When To Pay For Your LinkedIn Membership
Posted by Steve Tylock on 17 Jul 2008 at 11:09 am | Tagged as: About the Service
In a recent email, David asks: “What are the main advantages of paid membership?”
What he didn’t ask, and what I figured was implied by his question was “Should I pay for a membership?”
Marketing in 2008…
LinkedIn works on the basis of good / better / best for memberships. The basic membership with no cost is a good tool. It does all of the things you need it to do (at a basic level) A business account is better, and a corporate account is “best” (if you’re a corporate recruiter).
LinkedIn will benefit if you use the service at any of those levels – and so the decision is up to you.
Free accounts
My membership is at the basic level – because that level permits me to do all of the things I need to. The additional features are not central to what I need.
Account upgrades
If you’d like to:
- Send InMail – to directly contact other members that are not “in” your network
- See who is looking at your profile
- Get “more” results when you search
- Send more simultaneous requests for introductions
- Work with LinkedIn customer support
Then a paid membership is worth considering.
Recruiters
And as I said at the top, if you’re a recruiter, LinkedIn would like you to consider their set of hiring tools as the best option. LinkedIn has done well with access to individuals who are not looking for new jobs, and it is no secret that recruiters use the site to reach them.
As I’m not a recruiter, I can’t tell you what that uber-account will do for you, but you might want to check it out.
Should you upgrade?
Back to the unspoken question – do you need to upgrade? Probably not, but I don’t know about your situation. Consider it – if you find that those features would help you – and decide if the value is there.
If you have a paid account, we’d all love to hear about your experience – please leave a comment!
steve
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My question is:
Being new to LinkedIn, can I “invite” anyone / unlimited number of members to add me to their network? I am debating a paid membership, but I am not sure I need it.
Thanks!
Ken
Ken,
As a new user, you should get comfortable with the system before going with a paid membership. (See the specific reasons in this article on when you would want to consider a paid membership)
You can invite anyone you want – but if you follow my advice, you’ll be judicious with those invitations… Only to people you know and trust…
You will be capped at several thousand invitations so while they are plentiful, they are not infinite. I don’t know of additional invitations going to paid members, so that should not affect your choice.
Best success,
steve
–
Steve Tylock
I want to cancel my business membership on linkedin , cant understand how to…
Sanjay,
You’ll find instructions on this LinkedIn page:
FAQ – Downgrading your premium subscription
Hope that helps!
steve