LinkedIn; the ugly duckling amongst social networks
Posted by Manuela Barreto @ June 19th, 2008 in Social Marketing
Its not all about the looks, is it? Clearly, for the professional (social) networking site, LinkedIn, looks are just added value, or maybe just plainly irrelevant. I specially like how Brad Stone from the nytimes.com plots it out as a site that ‘…could hardly look less exciting. Its pages are heavy with text, much of it a flat blue, and there are few photos and absolutely no videos.’ That’s basically how I would describe LinkedIn.
However, this said, its obvious that its sole purpose is that to provide a pool of professional contacts from over 150 diverse industries worldwide. In addition, its platform allows you to insert your personal and professional information along with accomplishments while at the same time being able to invite former colleagues or friends to join your trusted circle of contacts.
The reason why LinkedIn is now a protagonist regardless of its ugly looks, unlike Facebook and MySpace which are utterly colorful, user friendly and ‘fun’ interactive, the social media with over 23 million users, is about to attain a valuation of more than $1 billion. Just on behalf of Bain Capital Ventures, they received a cool $53 million. Its worth understanding that its function goes beyond sharing pictures with friends and leaving comments or poking people here and there. Its more about creating a rapport among interesting individuals all sharing the same professional outlooks and willing to share contact details in order to increase their personal repertoire of valuable sources. Its also serves as way to find potential talent, service providers and business opportunities to name a few.
More lobbying, less mingling.
According to BusinessWeek, the career oriented site logged 7.7 million unique viewers in May, a 146% increase from a year ago. Among sites of this genre, the only companies to have attained as high a valuation as LinkedIn are YouTube, purchased by Google for $1.65 billion in 2006, followed by Facebook, valued at $15 billion by a $240 million investment by Microsoft.
Keep it up.
Last 5 posts in Social Marketing
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Comments
bizsugar.com
June 19th, 2008
LinkedIn; the ugly duckling amongst social networks…
The reason why LinkedIn is now a protagonist is because regardless of its ugly looks, unlike Facebook and MySpace which are utterly colorful, user friendly and ‘fun’ interactive, LinkedIn, with over 23 million users, is about to attain a valuation of m…
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July 10th, 2009
You seem very knowledgeable in ypour field.