TL;DR: LinkedIn is the number one platform for B2B lead generation, offering a range of features specifically designed for social selling, recruiting, and networking. LinkedIn is constantly changing, with new features appearing and some old ones being disabled. We have prepared a comprehensive and up-to-date list of LinkedIn features for marketers and sales professionals, and beyond.
Outline:
7 LinkedIn features you can use for brand recognition and growing your networking
Lead generation on LinkedIn is closely tied to networking. Remember that even if you’re in a B2B niche on social media, you’re still selling to people, not some depersonalized businesses. And people buy from brands they trust, so you need to establish your brand first and build a community around it before starting any campaigns.
So, in this section, we list the top LinkedIn features that can help you enhance your personal profile and connect with more people.
1. Social Selling Index (SSI)
One of the key features of LinkedIn is that it allows you to track your social media performance. The Social Selling Index (SSI) is a LinkedIn metric that measures how effectively you establish your brand, identify relevant industry contacts, and build relationships with them.
But SSI is not only a tool for you to gauge how well you’re doing. What’s even more important is that the LinkedIn algorithm determines whether your profile is trustworthy and relevant to other users based on this score.
The higher your SSI score, the more connection requests and messages you’ll be able to send per day. It also influences how many people will see your posts and how high your profile will appear in the search results. So, ultimately, SSI directly influences your ability to sell on social media.
You can check your LinkedIn Social Selling Index (SSI) by logging into your account and then visiting LinkedIn’s official SSI page. There, you’ll be able not only to view your score but also to compare it to the top scores in your industry. Your SSI is updated daily, so you’ll notice the result of your efforts fairly quickly.
A decent SSI score surpasses 75, but the common Social Selling Index usually falls between 40 out of 100.
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🤝Expert tip To grow your SSI, we recommend maintaining consistent activity on LinkedIn, including writing helpful posts, interacting with other people’s content, and connecting only with users who are relevant to your field. Snov.io’s LinkedIn automation software helps you to streamline this process safely. You can monitor your SSI rate directly in the app as it reflects all your activity on the platform.
In addition to helping you grow your LinkedIn account, our software also keeps it safe with the help of the following features:
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2. Personalized URL
Customizing your LinkedIn profile URL makes it look more professional and recognizable. A personalized URL is more searchable, improving your LinkedIn page’s SEO. Thus, other users are more likely to discover and remember your page.
To change your default profile URL to a custom one, go to your LinkedIn profile. On the right side of your photo and page background, you’ll see Public profile & URL.
Click the Edit icon and find the Edit your custom URL option on the right bar of your screen. Create a more SEO-friendly URL for yourself. Use your full personal or brand name and add industry-specific keywords for better searchability.
Here’s what our SEO expert, Yevheniia, has to say:
Treat LinkedIn as an intersection between a search engine and a social network if you want to appear in relevant search results. Incorporate relevant keywords to best describe your career and rank higher in the LinkedIn search results.
SEO Specialist at Snov.io
3. Multiple types of media
You can use multiple media formats on LinkedIn, including videos, presentations, and carousels. We highly recommend using a strategic approach and experimenting with various content types to see which ones perform better on your page.
There’s nothing better than a text + photo from real life (preferably yours) or a text + video (also featuring you). Don’t be afraid to go with unpolished videos of average quality — authentic content drives more interaction and performs better.
Marketing Specialist at Snov.io
4. Polls
Poll creation is a LinkedIn feature that not only increases engagement but also allows you to gather effective feedback from your audience. Keep in mind that you can only add four options to your poll, so carefully think through what exactly you want to know from your followers.
5. Frames around your profile photo
LinkedIn users can choose to display their photo in a “Hiring” and an “Open to Work” frame. These features make your profile photo stand out in the search and on people’s feeds. They signal that you’re welcoming connection requests and messages from potential employers and employees. To add a frame, just click on your profile photo and then click on the “Frames” tab.
I recommend combining the “Hiring” frame with other advanced LinkedIn features for recruiters to find the best-suited candidates faster.
6. LinkedIn Company Page
A LinkedIn Company Page is one of the essential features of LinkedIn for businesses. It is basically a social media storefront for your business. A Company Page allows you to establish an online brand presence, show off your business expertise, advertise your products, and connect with your target audience.
This feature will help you attract potential clients and hire top professionals while building relationships based on trust and transparency.
7. LinkedIn Showcase Page
Think of the Showcase Page as an extension of your Company Page. You can create it to present specific products, services, or business units. This LinkedIn feature will be particularly useful for you if your business has multiple offerings or targets different customer segments.
On the Showcase Page, you can share industry-specific insights, promote specialized services, and ultimately generate leads by engaging the right audience.
Keep in mind that, similarly to a Company Page, a Showcase Page will require consistent content updates and engagement with followers to benefit you. Without regular activity, the Page appears inactive to the algorithm, which can negatively impact your brand’s credibility. Evaluate whether you have enough resources before creating one.
8 LinkedIn features to network and generate leads
Now that you’ve grown your audience and achieved a high SSI, it’s time to start selling. In order to sell on social media, you’ll have to connect with your audience on a more personal level. There are multiple LinkedIn features that can help you gather prospects and reach out to them.
1. Personalized connection requests
LinkedIn allows you to send a message while establishing an initial connection with other users. Personalizing your requests increases the chance of them being accepted. To conduct business on LinkedIn, it’s essential to constantly grow the number of your connections. After all, you can only freely message users you’ve connected with.
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🎁 Out of ideas for writing connection requests? Download our free guide along with 20+ templates and effortlessly connect with hundreds of potential customers. |
2. InMail
LinkedIn InMail is a Premium feature that allows you to send messages to users outside your connection network. This is a very effective outreach feature, as it yields a response rate of 10-25%.
You can get from 5 to 1,000 InMail credits per month, depending on your subscription plan. Still, as their number is limited, this LinkedIn feature must be used strategically. For example, in cases when you’ve hit your connection request limit, or must reach out to someone directly.
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🤝Pro tip: InMail is effective for contacting leads with high conversion potential that are outside of your network. For example, you can For example, you can send an InMail to a marketing manager at a company in your target industry, highlighting how your solution can help them generate more qualified leads or streamline their outreach efforts. With Snov.io, you can also personalize InMails to your recipient to make an even better first impression.
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3. Notify Employees
When posting updates on your Company Page, you can choose to notify employees about your new post. This LinkedIn feature helps to boost engagement and ensure wider visibility of your content within your employees’ networks.
We don’t recommend using it after any update, though. Excessive notifications can lead to annoyance and disengagement among your team. Reserve the Notify Employees feature for the most valuable posts or topics that are likely to spark discussion among your audience.
4. LinkedIn Live
LinkedIn Live lets you host live streams to engage your audiences in real time. You can successfully conduct webinars, Q&A sessions, and product launches in this format. What’s more, this feature draws the third-highest ROI among all other types of LinkedIn content.
You can host a live-streaming session from your personal profile or a Company Page, depending on your goals. However, remember that live content requires extensive planning and promotion to ensure strong participation.
5. LinkedIn Groups
Join and participate in LinkedIn Groups relevant to your industry to network. You can enhance your brand visibility, demonstrate your expertise by sharing valuable insights, and find potential leads in these communities.
Groups can be a powerful lead-generation tool, but they can also be flooded with spam and fake accounts. To safeguard yourself against potentially spammy or fraudulent activity, join only active and well-moderated Groups.
6. LinkedIn search
LinkedIn’s search feature helps users find professionals, companies, jobs, and content relevant to their needs. Advanced search filters allow LinkedIn members to refine their searches based on location, industry, company size, and more.
Sales and marketing professionals use this tool to find potential leads and target the right audience. Recruiters rely on LinkedIn search to discover top talent. However, without a strategic approach, search results can become overwhelming. We’ll explain how to narrow down your results by using Boolean and X-ray search techniques below.
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🤝Pro tip: Source leads directly from the search page (as well as a Company page or a personal profile) using LI Email Finder. It takes just a few clicks to add this free extension to your browser, and then you’ll be growing your prospect list by a minute.
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7. Boolean and X-ray searches
Boolean search is one of the more advanced LinkedIn features. It allows you to refine your LinkedIn searches using operators such as AND, OR, NOT, quotation marks, and parentheses.
For example, searching “marketing AND sales NOT intern” returns results that include keywords “marketing” and “sales” but exclude any content or profiles that mention interns. This technique can help you find highly specific leads while reducing irrelevant search results.
The X-ray search, on the other hand, is not technically a LinkedIn feature. Instead, you leverage Google’s advanced search techniques to find LinkedIn profiles. By using search queries like site:linkedin.com/in/ “marketing manager” “New York”, you will discover profiles even if LinkedIn’s search visibility settings limit them.
🔎 Want to learn about prospecting on LinkedIn? Watch the video below:
8. LinkedIn Sales Navigator
Sales Navigator is a premium LinkedIn tool specifically designed for sales professionals and lead generation. It offers advanced search capabilities, lead recommendations, and real-time insights into potential clients. Sales Navigator’s features, including Lead Lists, InMail messaging, and CRM integrations, can help you streamline your outreach and track engagement more efficiently.
One of its key benefits is that you’ll be able to save leads and receive updates on their activity. This way, you’ll get an idea of when the right time to engage with particular prospects is. Additionally, Sales Navigator provides advanced filtering options beyond LinkedIn’s standard search.
The downside of the Sales Navigator is its premium price, which may not be ideal for small businesses or solopreneurs. To avoid unnecessary spending, you can try this feature for a month or two, and then decide if the investment is worth it.
5 Features to improve your LinkedIn experience
In addition to features that directly influence your sales on LinkedIn, there are a couple of features that just make using this platform easier. They shouldn’t be overlooked because they can influence your success, albeit indirectly.
1. Private Mode
Sometimes you’ll need to browse LinkedIn profiles without other users knowing about it. You might want to analyze competitors, gather industry insights, or research candidates while protecting your privacy.
The Private Mode LinkedIn feature can help you prevent unwanted attention and maintain confidentiality. In this mode, your name, role, and details are hidden from a person whose profile you’ve viewed.
2. Saved posts
Engaging with other users’ content is a cornerstone of networking. Unfortunately, you won’t always have time to read and comment on loads of posts appearing on your feed. Found an informative post you’d like to explore and discuss, but don’t have time right now? Use the “Save” feature of LinkedIn posts. Just select a bookmark in the post menu in its upper right corner.
3. LinkedIn name pronunciation
This feature allows you to record your name pronunciation, making it easier for connections to address you correctly. It eliminates potential awkwardness when you move on to in-person conversations with your prospective clients and partners.
Unfortunately, it is only available in the LinkedIn apps for Android and iOS.
4. Dark mode
Little things go a long way. LinkedIn’s dark mode feature enhances readability and reduces eye strain, making browsing more comfortable. This means you won’t feel as tired even if you have a lot of work to do on social media. You can enable dark mode in your Account Settings.
5. Merge inactive accounts
The LinkedIn account merge feature lets you combine two (or more) accounts into one. To merge your accounts, LinkedIn will need to first verify that they both belong to you. Then, you’ll be able to choose the primary account and data from the secondary account (for example, contacts or endorsements) that must be transferred. After the transfer is done, the secondary account will be deactivated.
This LinkedIn feature allows you to consolidate your social media presence into a single, unified profile and avoid the risk of being banned for having multiple accounts.
Is there more?
LinkedIn offers more than 20 features that can help you grow sales and achieve business success. In this article, we’ve only covered the most popular ones. Start by implementing the tools mentioned above strategically to build credibility, grow your network, and start converting. You’ll be able to easily capitalize on LinkedIn’s advantages, especially if you’re using Snov.io to speed up the process.
If you’re interested in learning more advanced social selling tactics, check out our free LinkedIn lead generation course at Snov.io Academy. It’s guaranteed to turn you from a beginning social seller into a pro.
