This story originally appeared in Inc.
Most of us are familiar with LinkedIn as the No. 1 social site for career networking. LinkedIn can help you get a job and show off your credentials and, unexpectedly, even help you find love. Here are six reasons LinkedIn is love’s secret weapon.
1. It has a huge network. With more than 300 million users across 200 countries and territories, LinkedIn boasts a significant number of targets for Cupid’s arrows. And better yet, these are prime potential dates. LinkedIn is a network of driven, working professionals, not sketchy men taking shirtless selfies.
2. It offers the most important info about potential suitors. LinkedIn makes it easy to review possible matches based on the info that matters—where you’re from, where you went to school, and what you do. While these elements are admittedly unromantic, they say a lot about an individual and are significant indicators of potential compatibility.
3. It shows who recently viewed your profile. LinkedIn may not label itself as a dating site, but it sure acts like one. LinkedIn will reveal other users who recently viewed your profile. To get the full info on your viewers, you’ll need to dish out bucks for the premium service. This is common practice with dating sites like Match.com.
4. You can deduce a lot from the little info LinkedIn gathers. The data LinkedIn gathers about its users probably won’t tell you Ted’s favorite sports teams or that Jessica loves to Netflix-binge on Orange Is the New Black. Instead it will help you understand users in a way you’d be hard-pressed to do on normal dating sites. Do they have a lot of different jobs within a short time period? They may still be trying to find themselves or could lack commitment.
5. It shows trusted friends of friends. Most LinkedIn users have a broad network of connections, with most users liberally accepting connection requests. There isn’t much personal information you need to keep hidden, as is the case with Facebook. No one is sharing bachelorette photos on LinkedIn, which means there’s no need to be stingy with accepting connections.
This results in large networks of various connections—maybe the new girl at your workplace went to college with a high school buddy of yours. The world is smaller than you think, and it shows on LinkedIn. Having even a remote connection between two users increases credibility and helps users feel safe meeting one another in the real world.
6. LinkedUp proves love isn’t so far away. LinkedUp is a Tinder-style app that syncs up with a user’s LinkedIn account. LinkedUp shows users in close GPS proximity with their profession, hometown, and connections through other LinkedIn users. The app also lets users filter potential mates by job, industry, age, and gender. As so with Tinder, if two users give each other the thumbs up, they are encouraged to chat. While it’s not uncommon for dating apps to use Facebook data to match two lovebirds up, LinkedUp is the first that uses LinkedIn data.
The love lesson here is clear—if you’re on the market, keep those LinkedIn profiles up to date and upload your most flattering headshot. LinkedIn isn’t just for job searching—it could be where you meet the love of your life. Watch out world, Cupid is wearing a tie!
See also: How to be Happy
