A recent article on Ragan Communications' PR Daily News feed suggests that Most LinkedIn Users Don't Use the Site. Why not, since it's such a great tool, I wonder? It was recently found that a substantial majority of our members do not visit our website on a monthly basis, and a substantial majority of our page views are generated by a minority of our members. So, do people not care, or are they just too busy to be bothered?
I was sitting in PR class last week, and the professor stated that it may be good for us to create our own LinkedIn presence, so I looked into it. The recent statistics do put me off a little. If no one's using it, what's the point? Can I really build relationships with people who don't check their profile? Reminds me a little of Myspace, and we all know how cool that is these days. Back in the day, everyone made a profile; now most people have abandoned it. You can leave a comment and never get a reply. If LinkedIn works similarly, I don't think I'm interested.
From what I understand, LinkedIn provides contact information and a short "resume-style" profile that helps people network in the professional world. It really seems like a good idea, but other articles agree that the site has seen better days. Hey LinkedIn, Where Did Those Profitable Years Go? is another example of an article talking about the downturn.
Honestly, after reading these articles, I am a little bit skeptical. I will probably still create a LinkedIn profile at some point, since it seems to be a nice networking tool, but I won't hold my breath. If it helps me, great; if not, I tried.
Opinions?
For more info on what LinkedIn does, here's a video "In Plain English":
I have a LinkedIn but I have never used it. Honestly as a student I really don't know how. I also wonder if it is even useful anymore. I mean if people don't use it, whats the point? Its only useful as a networking tool if people use it.
ReplyDeleteI don't know how I feel about LinkedIn. I'm currently not on the site, but many professors and professionals tell me that I should and there are just as many professionals who tell me that they reject every "LinkedIn" request, which doesn't help to the overall purpose of the site. However, I feel that as our generation continues to enter into the work place that LinkedIn, or something similar, will be used since we already know how to use different types of social media.
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