LinkedIn Gold is LinkedIn’s premium subscription plan that unlocks additional features and benefits beyond the free version. As LinkedIn continues to grow its offerings, LinkedIn Gold provides increased access and functionality for job seekers, business networkers, recruiters, sales professionals, and anyone looking to get the most out of LinkedIn.
Access to Full LinkedIn Profiles
One of the main benefits of LinkedIn Gold is gaining full access to all LinkedIn user profiles. On the free version of LinkedIn, you can only view limited profile information for people outside of your direct network. With LinkedIn Gold, you can view the entire profile of any LinkedIn member, regardless of whether you’re connected to them or not.
This allows you to research people more thoroughly before reaching out or connecting with them. You can view their full work experience, education, skills, accomplishments, interests, and more. For recruiters or sales professionals, this enables more targeted relationship-building and outreach based on someone’s complete background.
See All Connections in Your Network
LinkedIn Gold also lets you see all 1st, 2nd, and 3rd degree connections across your entire network. On the free account, you can only see connections up to 2nd degree. With the larger view, you can discover new contacts through the connections of your connections.
You may find vendors, partners, potential employees, or new clients by leveraging your full network map. You can also identify the strongest pathways to reach desired contacts through shared connections.
See Who Viewed Your Profile
Ever wonder who has viewed your LinkedIn profile recently? With LinkedIn Gold, you can see the last 90 days of profile views broken down by name, location, company, title, and more. This insight enables you to pinpoint which prospects, recruiters, or business contacts have been checking you out.
From there, you can focus your relationship-building efforts on those demonstrated interests. You can also gauge how your brand and reputation are resonating in the market based on profile view demographics.
Advanced Search Filters
LinkedIn Gold includes advanced search filters that allow you to fine-tune your search results when prospecting for contacts or researching companies and topics. You can search by keyword along with additional parameters like location, company size, job title, and much more.
For example, you could search for “software engineers” within a 50 mile radius who work at “enterprise” sized companies. This reduces scrolling through irrelevant results and isolates contacts that fit your specific outreach goals.
Search by Time Posted
The advanced search also allows you to filter results based on when content was posted or updated. For example, in addition to keywords you could search for posts or articles from just the last week, month, year, etc.
This allows you to find the most timely and relevant content vs outdated information. It’s helpful for understanding the latest news, opinions, and trends around an industry, topic, or company.
Search Within Specific LinkedIn Groups
With LinkedIn Gold you can search for posts, people, jobs, companies, and other content exclusively within specific LinkedIn Groups that you’re a member of. This surfaces insights and discussions unique to those professional communities.
For instance, you could search within an HR Group to find active discussions around recruiting and hiring trends within that niche. The Group filter isolates information within your key industry circles.
Unlimited InMail Messages
One of the most valuable features of LinkedIn Gold is gaining unlimited access to InMail messaging. InMail is LinkedIn’s internal email messaging system that allows you to connect directly with anyone on LinkedIn, whether you’re connected with them or not.
With a free LinkedIn account, you only get a handful of InMail credits per month. This significantly restricts how many cold outreach messages you can send. With LinkedIn Gold, this limit is removed so you have unlimited messaging capabilities.
Higher InMail Response Rates
Studies show that InMail messages through LinkedIn Gold have up to a 40% higher response rate compared to basic LinkedIn messages. When recipients see the “Gold Member” tag, they understand the message is more substantive and less likely to be spam.
Higher InMail response rates translate to more successful new connections and warmer prospecting conversations. You can reach a lot more of the right people thanks to the increased credibility Gold provides.
Use Templates to Save Time
To help save time with high-volume outreach, LinkedIn Gold lets you create and save unlimited InMail templates. You can set up customized templates for networking invites, following up with prospects, thanking contacts, recruiting messages, and any other common messaging needs.
With templates, you simply fill in the blank personalized fields when reusing the InMail for a new contact. This avoids having to rewrite the same messages over and over.
Learning Courses Included
LinkedIn Gold includes unlimited access to more than 400+ professional online courses through LinkedIn Learning. This gives you the ability to pick up in-demand business, technology, and creative skills through virtual classes.
A few examples of available courses include:
Course | Description |
---|---|
Excel Essential Training | Master pivot tables, charts, formulas and other Excel skills to become a spreadsheet pro. |
Communication Skills for Business | Improve your communication abilities for workplace interactions, relationships, and presentations. |
HTML Essential Training | Build websites and web apps by learning HTML markup language fundamentals step-by-step. |
LinkedIn Learning courses let you pick up valuable hard skills and soft skills without having to pay tuition. All content is delivered by expert instructors and broken into short, bite-sized video lessons. This makes learning convenient since you can take courses anywhere from a phone, tablet, computer, or TV.
Earn Certificates to Showcase Skills
Many of the LinkedIn Learning courses offer completion certificates. Once you finish all the lessons in a course, you can add the certificate to your LinkedIn profile and résumé. This allows you to showcase the new skills you’ve developed to network contacts and prospective employers.
The certificates prove you invested the time to build and validate your abilities. They serve as credible endorsements that amplify your professional brand and value.
Salary Insights Tool
LinkedIn Gold includes access to LinkedIn Salary which provides real-time salary data for thousands of job titles. You can research and compare average compensation for roles based on factors like location, years of experience, company size, specific skills, and more.
These insights are powered by salary and company data contributed by LinkedIn members. You can get a strong sense of market pay rates for jobs you apply to, positions you hire for, and when negotiating your own compensation.
See Salary Ranges
In addition to average salaries, LinkedIn Salary provides salary ranges for job titles. So you can see the full spread of low to high earners. This gives you a better idea of what total compensation you can realistically target for your experience level and skills.
The tool also shows the most influential factors determining pay such as certifications, degrees, or specialized expertise that correlate with higher salaries. This highlights skills to develop further to increase earning potential.
Job Posting Insights
When your company posts new jobs on LinkedIn, a LinkedIn Gold subscription unlocks additional analytics and insights. You can see how your job posts are performing in terms of visibility, engagement, and applicant quantity/quality.
For instance, you can identify:
- Pageviews and post clicks
- Followers gained from the post
- Number of applicants
- Top sources of applications
These metrics allow you to fine-tune your job listings for better reach and response. You can target additional Groups, Hashtags, or keywords to promote openings that need a visibility boost. This ultimately helps attract and hire qualified talent faster.
Review Applicant Profiles Anonymously
To get a sense of who is applying, LinkedIn Gold lets you anonymously browse full profiles of candidates who have applied for your jobs. Names and photos are hidden, but you can still view work histories, skills, and other profile details.
This helps gauge if your job descriptions and targeting are resonating with the right people. You can make adjustments to postings to shift applicant profiles toward more ideal candidates.
Premium Badges for Profiles and Pages
As a LinkedIn Gold subscriber, you can showcase “Open for Business” badges on your personal profile as well as your Company Page. These premium experience badges visually signal that you actively use LinkedIn for business relationships and opportunities.
Displaying your Gold status and Open for Business badges can help attract more profile views, connection requests, and engagement from relevant prospects. People will know you’re serious about leveraging LinkedIn for professional networking and growth.
Elevate Branding for Companies
For Company Pages, LinkedIn Gold enables premium branding and content capabilities to stand out. This includes the ability to add a cover photo banner, showcase products/services, publish long-form posts, and more.
Elevating your company’s LinkedIn presence helps build awareness, trust, and loyalty with target audiences. Premium branding sets you apart from competitors and positions your brand as an industry leader.
Conclusions
To summarize, here are some of the most valuable features unlocked with a LinkedIn Gold subscription:
- View full profiles beyond just your 1st-degree network
- See who has viewed your profile recently
- Advanced search filters for targeted prospecting
- Unlimited InMail messages for higher response rates
- Access over 400+ expert-led courses via LinkedIn Learning
- Salary comparison tools to negotiate better pay
- Enhanced job posting analytics and applicant profiles
- Premium badges to showcase your Gold status
The expanded capabilities of LinkedIn Gold empower professionals across all industries to build stronger networks, generate more opportunities, showcase their brand, and maximize the impact of their LinkedIn presence. The additional insights and outreach power promote faster career and business growth.
If you’re looking to upgrade from the basic free account, a Gold membership can be a smart investment to amplify your LinkedIn activities and results. The features and analytics justify the subscription cost for active users who want to tap the full potential of LinkedIn for their goals.