15 years ago, the only way you could know that a company had a vacancy was to either check the newspapers religiously or walk around the city of Lagos or Kigali with your “I beg to apply” letter carefully composed.
There was also very little opportunity to carry out extensive research on a potential employer, the company or its values except one was fortunate enough to meet a current staff. These challenges meant that it was easier to pass through the eye of a needle than getting a job through your “I beg to apply” letter.
Things have changed, but unfortunately not many people are effectively using the tools that technology has placed in their laps.
LinkedIn, a professional networking app built in 2002 has progressively gained relevance amongst Africa’s professional and business elites. With over 7 million African users, and 55% of them senior executives in organisations, LinkedIn is a fertile ground for job seekers to communicate their value directly to potential employers. For entrepreneurs, particularly service based businesses and high ticket product companies, LinkedIn has proved to be the best social networking app where unsolicited proposals can be sent directly to decision makers.
“I have been on LinkedIn since 2010,” says Tolulope Olorundero, Founder Mosron Communications. “At that time, my sole aim was to connect with and follow the career trends of senior colleagues in the public relations industry. As an employee, I got 95% of my jobs through LinkedIn, and now as an entrepreneur, LinkedIn has been the single most effective marketing platform for our business.”
With this experience, and having worked with over 30 senior executives in the last year to optimise their LinkedIn profiles, Mosron Communications in 2018 initiated an annual CSR event to train professionals on how to better position themselves to leverage on the teeming opportunities that can be accessed via LinkedIn.
During the first edition, the company held a virtual training for over 250 professionals spread across the world. In 2019, the company is set to break this record as it prepares to teach LinkedIn Optimisation to 10,000 plus participants via Twitter on December 1. In addition, Mosron Communications will organise two offline trainings to be delivered in partnership with Money Africa – a leading financial literacy organisation using digital platforms to teach millennials healthy financial habits.
“The LinkedIn Optimisation for Professionals class will host 70 carefully selected mid-senior level executives on November 30. On December 7, we will host another 70 carefully selected entrepreneurs for the LinkedIn Optimisation for Entrepreneurs class,” explains Olorundero. “The focus for a career professional is different from that of an entrepreneur and it must reflect in the way they use the app. We will share very practical examples, messaging templates, and effective sales strategies that will help businesses to grow. It will be a hands-on class that will include exercises and optimisation review.”
The best part? The training is absolutely free. “This is our way of shining the light on the path that we have thread so that others coming after us do not make the mistakes we made when we started out.”
Mosron Communications is a bespoke public relations consultancy practice established to provide world class communications services to growing organisations within and outside Nigeria. They have worked with leading organisations across different sectors of the economy including tech, education, engineering and real estate.