LinkedIn It’s who you know

To some, it is the most drudgingly boring website since watching – grass- grow.com. To other, it is a razor- sharp recruitment tool transplanting workers from their current jobs into attractive new positions. Linkedin has certainly carved out its niche.

Whatever your view, the “grown up” social networking site Linkedin has carved out its niche. If bebo is the Volkswagen Beetle catering to the puckish trends of the youth market, Facebook a ford Mondeo, popular & reliable, & Twitter a Toyota Prius, beloved of techno – geeks, then LinkedIn is a Lexus – aimed at a small number of the business – minded.

Indeed mention LinkedIn to anyone in the media – an increasingly to anyone in the media – an increasingly closed – shop, cash poor industry - & they’ll look bemused. The website looks unattractive, featuring pages of contract & carrier information in black text on a plain white background. The site only allowed its user to upload profile pictures in 2008. But its founders claim this simplicity explain its success – over three million members in Britain, 65 Million members around the world & over 50 percent of Fortune 100 Companies are now using it as a recruitment tool.

“It’s designed to be functional and effective,” says Kevin Eyres, the network’s European managing director. “Namely, we want people to get what as quickly as possible. If you spend on it it’s not answering that challenge of making you productive. How can I quickly find that expert? How can I quickly find that source of expertise that will help me products, help my business or enable that opportunity? That what we’re aiming at.”

http://www.linkedin.com/

The website was founded in May 2003 in Mountain View, California by former staff form PayPal, Socialnet.com and Yahoo, where LinkedIn’s chief executive Jeff Weiner was one of the company’s most powerful figures. To begin, it took 477 days for it to acquire its first million members. It now at-tracts a million every 12 days, roughly one every second. In part, the site capitalizes on media scare stories that suggest employers check out the Facebook and Twitter profiles of people they are recruiting. LinkedIn creates an environment that is hermetically sealed in professional teams.

 It boasts a search facility so sharp you could open an envelope with it (search by sector, country, region, experience). The site makes money in three ways: through its premium service, in which companies pay to contact people on the site (email addresses are normally withheld). Its advertising reaches everyone form graduates to boardroom level. Lastly, it offers bespoke software solutions to recruitment companies, eager to tap into the 80 per cent of the job market not actively looking for a new role- those often best suited to certain positions.

“It’s aimed at professionals; it’s not Facebook, it’s a professionals business networking site. “Says Mike Butcher, the editor of TechCrunch Europe.

industry professional.”You can have a company pitching to publish then suddenly strike gold & need 50 experienced artists and five designers & seven codes. The project maybe lasts a year or two and then people move company again. The ebb and flow makes it a desperate hire and everyone wants experience workers. There are agency types who used to have to “Know” people have contracts – now they scan Linkedin and chance a spam mail. It’s good and bad news for both parties.

You have to join the world’s most boring social network site but come the day your game gets canned unexpectedly, everyone knows instantly and agents want commission, workers get introduction bonuses and the newly – unemployed want work.”Louise Wiseman, who works in IT, has similar feelings.”Like a lot  of people, I Joined Linkedin a couple of years ago, uploaded my profile and promptly forgot about it apart from accepting people’s connection request as they came through – I’ve never actively ‘used’ the site and I’m sure it has all kinds of features I’m sure it has all kinds of features I’m not aware of, “she says.”It’s not snazzy enough to make to make me want to spend time on it. It is purely functional. In the last few months, through, I’ve been contacted via Linkedin by four recruiters hiring for good roles with large, well-known companies. Unlike most approaches I’ve had in the past these people had done their homework by looking at my profile so they came to me with jobs that matched my experience and skill set.”

In fact, while Linkedin does not suffer from the ambiguity of purpose that vexes users of Twitter & Facebook and is thus, one would have thought, best kept separate from them – its founders have taken steps to increase its user – friendliness. – The independent.

This article was released on “Times of Oman- THURSDAY- July 8-14, 2010