• March 20, 2008
• Blog

LinkedIn – It does nothing for the web brand called you!

First of all – it’s not free. Second – it’s not that easy to use. Third – almost no one really uses it. With 70 contacts over the last few months – I’ve received 3 or 4 messages versus several hundred times that amount on Facebook and MySpace. The only slightly useful feature – which seems to be driven partly by the “um I don’t want to diss this person in public” approach – is the recommendations. But let’s be honest – who cares about an online recommendation from some random person that was asked to give it. It’s inherently biased.

Our collective “internet marketing agency” opinion of LinkedIn – its NOT IN! Who wants to pay for something that is offered free and in a significantly cooler manner by other tools? It seems to be particularly useful for recruiters (and not the kind you want to know) and people who see their connections as some sort of capital that can be cashed in on. It has a dated connectivity and clearly hasn’t evolved its business model to monetize its traffic.

Open message to Linkdin from small people like me that do matter: freeconomics. The business of free. Adopt it or face loss of traffic as people shift away from paying for what is free elsewhere. Remember when Yahoo charged for mail storage? Google then came along with 2 gigs. Now Yahoo has unlimited storage for free. More examples in the LinkedIn industry? Facebook, MySpace, Eons, and many many more.

- Duncan