Why is tedious LinkedIn successful?

The Business social Networking LinkedIn (linkedin.com) may be a bit tedious compared to Facebook and Twitter, but the site has been extremely successful in providing information to employers and finding better jobs for their employees. However, it has also been noted that LinkedIn is indifferent and unresponsive to the trend of the Internet.

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Boring but practical.

For some, LinkedIn is the dullest Web site since watching-grass-grow.com (meaning: Watching the grass grow), and in others it is a powerful tool to help employees change careers or get promoted. No matter what you think, LinkedIn has opened up a market for itself.

If Bebo is likened to Volkswagen Beetle--changing itself to pursue the trend of the young market, Facebook is Ford Mondeo--Popular and reliable. Twitter is Toyota's popular technology geek, and LinkedIn is a Lexus-its audience is a handful of commercially savvy users.

Indeed, it would be confusing to mention LinkedIn to any media practitioner. By the way, the media is in fact a declining and financially deficient industry. LinkedIn's web site does not look appealing, with a black-and-white background showing contact and career information in black lettering.

Linkin's success comes from simplicity

The site did not allow users to upload personal avatars until 2008. However, its founders claim that simplicity has made it a success for LinkedIn. LinkedIn has 3 million registered users in the UK, with a total of 65 million users worldwide, and at least half of the Fortune 100 companies use it to recruit employees.

"Its design goal is to be practical and effective," said Kevin Aris, head of European operations at LinkedIn. In other words, we want people to get the information they need as soon as possible. If you spend a few hours on it, it won't make you more productive. How can I quickly find the professionals I need? How can I quickly find professional resources to help me complete product design, help my company succeed, or seize opportunities? That's what we're aiming for. ”

LinkedIn was founded in 2003 by the payment giants PayPal, Socialnet.com and Yahoo's former employees in Mountain View, USA. CEO Jeff Vernes (Jeff Weiner) was one of Yahoo's most powerful figures. It took 477 days for LinkedIn to get 1 million users in the early stages of the establishment.

Now, 1 million new users are registered every 12 days, and about a new user will be added every second. LinkedIn says its search function is excellent, and it can search for job information based on industry, country, region and experience.

Three ways to make a profit

The Web site earns revenue through three different sources. The first is paid service, companies pay to get in touch with the website members, the user email address is usually hidden. The second is advertising, whose advertising audiences include college graduates and board members. Finally, it provides a customized software solution for the recruiting organization.

"LinkedIn is not Facebook, it's a professional business social network with the target of professionals," said Mike Butcher, editor of TechCrunch Europe, the Science and technology information website, Maik Bar. "It is reported that some companies now recruit full-time staff, the daily job is to log on to LinkedIn to find the right staff." LinkedIn is a fairly popular job in recruiting, and it's not going to be social, its users are people who just want to put their employment information online. At least on LinkedIn, you can get referrals from others, which is equivalent to being promoted in a job search. LinkedIn's business model is excellent, and it's more traditional than Facebook and Twitter.

Help users find Jobs

LinkedIn has a higher user level and most users are professionals who have a yearly income of 40,000 pounds or more. LinkedIn does not require a large number of users. Its success also depends on the social networking patterns of countries. In Turkey, for example, Facebook is used both for entertainment and for work. In Germany, there is a website xing.com that mimics LinkedIn, which has 9 million users. Another site, naymz.com, is also boring and professional, with 1 million users in the hope of getting a slice of LinkedIn's hand.

Despite its reluctance to use it, gaming and it practitioners have the most benefits of LinkedIn, with employees in these two industries more prevalent. "Game workers always jump around, so they need immediate results," says one gaming industry expert. For example, when a company gets the title of a game publisher, it suddenly needs 50 experienced art professionals, 5 designers and 7 programmers. The project may take up to a year or two, and then the project ends and the employee starts looking for a new job. Game companies want to find experienced employees. So there are some intermediary companies, their role is to meet a variety of game practitioners. Now, their task is to browse LinkedIn every day, and then send out a letter of intermediary to try the luck. For both sides, this has its own pros and cons. You have to join the world's most boring social networking site, but when you lose your job, everyone knows right away. Intermediaries need commission, referrals can get referral fees, just unemployed people need to work. ”

Louise Wisman Louise Wiseman, an IT practitioner, said: "Like many people, I signed up for LinkedIn a few years ago and uploaded my profile, and I almost turned around and forgot about it except when someone sent me a friend request." I've never used this site frequently, and it certainly has a lot of features I've never seen before, but it's not fun enough to make me want to spend time on it. This is a utility-orientated website. However, over the past few months, four recruiting agencies have found me through LinkedIn, providing me with senior positions in large, prestigious companies. These people obviously did their homework and they browsed through my profile, so when they found me, they were offered positions related to my experience and skills. ”

Twitter and Facebook users are often distressed by the lack of clarity about the site's usefulness, and LinkedIn has never been bothered by vague features. In fact, however, the founder of LinkedIn has begun to consider making the site friendlier. Last week, the site began to support the introduction of Twitter information. In addition, you can also see who has browsed your profile.

Rozzo Matthew Carrozo, a digital strategist, agrees with the role of LinkedIn in helping people find work, but also believes that the site is somewhat indifferent to the trends in the Internet industry and that the entire site feels more static.

Attached: Four other professional social networks

Naymz.com

Founded in 2006 by former travel company executives in Chicago, USA, users can meet other people and manage their online reputations.

Xing.com

Founded in 2006 by two German entrepreneurs, it now claims to have expanded to more than 200 countries worldwide. Support Smart phone access.

Viadeo.com

Founded in 2004 by France's two university graduates, the current annual turnover is more than 10 million euros. Most famous in France.

Netparty.com

By combining online social networking with real-life gatherings, the theme is "Speed dating." will be established in London in the near future.

Source: Tencent Technology