While it’s true that Facebook and Twitter get a lot of press coverage, LinkedIn continues to quietly go about its business, developing a hugely interactive platform and in the process building up an impressive (and remarkably active) user base.
Earlier this month, it announced that it has now surpassed 70m users worldwide while, in the UK, the number of users has also exceeded 4m for the first time. This certainly means that it is not only a key business networking site but its rate of growth also seems to be increasing. Certainly, from my own point of view, during the monthly “Introduction to LinkedIn” session we do at Winnersh (near Reading) the figures that I see from the searches bears this out.
As for LinkedIn themselves, their Europe Managing Director Kevin Eyres said:
Increasingly, we are seeing more companies and recruiters using LinkedIn as an integral part of their recruitment drive to find the right candidates for a role. Ariel’s appointment is part of our continued growth in Europe as a company and in terms of our presence in the hiring market.
U.K. professionals from all industries are adopting LinkedIn with accelerating speed. Driving this growth is the increasing realization of the advantages of having your social and professional identities separate online. In our working lives, the Internet is now often our first destination when we’re looking for advice or expertise; it makes sense to have your skills and experience available and up-to-date so you can be discovered by your next opportunity.
For me these figures are impressive. However, just as important as the overall increasing level of users is the level of participation and also the type of people using the platform. Figures indicate that over 80% of B2B marketeters are using LinkedIn as a method of developing business and with all of the Fortune 500 companies and a large percentage of the FTSE 250 together with many millions of smaller businesses and specialist, what we end up with is a huge range of participants making it a diverse and representative community to work with.
What more can I say, other than come and join us and, if you haven’t already, then do come and connect with us on LinkedIn too. You can find us at:
