‘Do I need a paid for LinkedIn account?’ is one of the most frequently asked questions I receive during training sessions… so here’s my answer!
There’s plenty you can do with a free account; in fact, until you need the additional functionality, I recommend that you don’t upgrade.
LinkedIn basic (free) account
A basic (free) LinkedIn account is for anyone who wants to create and maintain a professional profile online.
With this account you can:
- Establish your professional identity on the web
- Build and maintain a professional network
- Request and provide recommendations
- Search for and view profiles of other LinkedIn members
- Receive unlimited InMail messages
- Create and join LinkedIn groups
- When you browse in ‘private mode’ via a free account you will not be able to see anyone who is viewing your profile.
LinkedIn premium subscriptions
LinkedIn has a number of premium subscriptions, including:
- Premium Business
- Premium Career – for job seekers
- Recruiter – for recruiters
- Sales Navigator – for business development
Premium Business
LinkedIn’s premium business account will display a gold ‘premium profile’ badge on your profile and next to your name in search results. The account also offers some additional functionality to the basic account:
- A custom button on your profile – this shows up alongside your photo, name and headline as you are active on LinkedIn.
- AI features to support updating your profile and preparing messages
- Search with no limits
- 15 InMail credits a month to send direct messages to anyone on LinkedIn
- The opportunity to see everyone who has viewed your profile in the last 90 days (without premium, you can only see the last 5 people to view your profile). This feature is the primary reason I would advise for upgrading. You can see how many profile views you are receiving, and as your activity on LinkedIn grows I believe the investment in Premium is worthwhile as you are able to use this information as a reason to message – either keeping in touch with existing (1st-level) connections or making new ones.
- Additional features for services pages (show reviews and request services button)
- Access to the LinkedIn Learning library of 10,000+ online learning courses (updated weekly)
- Access to business insights on Company pages
You can try Premium for free for one month. Go to the ‘settings & privacy’ section on LinkedIn, click account preferences and go to ‘Subscriptions and Payments’. To avoid getting charged, you’ll need to cancel at least one day before your trial ends.
Premium Career
The Premium Career account is great for active job seekers. It includes the following features, in addition to those of the basic account:
- AI tools
- 5 InMail credits a month to send direct messages to anyone on LinkedIn
- The opportunity to see everyone who has viewed your profile in the last 90 days (without premium, you can only see the last 5 people to view your profile).
- Insights to help you see how your education, skills etc compare to a company’s current employees and other applicants
- Access to LinkedIn Learning
- Apply to jobs as a featured applicant
Recruiter and Sales Navigator
I believe that Sales Navigator offers more functionality to a recruiter, at a slightly lower monthly price. However, if you need to automatic candidate tracking you should use a recruiter account.
Sales Navigator has advanced search functionality and a ‘Lead Builder” for saving searches and monitoring prospects.
Sales Navigator is essentially a relationship management tool. A Sales Navigator account has a separate home page only showing activity from leads (ie not your connections) therefore allowing you to focus your attention on those prospects (up to 1500 saved leads). You can also tag and make notes within Sales Navigator and receive alerts. Both Recruiter and Sales Navigator accounts provide additional InMail credits, over and above a premium business account. 30 for Recruiters, 50 for Sales Navigator.
For an up-to-date comparison of account types, visit: https://www.linkedin.com/help/linkedin/answer/a545596