Networking has long been recognized as a powerful tool for business people and professionals. 

Why? 

Because people trust people and there is nothing more powerful than word of mouth recommendations, especially from someone you like (= trust).

Fact is, word of mouth has become world of mouth and with access to the internet, our social connections have expanded and we can leverage of a broader network than ever before (and tap into their opinion and experience.)

LinkedIn is now one of the oldest social network platforms and is still going strong. 
In fact, here are some stats you might not know: 
- LinkedIn started on May 5, 2003
- LinkedIn has 332 million members
- 2 new users join every second
- 42 million unique mobile visitors per month. This stat is up from 29 million a year before (This is a 45% increase in just 12 months ) 
- Average time a user spends on LinkedIn is 17 minutes/ month
- 25 million LinkedIn profiles are viewed every day
- 1in 3 professionals on the planet are on LinkedIn
- You can increase your linkedIn views by 11 times by including a photo
- 41% of users visit Linkedin via mobile
- The average number of connections on LinkedIn is 930
- 13% of millennials use LinkedIn
- 56% of members are male
- 44% of members are female
- LinkedIn has the highest visitor-to-lead conversion rate among all social platforms. Nearly 3 out of every 100 visitors to your LinkedIn profile will be converted into leads.

This sounds all very impressive and no doubt, LinkedIn is powerful for both - building your personal as well as employer brand but still ... not many have mastered the art and science of digital and social networking. 
__________________
 

Kylie Chown is a Personal Branding Strategist and LinkedIn Expert. With over 15 years of experience, she works with job seekers, consultants and businesses so that they have more choice in their businesses and careers. 
Kylie will share some of her Secrets on how to use this powerful platform to your advantage, some Do's and Dont's as well as simple and quick tricks and tools to get your profile optimised.