What Is LinkedIn Premium?

A LinkedIn premium account expands network features to allow your to feature you skills to a broader audience.
LinkedIn is a online networking service for business professionals that connects more than 100 million users across the world. A standard LinkedIn account is free, but limits the breadth of your search results and your means of contacting other professionals. Upgrading to a paid LinkedIn premium account expands the feature set of the network providing you with expanded and entirely new avenues for generating opportunities.

1.InMail

• LinkedIn normally directs contact through messages to other professionals that you have added to your network or by means of an introduction through one of your connections. The InMail feature in the premium account allows you to a direct message to an out-of-network professional without requiring an introduction. LinkedIn claims that InMails receive a 30-fold higher response rate than cold calling. You receive a limited number of InMail credits per month with your LinkedIn premium account. InMails not replied to within seven days will be credited back to your account.

Expanded Search

• A premium membership gets you more results when you search LinkedIn for decision makers and business leads. The expanded premium search allows you to search for a professional by profile keywords, job title, past or present school and employers, industries, LinkedIn groups, network relationships and interests. The expanded search results also let you view additional profile information for professionals outside of your network. Searches can be saved and flagged to notify you when new results are added.
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Profile Organizer

• The Profile Organizer lets you save potentially important profiles for later review. Saved profiles can be sorted into different folders using a whatever criteria you choose. You may also add contact information or additional notes on each saved profile. This tools can be incredibly useful for managing relationships; you can keep track of where you met a contact, key points from a client discussion and other information you might need to ensure continuing business success.

Who’s Viewed Your Profile

• Keep track of who’s looking for someone with your skill set. As a LinkedIn premium-account holders you can see the complete list of people and companies that have viewed your profile. You can also view top keywords leading to your profile, statistics for profile views and searches, as well as which industries and regions are viewing your profile. These statistics can help you refine your profile to target prospective employers or potential clients.

Premium Badge

• If you subscribe to the LinkedIn premium service, you can display a gold LinkedIn badge on your profile. You can toggle whether this badge displays on your profile or not. Members who display the premium LinkedIn badge on their profile receive 15 times more profile views on average, says LinkedIn. The badge is a signal to a potential contact that the information on your profile is up to date, is actively maintained and has received much attention.

OpenLink

• The OpenLink network enables any member on LinkedIn to send you a message without being in your network or subscribing to a premium account. You can choose whether to receive OpenLink messages to your profile or not. Premium members who have enabled OpenLink receive, on average, seven times more business-related inquiries each month, according to LinkedIn. You may also filter search results to favor other members who have OpenLink enabled.

Account Levels

• LinkedIn provides three levels of premium accounts as of April 2012: Business, Business Plus and Executive. Business accounts cost about $25 monthly and provide three InMails per month, 300 profiles displayed on search results, five Profile Organizer folders, five weekly automated saved search updates, 15 outstanding introductions, and access to all other premium features. Business Plus accounts cost about $50 monthly and provide 10 InMails, 500 profiles on results, 25 Profile Organizer folders, seven weekly search updates an 25 outstanding introductions. Executive accounts cost about $100 monthly and provide 25 monthly InMails, 700 profiles on results, 50 Profile Organizer folders, 10 daily search updates and 35 outstanding introductions. Discounts are given for annual billing. Other account options are available for recruiters and sales professionals.

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Hope this helps you decide – FREE or Premium – What is best for you.