4 ms·

Isn't LinkedIn rather in the category of MySpace, that is, social networks of the past?

by Tichy 16y ago

JoachimSchipper 16y ago
I have the impression that it is very much alive, if only used "professionally". There's a lot of money to be made there, though (job boards do well).
erez 16y ago
I always joke that it's a social network for people who consider themselves above, or too professional, for social networks. But it's the same thing
- notahacker 16y ago
  I thought it was more that it's for people that are too busy for social networks; those who want to be found and to browse some structured information on other people in their field without the time sink of status updates and shared media.
  - erez 16y ago
    Sure, that's how it's marketed. And granted, it can be used to much good. But from what I've seen of it, the dynamics are like any other social network. A suit-and-tie one, but still.
ThomPete 16y ago
No they are actually growing. Recently reached 100 million users. And don't think of it as a social network like myspace or facebook. It's rather different. On top of that they are actually in the black and have been for a while.
- RandallBrown 16y ago
  How many of them are active? 7? I've never used it. None of my friends use it. I know a handful of people with accounts, but they never actually use it.
  - JoeAltmaier 16y ago
    Are you a student? Then you have no use for it. Its experienced professionals with a largish group of colleagues. I can find nearly everyone I've ever worked with in there. And none of my nieces/nephews/kids friends.
  - bmj 16y ago
    Just about everyone I know or have meet through employment has account. Some are more active than others (I fall in the less active range), and those that are active see it as a legitimate networking tool, sort of the 21st century Rolodex.
mcritz 16y ago
Its useless until it's critical.
- lotusleaf1987 16y ago
  I know lots of people who have found jobs or been recruited off of LinkedIn--it's alive and well.
smackfu 16y ago
It's just a parallel social network. OTOH, if Facebook chose to, they could really hurt LinkedIn by leveraging their existing network. Just expand the jobs part of the profile to support resumes and such, add support for job relationships similar to family relationships, and provide default privacy settings for "colleagues" rather than "friends". Sell access to a back-end search limited to the jobs section, and LinkedIn starts running scared.
- geebee 16y ago
  Interesting possibility, but I'm not completely sure this would work. I'm sure that a "jobs" section of facebook would gain plenty of interest, but I think LinkedIn appeals to people who would like to keep their job-related networking completely separate from their social lives. The line between professional and personal life will shift, and this may be a generational thing. But who knows, the distinction may sharpen rather than blur. One of the big reasons I haven't left a huge web/video trail of my own stupidity on the web is that I'm old enough that the web was still an infant when I was in college, and nobody had cell phones with video cameras and recorders. Now, anything even slightly unusual on a college campus will be recorded by at least a half dozen people. You could figure that people will blend social and professional lives as they they get more casual about these artifacts. But maybe they'll just learn to draw very fine and deliberate distinctions - kind of the difference between getting excessively drunk at a work event and getting blotto at a bar where your colleagues just happened to show up later in the evening. Anyway, I went a little off topic there, but maybe there's a long term niche for social/professional networks that are explicity not social/casual.
- Aloisius 16y ago
  I hear this a lot and in my opinion, a sizable minority of people can't mix their social and professional networks together. I can't have my business clients see who I'm currently dating or pictures from my nephew's bar mitzvah. Not only is it unprofessional, but it can harm my future dealings with them. I know a lot of people have on Facebook have accepted invites from their boss or professional contacts and they stop participating in it as a social network and start using it as a glorified email/im system. If everyone did this, it would harm Facebook's ecosystem in the long run. Even with privacy controls and grouping people together, keeping mental context about who can see what at any given time is just too hard for most people. Seeing facebook.com and thinking social and linkedin.com and thinking professional is far easier. * Disclaimer - I used to work for LinkedIn in analytics as a product manager and did a lot of user interviews, but I may have drank the kool-aid.
brudgers 16y ago
A video explanation of Linkedin: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NcfXij6t4LA http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NcfXij6t4LA
mindcrime 16y ago
Definitely not. LinkedIn just has a different focus from Facebook, but it has thrived over the past few years, as Myspace wandered off into nowhere-land. Most anybody I interact with on a professional basis has a LinkedIn page, and I'd wonder about anyone who didn't, to be honest.

Isn't LinkedIn rather in the category of MySpace, that is, social networks of the past?

by Tichy 16y ago

Isn't LinkedIn rather in the category of MySpace, that is, social networks of the past?

I have the impression that it is very much alive, if only used "professionally". There's a lot of money to be made there, though (job boards do well).

erez 16y ago

I always joke that it's a social network for people who consider themselves above, or too professional, for social networks. But it's the same thing

notahacker 16y ago
I thought it was more that it's for people that are too busy for social networks; those who want to be found and to browse some structured information on other people in their field without the time sink of status updates and shared media.
- erez 16y ago
  Sure, that's how it's marketed. And granted, it can be used to much good. But from what I've seen of it, the dynamics are like any other social network. A suit-and-tie one, but still.

ThomPete 16y ago

No they are actually growing. Recently reached 100 million users. And don't think of it as a social network like myspace or facebook. It's rather different. On top of that they are actually in the black and have been for a while.

RandallBrown 16y ago
How many of them are active? 7? I've never used it. None of my friends use it. I know a handful of people with accounts, but they never actually use it.
- JoeAltmaier 16y ago
  Are you a student? Then you have no use for it. Its experienced professionals with a largish group of colleagues. I can find nearly everyone I've ever worked with in there. And none of my nieces/nephews/kids friends.
- bmj 16y ago
  Just about everyone I know or have meet through employment has account. Some are more active than others (I fall in the less active range), and those that are active see it as a legitimate networking tool, sort of the 21st century Rolodex.

mcritz 16y ago

Its useless until it's critical.

lotusleaf1987 16y ago
I know lots of people who have found jobs or been recruited off of LinkedIn--it's alive and well.

smackfu 16y ago

It's just a parallel social network. OTOH, if Facebook chose to, they could really hurt LinkedIn by leveraging their existing network. Just expand the jobs part of the profile to support resumes and such, add support for job relationships similar to family relationships, and provide default privacy settings for "colleagues" rather than "friends". Sell access to a back-end search limited to the jobs section, and LinkedIn starts running scared.

geebee 16y ago
Interesting possibility, but I'm not completely sure this would work. I'm sure that a "jobs" section of facebook would gain plenty of interest, but I think LinkedIn appeals to people who would like to keep their job-related networking completely separate from their social lives. The line between professional and personal life will shift, and this may be a generational thing. But who knows, the distinction may sharpen rather than blur. One of the big reasons I haven't left a huge web/video trail of my own stupidity on the web is that I'm old enough that the web was still an infant when I was in college, and nobody had cell phones with video cameras and recorders. Now, anything even slightly unusual on a college campus will be recorded by at least a half dozen people. You could figure that people will blend social and professional lives as they they get more casual about these artifacts. But maybe they'll just learn to draw very fine and deliberate distinctions - kind of the difference between getting excessively drunk at a work event and getting blotto at a bar where your colleagues just happened to show up later in the evening. Anyway, I went a little off topic there, but maybe there's a long term niche for social/professional networks that are explicity not social/casual.
Aloisius 16y ago
I hear this a lot and in my opinion, a sizable minority of people can't mix their social and professional networks together. I can't have my business clients see who I'm currently dating or pictures from my nephew's bar mitzvah. Not only is it unprofessional, but it can harm my future dealings with them. I know a lot of people have on Facebook have accepted invites from their boss or professional contacts and they stop participating in it as a social network and start using it as a glorified email/im system. If everyone did this, it would harm Facebook's ecosystem in the long run. Even with privacy controls and grouping people together, keeping mental context about who can see what at any given time is just too hard for most people. Seeing facebook.com and thinking social and linkedin.com and thinking professional is far easier. * Disclaimer - I used to work for LinkedIn in analytics as a product manager and did a lot of user interviews, but I may have drank the kool-aid.

brudgers 16y ago

A video explanation of Linkedin: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NcfXij6t4LA http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NcfXij6t4LA

mindcrime 16y ago

Definitely not. LinkedIn just has a different focus from Facebook, but it has thrived over the past few years, as Myspace wandered off into nowhere-land. Most anybody I interact with on a professional basis has a LinkedIn page, and I'd wonder about anyone who didn't, to be honest.