LinkedIn – why it focuses on recruiters, not you

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Dr Denise Taylor

31 October 2014

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To ensure I can best serve my clients I keep up to date with how social media can be used for job search, in particular the use of LinkedIn.

I created 25 editions of my eBook – How to Use LinkedIn to Find a New Job, and the changes continue so fast that it’s hard to keep everything correct. It’s still an excellent reference booklet, holding your hand to get to quite a sophisticated level of use of this resource. I will now send new information via follow up messages rather than to integrate into the eBook.
I still have new clients who can’t see the relevance, and I talk to career professionals who don’t understand why LinkedIn keeps making changes.
What many (most?) don’t realise is that we, as individuals are not the main focus of LinkedIn – they only make money from us if you choose a premium solution, much more of LinkedIn’s profit is from the marketing and talent solutions sold to recruiters
Alongside growing my knowledge through involvement in training seminars, each quarter I listen live to the LinkedIn investors call to learn about strategic changes,
60% of profit is from Talent Solutions, and 20% from Marketing Solutions

I’ve just listened in to a LinkedIn presentation on Q3 data and the numbers have increased further. Talent solutions have risen to $345M which is 61%, Matketing Solutions now total $109M which is 19% and Premium Solutions total $114M which is 19%
They help recruiters to find candidates based on keywords, years of experience, current job title, current locations etc.
Some of the areas I previously encouraged clients to use such as skills research, and answering questions are no longer available. As individuals this is disappointing, but not when you see it as a drain on LinkedIns profit, they weren’t making any money from this.
LinkedIn is investing in areas to support the recruiting process, see the most recent purchases here – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinkedIn#Acquisitions
Features introduced are those which will help the recruiter to find the best candidates, which should help you, as long as you have a well optimised profile.
There are now over 313M members and you can read key facts from the LinkedIn website – http://press.linkedin.com/about

LinkedIn have highlighted the following business changes

  • LinkedIn have increased the scale and relevance of job listings by expanding “Limited Listings” offerings to a broad base of US and global companies. Jobs seekers now have access to nearly two million job listings on LinkedIn, driving strong momentum for the Job Search mobile app.
  • LinkedIn officially launched the all new Sales Navigator to empower sales professionals to establish and grow relationships with prospects and customers. This new stand-alone product experience allows sales professionals to stay updated about key accounts, focus on the right people, and build trusted relationships.
  • LinkedIn announced the acquisition of Bizo, accelerating the ability to develop an end-to-end B2B marketing platform. Building on the success of Sponsored Updates, Bizo’s team and technology will expand LinkedIn’s ability to leverage current content marketing products and offer a wider range of solutions to meet our customers’ marketing objectives.

Good news for job seekers
“During the third quarter, we took meaningful steps in increasing the scale and relevance of job listings, growing the professional publishing platform, and expanding our member network in new geographies and demographics.”
 
 
I offer a variety of services to help you get the best from LinkedIn. Read more at
https://www.amazingpeople.co.uk/linkedin-profile-makeovers/
 
 

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