Hello LinkedIn, is anyone home?

August 1, 2011 Leave a comment

Apparently there is, and it’s growing!

I recently had a brief chat to a LinkedIn marketing expert (thanks Elley) about her views on it all.  Personally, I’ve had my profile for years and apart from fiddling around with it in the beginning, it hasn’t seen much use (like that present you buy your wife that you think she’ll like, but doesn’t).  I’ve jumped back on in the past few months and have been keeping it up to date with my dribble from here and other social media sources.

Though my knowledge of LinkedIn and Elley’s is comparable (think chalk and cheese), we did agree on certain points.  LinkedIn is quiet.  As quiet as Twitter and Facebook is noisy.  Barely any updates, barely any action, with the majority of posts being new connections or recommendations.  This can be a good thing.  I don’t have to have to read about people’s dinners, their overseas trips or see pictures of their newborn.  It’s refreshing and it’s professional.  It’s also powerful.  I can see my connections, connections.  A request to get in contact with one of these people is seen more as a “warm” call rather than a “cold” call.  It’s also much less sleazy than say a Facebook request to meet.

Elley describes LinkedIn perfectly as your online “resume” and gave me examples of businesses using it to head hunt employees, check business references, and even hiring staff based on a candidate’s connections.  LinkedIn has also gone to the step of being able to advertise and apply for jobs directly from the site.  If I didn’t run my own business I would want to make sure my LinkedIn profile was up to date stat!

So, should everyone jump on?  I don’t see why not.  It’s free (for basic) and takes just a little bit of time to complete.  In certain arenas it’s a must (IT, Professional Services, etc.) and others not so much (on the run prisoner, state’s witness, etc.) however, if it comes down to the crunch, it could mean the difference between you or that other person getting the job, and with employment pretty cut throat these days, I wouldn’t want to run the chance.

Here are some hard facts.  As of July 2011 there are:

  • 119 Million LinkedIn members worldwide.
  • Of those 42% are female and 58% are male.
  • 70% fall into the 25-54 age bracket
  • 48% of these people are in North America with only 2.3% being in Australia
  • Australia has seen an 18% growth from Jan 2011 to July 2011
  • The Top 5 industries represented in Australia in order are:
  1. IT
  2. Finance
  3. Manufacturing
  4. Medical
  5. Corporate
  • LinkedIn went public in May 2011 and is now worth $9-9.5 billion dollars.

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