015). For instance, Professor Denny E. McCorkle & Lecturer Yuhua Li McCorkle (2012) has incorporated LinkedIn in their marketing management course for final year students. Several LinkedIn assignments has been designed for students aim for improving their social networking and self-marketing skills. The first phase required students to build a LinkedIn account, join the college alumni LinkedIn groups, connect with at least 20 LinkedIn members and engage in the required readings posted by the professor. The second phase required students to complete a personal evaluation on their strengths, weakness, opportunities and threats, and use it to summarise their best accomplishments and added to their LinkedIn profile. The third phase required students to focus on developing their social networking skills by participating in a minimum of five LinkedIn groups that match their studies or career interests. Students are also encouraged to posted relevant articles to each group and discussed with fellow students. Finally, they were required to write reflections on the whole LinkedIn learning experience. Not surprisingly, responses from students are all very positive. They found their marketing knowledge has been enhanced while engaging in the relevant groups by posting researched articles and involving in the discussions with other students. This process also helps develop their critical thinking, problem-solving, and leadership skills while trying to be in the part of the learning community, and leading the conversation around their posts. At the same time, with their professional profile and network be built, they found there are more confident in making new connections with professionals online for job and career. They also found LinkedIn provides up to date information of their interested industry, which will prepare them for the upcoming career (Denny & Yuhua, 2012). Another LinkedIn educational experiment was done by López-Carril et al. (2022) among 105 physical activity and sport sciences students from two Spanish universities. Students were required to create a LinkedIn account, familiarise and explore the primary features of LinkedIn at the beginning of the experiment. The study has been incorporated with the traditional face-to-face lectures, with asynchronous online learning through articles or videos shared by professors and participation in the discussion from LinkedIn groups. Several activities have been designed in the learning process including elaborate the LinkedIn profile, explore LinkedIn community that relates to your professional interests, publish relevant articles, and participation in the discussion of topic that raised by professors. Questionaries have been conducted among all the participants and results have shown majority of students were not aware of their professional presence online and haven’t use LinkedIn in their daily practice before this experiment, however after using LinkedIn as a learning tool in their study, they found LinkedIn can keep them updated in their interested industry, make connections with expertise in the relevant field, and broaden their professional network. It also makes them feel more connected with other students and teachers and get benefits from experiential learning (López-Carril et al., 2022).

Conclusion

LinkedIn as a social network site designed for professional developments has been widely adopted by recruiters in searching for potential employees. It allows you to build a clear and concise professional profile, make connections with people who may bring you the job opportunity, get up to date industry insights and participate in discussions regards to your career. All the above behaviours help shape one’s professional identity and play a key role for you in standing out among other job seekers. For students, LinkedIn could help develop their personal brand, expand their professional networks, educate them about the work environments and balance the information asymmetry between applicants and recruiters. Increasingly, universities start to incorporate LinkedIn in their courses aim for enhancing learning outcomes and preparing students for the workforce. Students found LinkedIn as a learning tool could enhance experiential learning, increase collaboration and communication, develop critical thinking and problem-solving skills, gain up to date industry knowledge and build connections with potential recruiters or industry expertise. Overall, LinkedIn is a great tool for career development and more universities should exploring using this in preparing students for careers.

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