LinkedIn -The Anti- Social Network
Although every savvy white-collar in America has a LinkedIn account, most users don’t really know the value of it or what it can do for them.
In today’s economy we are starting to find out. LinkedIn is a mainstay for job hunting. One of LinkedIn’s main revenue streams, accounting for about 30% of its take is with recruiters and job seekers. That’s a good business these days as the economy slides into a deeper recession and more Americans turn to social networks to find employment.
Job searches on LinkedIn increased 19% from August to September 2008. As is unemployment expected to reach double digits next year, it’s expected those numbers will continue to increase.
This month, LinkedIn announced it was opening its network for to partners, such as Google and Amazon, and offering business-focused applications to members. Eight new applications have been added with the expectation of more to follow.
LinkedIn’s plan is to carefully and slowly build its platform emphasizing quality applications, not quantity. Unlike Facebook, or MySpace, there will not be applications such as Zombies, or Werewolves. LinkedIn’s vice president of platform development, Jamie Templeton ,said the key to opening the network to outside developers is making sure every application provides value to a business user. LinkedIn’s members, he said, “are professionally oriented. They want to come in and get the job done. They don’t have tolerance for a signal-to-noise ratio that other populations do.”
Reid Hoffman is the man behind LinkedIn. He founded the company in May 2003 and is known for a counter-conventional wisdom and smart strategy. It is this wisdom that drives continued growth and change of LinkedIn to weather the economic storm. Over a year ago, Hoffman began searching for funding to ensure that LinkedIn would be able to thrive during the recession. The company has raised $100 million, has a $1 billion valuation. This kind of capital will allow LinkedIn to purchase other companies up to support it’s ever growing population. This past month, LinkedIn signed up its 30 millionth member-it currently has a sign up rate or one new member per second! This volume alone gives the avaerage job seeker reason to pause and consider joining.
