Alexa Samuels

Did you know this about LinkedIn?

by Alexa on October 20, 2011

This week I attended a helpful LinkedIn session hosted by Higher Bracket. LinkedIn Canada employees Sarah Lawless and Carine Syriani shared interesting insight about the application, the highlights of which I captured below.

I can’t say there was anything too surprising, but it’s nice to have one’s assumptions validated.

LinkedIn stats
• 2 members joining per second
• Typical demographic 40 to 55 male earning over 100k, but this is changing (younger audience)
• Canada is number 5 worldwide out of all LinkedIn countries (except they count Europe as one country!)
• 4.1 million Canadian members
• Average time spent on LinkedIn per session? 4 minutes
• The majority of LinkedIn revenue is generated from paid memberships from users (e.g. Job Seeker account)
• What do most people do when they visit LinkedIn?

o Review their own profile
o Look at their connections’ updates (newsfeed)
o Search for other people

Profile tips
• Should you have a profile photo? Research shows people whose profiles have photos build trust more quickly.
• Should you show you have a life outside work (e.g. interests, volunteer work, associations)? Companies increasingly want to know you’re balanced, and they take your outside interests into account to evaluate cultural fit.
• Status updates can lead to an increase in profile views.
• Keywords, particularly in your work experience, are important for improving your search results.
• Don’t make your profile too text heavy. “Wordy” profiles get less attention.

Recruiters
• In Canada, the number one place recruiters finding candidates is LinkedIn.
• 95% of recruiters are on LinkedIn today.
• Recruiters get nervous about a candidate if they search a candidate and there is no LinkedIn profile! They question the candidate’s potential. They also pay attention to recommendations.
• Most recruiters don’t limit their search to titles – its more about keywords.

Other
• Inmail open click rates are highest in industry 30 to 60 percent open rate.
• 80 percent of developers working on applications for the free site.

When I logged into my Rogers account today I noted a special alert button. It led me to the following message: Does anyone else find this as funny (and sad) as I do?

My entry for @danzarella #unicornsandrainbows rhyme competition

LinkedIn shows their sense of humour with an April Fool’s Day joke.

7 senior executives share stories of why LinkedIn is critical for their business success.

5 stories how businesses (like consultants) are using Twitter successfully.

An observation about web usability (aka how to lose a customer quickly)

An amazing story how LinkedIn was used to reunite a father and son.

A sudden spike in Twitter interest coupled with a social mention alert led to a surprising and much appreciated social media discovery!

What does one do when sent without solicitation “free” Christmas cards from limbless artists?