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The problem is that LinkedIn got sucked into serving one very specific demographic: recruiters. It would be as if Facebook decided to focus obsessively on serv
by tryitnow 11y ago
The problem is that LinkedIn got sucked into serving one very specific demographic: recruiters.
It would be as if Facebook decided to focus obsessively on serving college students. It's a good initial strategy, but eventually you have to serve bigger markets.
If I were in charge at LinkedIn I'd focus it on becoming the number one place for professionals to exchange information, create and manage events, and connect with like minded colleagues.
There's a huge potential in this because most professions don't have particularly good online social networks. Oftentimes they're old fashioned discussion boards behind paywalls, comments sections of popular blogs and other half-ass solutions.
Interestingly, my vision really wouldn't do much for software engineers and developers. I think StackOverflow, meetups, and other resources already provide this.
It boggles my mind that they didn't take this route and instead they became the social network for the unemployed as another commenter aptly described them.
It's a business school case study waiting to be written.
- bliti 11y agoHow would that make money? I mean profits not revenue.
- home_boi 11y agoPeople spend more time on the website -> more ads shown
- dennisgorelik 11y agoAds deliver many times less money than paid subscriptions from recruiters.
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- tryitnow 11y agoHa. Good question, I didn't think anyone thought about profits any more. Seriously, I'm assuming the same ad driven model that has made Facebook profitable would work for a professional network to. I know I have personally clicked on ads that are related to my profession. I'm far, far more tolerant (even accepting) of B2B advertising than I am of B2C. It's tricky though. They would have to be careful not to turn it into a pure marketing play. There would have to be safeguards against that. The key is they would have to keep their eye on the main value proposition: Becoming the number one way professionals connect with the idea, events, and people who can help them do their jobs better.
- ajmurmann 11y agoI really like this comment. Now that you mention it, I feel the same way about B2B ads. I wonder if there are studies about that.
- bliti 11y agoAnd how is that different from Facebook? I'm not being a troll. Just exploring your thoughts.
- eru 11y agoIn the same way Ravelry is different from Facebook.
- bliti 11y agoI hadn't even heard of Ravelry. Thanks to your comment, I'll check it out. :)
- eru 11y agoThanks for going to the effort and checking it out. For other people who don't know (and don't want to make the effort): my argument was that special purpose social networking sites can do well. Even if with a bit of hacking (and `apps') you could replicate most of their functionality on Facebook. Ravelry is for knitting and associated crafts.
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- grrowl 11y agoAs you can see, their current strategy is on a trend for not making any money at all. Personally I abhor LinkedIn, use it sparingly when I'm looking for work and wish it were deactivated the rest of the time.
- technion 11y agocreate and manage events I only created my LinkedIn account because our major supplier (before they recently got acquired) used LinkedIn to run "round table" type events, and O were often invited to talk about the product. In the interest of playing nice with the supplier I played along, but it was always a horrible experience. You don't realise how far from "real time" LinkedIn is until you're in a Skype chat, two people are discussing a question and the rest of the room is complaining it hasn't rendered for them yet. Not for seconds.. minutes. Eventually you would end up with statements I made at the end rendering right at the top with people then replying stating they can't understand what I said without any context. People were obviously interested in using it for these sorts of events but there seemed to be no interest in making it a tolerable experience.
- pcote 11y agoThat is a problem. When I first joined Linkedin, one of the first questions I asked openly was about the difference between "pass by value" vs. "pass by reference". There were some good people in those forums. Over time, I'd get all these tech recruiters whom I've never worked with in any context yet wanted me to be networked with them. A few I said yes to though I never felt very good about it. As Linkedin requests by Linkedin and email got more obnoxious, I became less and less inclined to have any honest technical discussions that would expose my ignorance to a more and more recruiter-centric audience. I felt better posing those kinds of questions on StackOverflow or even Reddit than I would on Linkedin. Eventually, I did delete my Linkedin account completely. It's funny. Even unemployed, I don't miss it at all.
- shalmanese 11y agoLinkedIn went through phases every 18 months or so of switching schizophrenically between "Our problem is lack of engagement, we need new features to entice our userbase to come back on a daily basis" and "Our problem is lack of focus, we are going to kill a bunch of features and return to our core competency". Nothing ever shipped to break that cycle.
- ots 11y agoI think Jobcase is trying to fill the job-related market niche for non-IT professionals. I personally find LinkedIn useful as companies and jobs reconnaissance tool.
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]