Thanks for the 30-second warm glow, LinkedIn

I felt special for 30 seconds this morning, after LinkedIn sent me an e-mail that read:

Victoria, congratulations!

You have one of the top 5% most viewed LinkedIn profiles for 2012. LinkedIn now has 200 million members. Thanks for playing a unique part in our community!

Then I did the math and realized that 5 percent of LinkedIn’s 200 million registered users equals 10 million people—a number approximately the same size as the entire population of Sweden, Portugal, the Czech Republic, Hungary, or Tunisia.

Update on 13 February 2013:

This week it seems many LinkedIn users have posted generic notifications from LinkedIn similar to the one above. Mary Beth Smith, owner of the very active Market Your Printing Company and Girls Who Print discussion groups, even commented that she had to start deleting them to keep legitimate discussions from disappearing off the board.
http://www.linkedin.com/groupItem?view=&gid=2946757&type=member&item=212988288&qid=e6f55abb-a3ea-42a9-b4d0-fad124a3ddf3&trk=group_most_popular-0-b-cmr&goback=%2Egmp_2946757%2Egde_2946757_member_212988288%2Egmp_2946757%2Eamf_2946757_13002312%2Egmp_2946757

I have to wonder why users are proving so cooperative at playing along with LinkedIn’s self-promotion scheme.  Is it because they’re delighted by the ease of regurgitating ready-made, host-approved content, even though in enlightened social-media practice going generic is the 9^th Deadly Sin?
http://www.inc.com/jeff-haden/9-mistakes-youre-making-on-linkedin.html 

It’s also worth emphasizing that, although democracy is supposedly the underlying principle behind social media, in this instance LinkedIn has imposed a self-advertising monster from on high that will clutter the platform with redundant, user-unfriendly content for days or weeks to come.

 

More gains in popularity and investment value for LinkedIn

Further to my post of 2 November 2012 http://vicg8hr.blogspot.ca/2012/11/growing-numbers-think-linkedin-is-good.html, LinkedIn has reaffirmed its status as the biggest social-media success story based on the continued escalation of its number of users, revenues, and stock-market returns for investors. 

Among the highlights of recent financial reports:

• LinkedIn’s stock price has increased by over 230 percent from its initial public offering in May 2011.
• Every quarter since it went public, the company has exceeded analysts’ expectations.
• After it reported an 81 percent increase in fourth-quarter revenue on Thursday, its stock skyrocketed 21 percent of Friday to record-high levels of US$151.89 per share.
• For the third straight quarter, LinkedIn users have increased by 8 percent, bringing the current count to just over 200 million. 
• Although Facebook remains the largest social network with over 1 billion users, it relies mainly on revenue from advertising.  By contrast, LinkedIn depends on a healthy combination of advertising and subscription revenues from its premium products.
• BMO Capital Markets Corp. analyst Daniel Salmon recently advised investors:  “We believe LinkedIn is replacing job boards and other sources at the go-to source to find employees—something which should propel strong growth for the foreseeable future.”

 If you haven't become a registered LinkedIn user yet, now might be a good time to take the plunge and find out what all the fuss is about.  https://www.linkedin.com/reg/join

http://business.financialpost.com/2013/02/08/forget-facebook-linkedins-steady-growth-and-spectacular-returns-make-it-the-social-media-star/

http://www.torontosun.com/2013/02/08/linkedin-shares-soar-after-stellar-results

http://www.google.ca/finance?client=ob&q=NYSE:LNKD

http://www.nasdaq.com/symbol/lnkd/real-time#.URj1rrZatMg

http://articles.marketwatch.com/2013-02-08/markets/36982278_1_premarket-trade-linkedin-forecast-first-quarter-sales

http://mashable.com/2013/02/07/linkedin-stock-jumps-10-after-q4-revenue-tops-300-million/

Growing numbers think LinkedIn is a good bet

If you haven't registered on the professional social network LinkedIn yet, now might be a good time to do it.  https://www.linkedin.com/reg/join  Business news reports released yesterday and today say third-quarter profits reported by LinkedIn Corp. are twice as high as analysts had estimated, thanks to growing levels of interest from participants, advertisers, and employers.  Besides increasing its advertising rates and nearly doubling sales from its hiring services, LinkedIn has also become a favourite with investors, according to an early-morning blog post today by ABC News blogger Richard Davies. 

Davies notes LinkedIn’s track record has been an exception among Internet companies that have gone public in recent years, some of which are trading well below their initial public-offering prices (IPO).  By contrast, LinkedIn’s stock price has more than doubled since its May-2011 IPO.

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/business/2012/11/forget-facebook-linkedin-is-new-favorite/

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/11/02/us-linkedin-earnings-idUSBRE8A01JS20121102

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-11-01/linkedin-sales-exceed-estimates-as-subscriptions-jump
http://buzz.money.cnn.com/2012/11/02/linkedin-stock-facebook-earnings/
http://mashable.com/2012/11/01/linkedin-has-187-million-users/