Professionally, LinkedIn is my main social network. It provides for a more focused business networking environment than most social media sites. It’s a great tool, especially for finding people, references, job postings and business opportunities. Additional benefits I’ve discovered include; the ability to talk about your professional self, link to your other Google-friendly web content and customize your profile URL. I don’t know about you, but I’d rather a potential employer/client find my LinkedIn profile on Google, before any others of me!

This week, I’m taking a look at LinkedIn, by the numbers:

The Beginning:

* Founded in 2003 by PayPal veteran Reid Hoffman.

* VCs and angel investors including Netscape founder Marc Andreesen and PayPal founder Peter Thiel now own about 45% of the company

* Since February, the company has grown from 60 to 170 people

The Traffic:

* As of October 2007, it had more than 15 million registered users, spanning 150 industries and more than 400 economic regions

* LinkedIn have just reached 1 million members in the UK

* LinkedIn ranked #23 in the Hitwise Employment and Training category

* The TopLinked 50 lists Ron Bates as having the most connection with 36,480.

* The service adds another 1 million users every 25 days

* Traffic to LinkedIn is up 323% in the last year and 17% in the last week alone

* 3.6 million members log in at least once a quarter

The Demographics:

* The average LinkedIn user is 39 and makes $139,000 a year

* Membership includes 89,000 CEO's, and over 500,000 senior executive level types

* Affluent demographic attracted blue-chip advertisers like BMW, American Express and Virgin Atlantic Airways

The Financial's:

* LinkedIn reached profitability (positive cash flow) in March 2006

* Revenue this year will likely be between $25 million and $50 million, and double that amount in 2008

* Microsoft, eBay, Target, and L'Oréal pay $2,000 to $10,000 a month for the ability to search profiles for job candidates.

* 2008 revenue estimates of $75 million to $100 million.

* About 45% of LinkedIn's revenue comes from the monthly subscriptions corporations pay to send messages

* 300 percent growth this year in paid premium users.

Did You Know:

* Barack Obama's LinkedIn profile lists over 500+ connections. By comparison, Rudy Giuliani, the only other candidate among front runners to have a profile, lists 224

* There are over 4,065 photos tagged with 'LinkedIn' on Flickr, 498,000 on Google, 11,652 on Yahoo, 2,349 on MSN and 753 on Ask.

* Facebook shows 2 profiles, 99 groups, 6 events and 4 applications for LinkedIn

* They’ve joined The OpenSocial system offered by Google.

While most people are flocking to Facebook, if you take your Business Social Networking seriously, LinkedIn should continue to be a valuable part of your social media landscape….unless of course you feel a need to expose your social life to your professional contacts!

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8 gripping comments

Interesting post, I have always been a big fan of LinkedIn!

Matt Ridout  ^#

Great information! We've had at least one client come to us through LinkedIn!

I should spend more time on there.

Nathania – Bold Interactive  ^#

I don't see LinkedIn as a Social Network. It's more like an interactive CV / resume than anything else.

While this might just be more of a reflection of the people I know, but when I ask around, I've yet to find anyone who's gained any work or job placement directly or indirectly via LinkedIn.

I'm on there — just for completeness more than anything else — but I certainly don't see LinkedIn as a driver of either traffic or a builder of authority.

But again, this may just be me…

Wayne Smallman  ^#

I've been LinkedIn since December 2003 and strongly agree with your observations. — After a long journey, I’ve realized that when strategically managed, LinkedIn is an invaluable business development and marketing tool with limitless potential for growing my social capital.

AAARenee  ^#

Great stats! Thanks for putting this together. I agree that LinkedIn is king for business social networking. Facebook is getting a ton of press, but I think it is just not set up for business. See this article I wrote on the topic.

http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/2337/Facebook-Needs-to-Graduate-from-College-to-the-Real-World-to-Beat-LinkedIn.aspx

Mike Volpe  ^#

I agree with Wayne. LinkedIn is very static and maybe great for head hunters or people between jobs, but as a small business owner it doesn't help me to expand my network. If you look for something professional like LinkedIn and more interactive like Facebook then check out htp://www.xing.com or http://www.konnects.com

Beech  ^#

I've been on LinkedIn for a while with over 80 good quality connections. I think it's helpful for credibility but I haven't found it drives people to buy my services.

jim  ^#

Great article Tom thanks for the info. Surprisingly I have been seeing some respectable activity occurring with Plaxo Pulse. A lot of people seem to be investing in building their networks there.

Vertical Measures  ^#