This story originally appeared on Buffer
What if I told you that LinkedIn, a social media platform that is now 14 years old, is the next big opportunity for marketers and brands?
While much of the focus over the last few years has been on perfecting our Facebook and Instagram marketing strategies, LinkedIn has been silently growing their user base to more than 500 million users.
The reason for this sudden growth?
LinkedIn is no longer known only for their résumé and job searching capabilities. It’s evolving into a thriving network of incredible content, influencers and networking opportunities unmatched by other social media platforms.
In episode #69 of The Science of Social Media, we explore the many features that make LinkedIn such a powerful platform for brands and what marketers need to know going into 2018.
Let’s dive in!
The silent rise of LinkedIn: What marketers need to know
The LinkedIn journey to 500M members
If you were to ask me to describe LinkedIn in 2015, I might have said something along the lines of, “a great professional network” or “the perfect place to find a job.” Now, as we close out 2017, it’s clear that LinkedIn is quickly becoming a force to be reckoned with in the world of B2C and B2B marketing.
Microsoft must have seen something in the rising star as well — officially acquiring LinkedIn for $26.2 billion at the end of 2016 in one of the largest social media deals in history.
A quick look at LinkedIn’s journey to 500 million members:
- 2003 (0 members): Launch
- 2005 (1.6M members): Introduction of Jobs & Subscriptions
- 2006 (4.2M members): Launch of public profiles for members
- 2009 (33M members): Jeff Weiner joins LinkedIn as president
- 2011 (140M members): LinkedIn goes public
- 2013 (250M members): 10th anniversary of LinkedIn
- 2015 (330M members): $1.5B acquisition of Lynda.com. Launch of Pulse
- 2016 (400M members): Microsoft acquires LinkedIn for $26.2B
- 2017 (500M members): 100,000 new articles published weekly
What’s most astonishing is how fast LinkedIn has grown over the last six years. Between 2011 and 2017, LinkedIn’s user base grew from 140 million to 500 million — shattering the growth rate in previous periods.
LinkedIn demographics
One of the more intriguing aspects of LinkedIn is the demographics of their users.
- 29 percent of online adults use LinkedIn
- 56 percent of users are male and 44 percent are female
- 51 percent of users have a college degree
- 13 percent of millennials (15 to 34-year-olds) use LinkedIn
- 44 percent of users earn more than $75,000 a year
- 41 percent of millionaires use LinkedIn
- The average CEO has 930 connections
- Statistical Analysis and Data Mining are the top skills on LinkedIn
CEO Jeff Weiner plans to “develop the world’s first economic graph” with the hopes of “digitally mapping out the global economy.” A goal not far from reach seeing how LinkedIn has an in-depth dataset of company, industry and individual contact information for more than 500 million members.
In the long-term, this will be a game-changer for marketers and brands in the B2B space.
Becoming a content-first platform
Written content
Did you know that LinkedIn Pulse started as the Pulse app — a class project…
