Why Do You Use LinkedIn Anyway
Someone sent me a Forbes article about the success of LinkedIn being tied to the popularity of social recruiting. It’s an interesting read and you can check it out here.
However, I’m not really convinced that LinkedIn’s success is directly proportional to the popularity of social recruiting. In fact, there are some that argue LinkedIn isn’t really a social recruiting site – it’s a job board. Hmmm…not sure about 
But, we do know LinkedIn is popular. Their traffic numbers prove that. Some of their popularity can be directly attributed to the downturn in the economy and the large number of unemployed and underemployed individuals. I can’t speak for anyone else, but I can comfortably say my LinkedIn account has definitely seen more activity since the start of the Great Recession.
This has me wondering. Has the purpose of LinkedIn changed? I always thought of it as an online professional networking site. Maybe it’s migrated to more of a recruiting site. It’s interesting to note that LinkedIn’s “About” page doesn’t really say what it is – they just list a variety of stats for the site.
If the Forbes article is right and LinkedIn’s success is based on the rise in social recruiting, is that a sound business strategy? First, there’s a lot of competition in terms of recruiting phone apps, Facebook apps, and web communities. Then there’s the whole chicken and egg argument about what drives the success of a social recruiting site – the recruiters who have the jobs or the job seekers who have the skills.
There’s gotta be a reason LinkedIn remains so darn popular. Let me know your thoughts on this. POLL: Primarily, what do you use LinkedIn for?