April 8, 2019 6 min read

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

The following excerpt is from Ted Prodromou’s book Ultimate Guide to LinkedIn for Business. Buy it now from Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Apple Books | IndieBound

As the world migrates to mobile computing, LinkedIn has been developing apps to meet the demand. According to LinkedIn, more than 60 percent of their members use the mobile app to access the site. This is a huge shift from just a couple of years ago, when people spent most of their time on desktop computers.

Let me introduce you to a few of the most popular mobile LinkedIn apps, all of which are free to download and will enhance your LinkedIn experience.

LinkedIn Mobile App

LinkedIn has developed apps for the iPhone and Android smartphones. (The Blackberry and Windows versions are officially retired.) The LinkedIn app is free and connects you seamlessly to your LinkedIn account from your phone. The app is well-designed, fast, and easy to use. It lets you check messages, invite people to connect, review updates, and send messages to your connections.

At the bottom of the screen, you have easy access to your primary LinkedIn functions: Home, My Network, Messaging, Notifications, and Jobs. This is about 80 percent of what I use LinkedIn for. When I’m on Home, I scan my newsfeed to see what’s happening with my network, breaking industry news, and content from people and companies I follow. On the My Network tab, I see new invitations to connect, potential new connections under People You May Know, and my total number of connections. When I’m at a live event, I can also turn on Find Nearby, which looks for other people at the conference or event who have this feature turned on. You can connect with other conference attendees instantly. Don’t worry about your privacy: People won’t see your location if you don’t enable this feature.

LinkedIn Messaging is a powerful way to start conversations with connections who could become clients or great referral partners. In the right graphic is Notifications, where you see who’s interacting with your posts, accepting your connection invitations, and having job anniversaries or birthdays. The app also lets you update your profile and see your network statistics, including Who’s Viewed Your Profile, Post Views, and the number of times you appeared in searches.

LinkedIn SlideShare

One of LinkedIn’s hidden gems that works well on mobile is SlideShare, an app and website where you can upload PowerPoint slide decks, infographics, PDFs, and documents. You can also upload video if it’s included in your presentation, but you can’t upload video directly to SlideShare.

LinkedIn Learning

LinkedIn Learning has thousands of online courses and videos covering every aspect of business. Content is categorized under Subjects, Software, and Learning Paths.

You receive full access to LinkedIn Learning when you have a premium account. If you don’t have a premium account, you can subscribe to LinkedIn Learning for $29.95 per month or purchase an annual subscription for $299.88. The Learning app is free to download, but you need a premium account or a subscription to access the content.

You can stream courses or download them for offline viewing from the mobile app. I often download classes and watch them when I’m traveling to speaking engagements.

Premium Apps

LinkedIn has several premium apps that are worth checking out (and that may be worth paying the cost of premium for, depending on your needs). These apps work only with the appropriate paid subscriptions, so be sure to check their terms.

LinkedIn Recruiter

The Recruiter app lets you access the tools in your LinkedIn Recruiter subscription. The app lets you search and review the profiles of potential hires, respond quickly to candidates, and stay organized with projects. While it’s not a replacement for the full desktop version of Recruiter, it allows you to stay in touch while you are away from your computer.

LinkedIn Sales Navigator

Sales Navigator is LinkedIn’s flagship tool for sales professionals, which helps you find leads and accounts in your target market, connect or send messages to prospects, and get real-time updates while you are on the road.

With Sales Navigator, you can follow targeted companies and key members of those organizations so you hear instantly about breaking news or key personnel changes. You can quickly reach out with InMail if you’re not connected or send free LinkedIn messages to check in with them.

You can also create targeted LinkedIn searches with expanded search fields that run 24/7 and alert you once a day when they find an ideal prospect. Simply open the alert and view the potential client’s LinkedIn profile to decide if you want to connect and begin a business relationship.

You need a paid subscription to Sales Navigator to use this app. LinkedIn offers a professional version for individual users at around $80 per month and a version for corporate sales teams at around $130 per month per person at the time of this writing. Visit https://business.linkedin.com/sales-solutions/sales-navigator to see the latest service offerings and pricing.

LinkedIn Elevate

LinkedIn Elevate is a tool for large companies that create and share a lot of content on social media. This app is only available to employees at participating companies. Visit https://business.linkedin.com/elevate for more information.

As employees create social media content for your company, they add it to the Elevate app so everyone in the company can share it on their social media accounts. This is a great way to create a viral effect on social media if enough employees share it in a timely manner. With a huge initial boost from your employees, social media networks see the content trending, so they boost the content to millions of other people.

LinkedIn Elevate lets you:

• Receive quality, approved content that you can easily share with your networks
• Help you reach your network at the best time to boost your impact
• See how your network is responding with detailed analytics