How and Why Users Should Add Digital Credentials to LinkedIn Profiles

LinkedIn is a social media platform that promotes itself as the ‘world’s largest professional network’. LinkedIn enables users to build a professional profile with the aim to find relevant job listings, strengthen professional relationships, and add digital badges and digital certificates to showcase ability through education, skills, and experience.

Showcase abilities with LinkedIn

As the world’s most popular professional network, LinkedIn provides an excellent platform for users to create a ‘digital resume’. Profiles include dedicated sections for education and work history, current certifications, transferable skills, and professional interests. Users can build up their profile with specific skills and showcase their earned digital badges and digital certificates to improve their hiring prospects. The more detail users add to their profile, the better their chances of being found by hiring managers for relevant job positions.

As of June 2021, LinkedIn has 310 million active monthly users all around the world. A total of 690 million professionals are registered on the platform, of which 60.1% fall in the 25-34 age group. At the time of writing, there are over 15 million open job listings on the platform, of those more than 300 thousand are remote jobs listed in the US. That is a lot of connections and opportunities for LinkedIn users to take advantage of!

How to add digital badges and digital certificates to LinkedIn

There are two options for recipients to showcase their latest digital credentials on their LinkedIn profile.

They can share the digital badge or digital certificate using the LinkedIn ‘Share’ button on the hosted credential page. This provides the option to share the digital credential via a post to their connection’s feeds or send via a private message.

Recipients can also sign in to their digital credential to get the option to ‘Add to LinkedIn’. The credential information will appear via the 'License and Certification' form in LinkedIn for recipients to check and save.

Full step-by-step instructions are available in the Accredible Knowledgebase:

How to add digital badges and digital certificates to LinkedIn

How to share LinkedIn profile

An increasing number of employers accept submission of LinkedIn profiles for hiring considerations. This saves time for users during a job-hunt, and makes it easy for employers to find the information relevant to the opening. Sharing a LinkedIn profile is quick and easy, simply copy and paste the profile URL or navigate to the ‘More’ button and choose ‘Save to PDF’ to download the profile in an easy-to-share PDF format ready for upload.

Increased visibility for issuers

Users on LinkedIn connect with relevant professionals, colleagues, and acquaintances to create networks of individuals with similar skills, positions, work history, and interests. When a digital certificate or digital badge is added to their profile, the issuer gains visibility for their brand, programs, and credentials. The individual's connections that view the added or shared digital credential align with the target audience of issuers. This leads to increased engagement, and an opportunity to gain more sign-ups and interest for training, membership, and programs.

How to encourage recipients to add/share their digital badge and certificate to LinkedIn

Once a recipient has completed the necessary steps to achieve the credential, they are sent their digital credential via email. The email is fully customizable to the requirements of the issuer, add details about the credential, how to use it, and clear call to action buttons for what action to take next. This could be as simple as ‘view credential’ and ‘share to social media’. To encourage recipients to share their credentials to LinkedIn, provide an ‘add to LinkedIn’ CTA button that reduces the steps the recipient needs to take.

Engaging with recipients that share and add their digital credentials to their LinkedIn profile is another way to encourage shares. Issuers can even embed LinkedIn feed on website to share recipient content with their visitors for further engagement and reach. Candidates that are still in the process of earning their credential will see the engagement and look forward to receiving their own. In our brunchwork case study, brunchwork saw an increase of 78% in monthly LinkedIn page views for the company after launching digital credentials. This increase in views leads to further engagement with the brand and new candidate sign-ups for the available programs.

In Summary

LinkedIn is fast becoming a popular and useful tool for job seekers and employers seeking new hires. It helps connect potential candidates to relevant jobs based on their experience, interests, and skills. Help candidates find jobs faster by encouraging them to share and add their digital badges and digital certificates to their LinkedIn profiles. By encouraging shares, issuers increase visibility of their own brand, programs, and credentials. This also provides motivation for their recipient’s connections to explore training or learning with the issuer themselves.

Boost visibility for the organization, credentials, and programs today and choose easy-to-share, verifiable, and secure digital credentials for recipients. Get in touch with the sales team for a platform demo, or sign-up to try the platform for up to 20 unique recipients with a trial account.