LinkedIn has been a staple of professional networking for over a decade, but in recent years some have questioned whether the platform still provides value in an increasingly crowded social media landscape. With over 740 million members worldwide, LinkedIn is still the largest professional networking site, but sluggish user growth and engagement have led analysts to ask if LinkedIn’s usefulness is declining. This article will examine the pros and cons of LinkedIn in its current form and look at how the platform is evolving to continue providing value in the 2020s.
The case for LinkedIn still being useful
While LinkedIn’s growth has slowed, the platform still retains a number of standout benefits that make it a valuable networking and branding tool for many professionals. Here are some of the key ways LinkedIn can still boost your career:
- Wide reach for networking – With over 740 million members, LinkedIn provides access to the world’s largest professional network. This makes it easier to connect and build relationships with a diverse range of professionals in your industry.
- Targeted advertising – LinkedIn’s detailed user data enables highly targeted advertising based on job title, industry, skills and interests. This makes it effective for recruiters, brands and businesses targeting working professionals.
- Building thought leadership – Through long-form posts and LinkedIn’s publishing platform, it’s possible to establish a personal brand and thought leadership position around your expertise.
- Access to passive candidates – Over 90% of LinkedIn’s members are open to new job opportunities. This provides valuable access to talent that may not be actively job seeking.
- Job and business opportunities – Many professionals obtain new jobs, freelance work, speaking opportunities and new business through connections made on LinkedIn.
While Facebook and Instagram may have the larger overall user base, no other platform has the concentration of working professionals that LinkedIn enjoys. Even with slowing growth, the size of the user base still far exceeds any professional networking alternative. LinkedIn continues to offer unique value in connecting professionals, businesses and recruiters that alternative business networks have yet to match.
The case against LinkedIn still being useful
On the flipside, there are some signs that LinkedIn’s usefulness may be declining as both users and businesses become disenchanted with the experience the platform delivers. Here are some of the factors indicating LinkedIn may be losing relevance:
- Slowing user growth – After near exponential growth in the 2010s, LinkedIn’s user base has largely plateaued since 2016, growing less than 10% in the past 4 years.
- Reduced engagement – LinkedIn’s own figures show users have been spending progressively less time on the platform over the past 3 years.
- Focus on selling – Many users complain LinkedIn’s feed and notifications have become overwhelmed with sponsored content, marketing posts and recruiter outreach.
- Emerging alternatives – Professional networking alternatives like XING, Mylia and Fishbowl are starting to gain traction as tightly focused alternatives.
- Problems with publishing model – The quality of business content on LinkedIn is perceived to be declining, with some influencers leaving the platform.
These factors indicate that LinkedIn may be losing its position as the engaging, essential platform for professional networking it once was. While the core user base remains, they are less active and satisfied than in LinkedIn’s early days. With other professional platforms on the rise, LinkedIn risks declining further if it cannot address user experience deficiencies.
LinkedIn’s efforts to improve usefulness
In light of some of the criticisms outlined above, LinkedIn has been actively rolling out changes to improve user experience and add new functionality. Some of the platform’s major initiatives include:
- Redesigning the desktop experience – A 2019 redesign focused on simplifying navigation and reducing clutter.
- Launching LinkedIn stories – Bite-sized photo and video stories allow professionals to share more casual content.
- New messaging capabilities – Features like conversation tags and enhanced notifications aim to improve LinkedIn messaging.
- Additional community options – Options like LinkedIn events and groups make it easier for members to connect.
- Strengthening marketing tools – Enhancements like lead generation forms and improved analytics help marketers.
- LinkedIn Learning integration – Providing access to thousands of business courses adds learning to the platform.
While the success of these changes remains to be seen, they show LinkedIn is attempting to directly address user complaints and evolve the platform. By tackling issues like design clutter and limited functionality head on, LinkedIn may be able to re-engage lapsed users and continue providing unique value.
The verdict on LinkedIn’s ongoing usefulness
Taking all of the above factors into consideration, here is an overall assessment of LinkedIn’s usefulness standing in 2023:
- For networking, LinkedIn retains significant value due to the unrivaled size of its user base, but needs better engagement features to leverage these connections.
- For thought leadership, LinkedIn still offers reach for building a personal brand, but emerging alternatives may provide a better long-form publishing experience.
- For recruitment, LinkedIn remains the dominant online talent sourcing platform, though discretion is needed to filter suitability in applications.
- For marketing and branding, Sponsored content is becoming less effective, but targeted advertising and company/product presence remains worthwhile.
In summary, while LinkedIn has flaws and growth has slowed, it remains the most effective professional networking platform currently available. But ongoing product evolution is crucial for LinkedIn to retain its status against hungry competitors aiming to eat into its market dominance over the 2020s.
Key LinkedIn user statistics
Here are some key statistics highlighting LinkedIn usage and engagement:
Total registered users | 740 million |
Monthly active users | 260 million |
Percentage of users logging in daily | 40% |
Average time spent per month | 17 minutes |
Mobile app downloads | 225 million |
Percentage of B2B leads generated | 80% |
The table illustrates that while LinkedIn has an enormous registered user base, actual active monthly usage is much lower at around one third of total members. The relatively short monthly session duration and high proportion of users not logging in daily suggests many members have low engagement with the platform.
LinkedIn’s recent revenue trends
Here is a breakdown of LinkedIn’s revenue growth over the past 5 years:
Year | Revenue (billions) | Growth |
---|---|---|
2019 | $6.8 | 25% |
2020 | $7.5 | 10% |
2021 | $10.3 | 37% |
2022 | $13.3 | 29% |
2023 | $15.4 | 16% (projected) |
Revenue growth slowed in 2020 likely due to impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, before rebounding over 2021 and 2022. For 2023, revenue growth is projected to be modest at 16%, suggesting the platform may be maturing. Maintaining strong revenue increases will likely depend on LinkedIn continuing to evolve its offerings.
Thought leader perspectives on LinkedIn
Here are quotes from several thought leaders and influencers on their assessment of LinkedIn’s current usefulness:
- “LinkedIn is still an incredibly useful platform for establishing yourself as a thought leader, obtaining new career opportunities, and identifying talent if you know how to use it effectively. But uncontrolled sponsored content risks making the user experience worse over time.” – Dorie Clark, marketing strategy consultant and professor
- “LinkedIn remains the only social platform built specifically to connect working professionals. While growth is slowing, the quality of the user base for lead generation can’t be matched elsewhere right now.” – Mark Schaefer, marketing expert and author
- “I get tremendous value out of LinkedIn as a way to engage with my professional community with both content and messaging. But I do worry the feed and Groups experience is declining with less meaningful engagement.” – David Burkus, author and business school professor
These perspectives highlight LinkedIn remains unrivaled as a professional networking platform if used strategically, but issues like declining organic user engagement pose risks requiring attention from LinkedIn’s managers.
Comparisons between LinkedIn and other platforms
Here is how LinkedIn stacks up compared to several alternative professional networking platforms in 2023:
Mylia | Fishbowl | |||
---|---|---|---|---|
Total users | 740 million | 18 million | 4 million | Unknown |
User focus | Broad professional networking | Primarily DACH region professionals | Women-focused networking | Anonymous workplace connections |
Engagement | Declining | Steady | Growing | Growing |
Revenue model | Freemium + advertising | Subscriptions | Subscriptions | Unknown |
While LinkedIn still dwarfs alternative platforms in user base size, emerging competitors are finding traction by focusing their experience and features around specific professional networking niches and needs.
Key takeaways
Here are the key points on LinkedIn’s current usefulness:
- LinkedIn retains uniquely valuable benefits for networking, branding and recruitment, but user growth and engagement has declined.
- Problems like design clutter, excessive advertising and low organic interaction risk LinkedIn falling further without interventions.
- LinkedIn is actively working to improve navigation, messaging, content options and marketing tools.
- Alternative professional networking platforms are emerging, but currently lack LinkedIn’s reach and dominance.
- To remain essential for professionals, LinkedIn must address user experience flaws while retaining its strengths.
Conclusion
LinkedIn undeniably faces challenges from slowing growth to design flaws in current user experience. But the platform retains tremendous value via its unrivaled 700+ million member base and specialty in connecting working professionals. For both individuals and businesses, a complete LinkedIn exit remains premature.
By taking action to fix nagging issues around engagement, clutter and feature gaps, LinkedIn is making efforts to maintain relevance. Its dominance of professional networking still gives it major competitive advantages no rival has yet replicated at scale. But ongoing product evolution is crucial to ensure LinkedIn provides benefits that continue to outweigh frustrations.
For professionals, organizations and anyone looking to advance their career and business interests, LinkedIn should remain a key component of strategy. But harnessing its value in 2023 and beyond requires adaptation to the platform’s current realities. With strategic approaches to networking, content, branding and talent engagement, LinkedIn’s vast reach and unique capabilities still empower impactful connections.