LinkedIn has done an exceptional job keeping its user base from switching to other Professional Networking Services (PNS). Switching costs from a users perspective has been one of the single most important reasons that users have not jumped ship. Users have built up a huge network of professional contacts and if he/she were to leave LinkedIn, they would be forced to build that network from scratch again.
What must LinkedIn continue to focus on in the future?
Quasi-open Platform
Keep the network closed from a user's perspective to capitalize on the high switching costs. Open up the platform to developers to further enable monetization of the site and allow developers to create innovative (but non-privacy threatening) features to keep the user base interested and plugged in to LinkedIn.
Stay w/in the Professional Networking Space, Don't Go Social
Personally, I have my personal life and I have my professional life. I like to keep them separate. I have Facebook for my personal life and I have LinkedIn for my professional networking, I'd like to keep it that way. There is no gray area for me. That being said, I do realize that the youthful trends are bringing these two areas closer and closer.
Global Expansion
I'm not sure LinkedIn has even scratched the surface here. China is a huge market - LinkedIn needs to identify a way to tailor the site to meet the needs of Chinese professionals and scale the site accordingly. A key focus on BRIC countries should be given considerable attention as well, but only after obtaining a full understanding of the marketplace and understanding how business professionals interact in those cultures.
Mobile
This is a no brainer. Life is consumed by our mobile devices and business professionals are busier than ever these days. Going mobile and making that a key focus area is a necessity in today's business.
Recruitment Enablement
Through the use of LinkedIn, I was able to secure a job offer simply by reaching out to the SVP of HR of the company that I was interested in. I "connected" to her, sent her a personal note asking for the name/contact info of who I needed to follow up with, and eventually landed a job offer because of my resourcefulness...thanks to the power of LinkedIn. LinkedIn should continue to seek out and develop innovative practices to forge very close relationships with corporate entities to understand their needs. Eventually, I could see companies using LinkedIn as an integrated source for company job postings on company websites.
I am not as familiar with LinkedIn as I should be, but I just recently created a profile and became a LinkedIn member. Can you help clarify my knowledge with your LinkedIn experiences? Were you able to send the SVP of HR for that company a personal note for free? If I understand the case correctly, it reads that in order to be able to send personal notes you must pay some sort of premium. Is this correct?
ReplyDeleteIf this is correct, I am a little upset that LinkedIn members must for one pay a premium to send a message and then pay another premium for the LinkedIn job application. I know that LinkedIn must make revenues somehow, but with several other revenue options I do not think a PNS such as LinkedIn should charge a premium for actions which revolve around the sole purpose of the site. For example connecting and linking to each other for professional gain. Again, I am not as familiar with LinkedIn as I should be; therefore, if I am mistaken please let me know.
Rgack - thanks for the post. Let me walk you through the sequence of events for my situation.
ReplyDelete1 - I did research and found the most senior person in the HR dept of the company I was interested in.
2 - I sent her a "connection" request. You can typically do this free of charge if you say they are a "friend".
3 - She accepted my request.
4 - I sent her a direct message telling her that I just applied for a job, that I was looking for a POC who I could follow-up with, etc. (Note: make sure that your LinkedIn profile is truly a match for the position, otherwise this will most likely back fire on you if she thinks you're wasting her time)
5 - She sent me the direct email address of the appropriate POC. One email to the appropriate person and 7 interviews later, I had the offer!
That being said, there are other services that the premium account offers (ie. ability to see who views your account, ability to send anybody an InMail message even if they're not a connection, etc), but to be perfectly honest, I'm not sure what all is included in a premium account. So, from my perspective and for the time being, there are ways around having to upgrade to a premium account. For now anyway…
Hope that helps!
I think you bring up a lot of great points! First, I have not joined LinkedIn and was wondering how many times the tool was successful in doing more than just connecting people. Hearing your personal experience has made me more seriously consider joining in the future if I have a specific job direction that I want to pursue. Secondly, I like your thoughts on going mobile and am actually very surprised that LinkedIn has not already taken action to be mobile. Three have been times in my past job searches where I had to quickly respond to requests and did not have my personal computer close to or in front of me. Had I not been able to respond through my phone there is no telling how my previous work history would look now! I have the same thoughts about global expansion. It seems like a great way to connect with professionals in other countries. Finally, I agree that LinkedIn should stay professional. The site is already a professional site that allows "social" interaction among connections. The thought of people's weekend party pictures getting mixed in just does not seem like a good idea to me. Make any future recruiters/businesses search for background on a candidate...don't give it to them outright.
ReplyDelete