𝓒𝓲𝓷𝓬𝓸 𝓭𝓮 𝓜𝓪𝔂𝓸 is not only the celebration of Mexican 🇲🇽 culture, cuisine and heritage, but it’s also the launch date of LinkedIn back in 2003. Indeed, it’s LinkedIn’s 𝟚𝟘𝕥𝕙 𝕒𝕟𝕟𝕚𝕧𝕖𝕣𝕤𝕒𝕣𝕪! 🥳 Congratulations! What a ride it’s been so far…and there is so much more coming! 💪🏻
To be honest, I was first introduced to LinkedIn at the end of 2003 but found it too USA-centric. In 2004 it kept on coming back and in June I finally gave in and set up my account. 🤔
The first couple of years were quite slow. It all changed when I started to collaborate with Jan Vermeiren more intensely. Back in 2007, we started using the LinkedIn platform more frequently as an add-on to our (networking & communication) training sessions. The 𝐋𝐢𝐧𝐤𝐞𝐝𝐈𝐧 𝐆𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐩𝐬 allowed us to stay in touch with participants and to drip-feed them with additional info, examples and best practices. As a direct result, some of them asked us to explain how to properly use the platform. So, we gradually started to provide LinkedIn training courses.
In 2010, LinkedIn invited our team to become the first 🄾🄵🄵🄸🄲🄸🄰🄻 LinkedIn-certified trainers in the world. I remember that within hours of posting this on my profile, it was suspended 😇 and a few hours later it was reinstated after clarifying that we were part of an official LinkedIn pilot project. 🤓 Thanks Jeff Weiner!
In 2011, Jan and I published the second version of “How To REALLY Use LinkedIn”, which became an international bestseller (again). We grew the team, wrote a few extra books (e.g. "The Power of LinkedIn" for the Indian market), and gave hundreds of (online and blended) LinkedIn training and keynote sessions per year. 👍🏻
In 2012, I started a sister company Really Connect with Michael (Mike) Clark in the UK to build a team of +20 (freelance) LinkedIn trainers across Europe. Only 2 years later, we were the 🅾🅽🅻🆈 company to have a booth at LinkedIn’s biggest event: Talent Connect. To this day, it still is one of the top events ever! 😎 We then merged the 2 companies and sold them to Scredible and Colin Lucas-Mudd for our next adventure in 2015...
In 2017 I was invited by LinkedIn to create social recruiting (and LinkedIn) training courses for LinkedIn Learning. I became a regular guest speaker at LinkedIn events and a few years later I was invited by Marcel Molenaar to become a LinkedIn Ambassador.
Since 2021, I started to develop the first LinkedIn microlearning (mobile first!) and social learning experiences in the 𝗨𝗤 𝗰𝗼𝗮𝗰𝗵 at UQalify. If you want to know more about these, 👉🏻 just ping me.
I can’t imagine a world without #LinkedIn anymore. Do you?
What did LinkedIn do for you? Any (juicy) stories to share? Use the comments! 👇🏻
Thanks to everyone involved in my personal journey, but also a big thank you to all 930M members for your contribution. I'm also curious to see what the future holds. Here's to the next 20 years of LinkedIn! Cheers! 🍾