LinkedIn takes advantage of jittery jobseekers

BUSINESS COMMUNITY social networking site, LinkedIn, is bucking the economic downturn with a 25 percent increase in the rate of sign-ups since September.

Jittery business bods are logging on to ensure their contacts are fully up-to-date increasing sign-ups to a level of one million every two weeks.

Spokeslink Kevin Ayres of explained that the current economic state has caused an uncertainty in the business world, highlighting the importance of networking and exchanging information.

"We have seen a significant increase in the rate of sign-ups and in the amount of activity our users have been conducting on LinkedIn over the last two months," he added.

Sign-ups aren’t the only increase on the site however, the activity of existing users is also on the up, increasing by 15 per cent in the last two months. The amount of recommendations made by users to endorse another member of the site is also up by 14 per cent.

So why hasn’t LinkedIn suffered like other have during this period? Well, as Ayres explains, the social network’s specific user group and targeted advertising have so far made the website immune to the downturn.

"From an advertiser standpoint there has always been the question of how targeted your communications really are," he added.

LinkedIn is still apparently on target to hit its full-year revenue forecast of between $75m and $100m, despite the ever crippling crisis – lucky LinkedIn. µ

L'Inq
Guardian