LinkedIn is a social network and recruitment platform used by millions across the world. Headquartered in Silicon Valley, the website was launched in May of 2003. The company’s revenue comes from member subscriptions, advertising sales, and talent solutions. LinkedIn is soon to be acquired by Microsoft (2016).
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The Good
- Price range
- Reach
- Special features
- Experience
- Customer support
Price Range
LinkedIn offers free public individual profile and company pages as a form of social networking. Company pages can showcase a business to potential employees or customers. Personal profiles allow workers to make connections, give recommendations, and search for relevant employment opportunities. Users can share articles, videos, comments, and ideas with followers and connections.
Additional services must be purchased. The basic LinkedIn premium plans and prices are as follows:
- Job Seeker: 1 free month, then $29.99/month
- Business Plus: 1 free month, then $47.99/month
- Sales Navigator Professional: 1 free month, then $64.99/month
- Recruiter Lite: 1 free month, then starts at $99.95/month
Larger companies with more extensive recruitment or advertising goals can upgrade to sponsored content to get their company's updates to more people, attract new followers, and get their message out on desktop, tablet, and mobile devices. These plans are set up based on the company's budget and can be cost per click or cost per impression. Similar to the premium plans' option for a free trial, a free demo is available for sponsored content.
Reach
LinkedIn has over 433 million account members, with 106 million unique visiting members each month. There are 128 million members in the U.S., but the majority live in over 200 countries and territories worldwide.
Special Features
Accounts upgraded to premium have a number of additional avenues available to successfully network. These premium accounts are Job Seeker, Business Plus, Sales Navigator, and Recruiter Lite. Larger businesses with more recruiting needs as well as ad agencies can find additional plans and opportunities through LinkedIn's sales team.
Job Seeker features:
- Direct messaging to recruiters with 3 InMail credits
- Move to top of recruiters' applicant lists
- See who's viewed your profile in last 90 days and how they found you
- See how you compare to other candidates with applicant insights
Business Plus features:
- 15 InMail messages to contact anyone on LinkedIn
- Business Insights: access to key metrics and trends of company
- See who's viewed you in last 90 days and how they found you
- Unlimited profile search
Sales Navigator features:
- 15 InMail messages
- Sales insights on accounts and leads, job changes, company growth
- Advanced search with custom lead lists and advanced search filters
- See what prospects interested in you in last 90 days
- Unlimited profile search
- Lead recommendations and saved leads
Recruiter Lite features:
- 30 InMail messages with templates
- Advanced search for finding candidates
- Track candidates and open roles with Projects
- Recruiting-specific design
- See who's viewed you in the last 90 days
- Unlimited profiles from search results and suggested profiles
- Access all of Job Seeker Premium consumer features
LinkedIn has a number of mobile apps for both iOS and Android devices. The apps are:
- LinkedIn-website functions adapted for mobile app
- Job search-search for and apply in one click
- Lookup-find, learn about, and contact coworkers
- Lynda.com-expert-led courses available for download
- SlideShare-access to over 18 million presentations, infographics, and videos
- LinkedIn Groups-industry conversations (iOS only)
- Pulse-daily professional news source
Premium Apps:
- Recruiter-search and review profiles of potential hires
- Sales Navigator-find leads and accounts in target market, connect, and get updates
- Elevate-find and share interesting articles
Experience
LinkedIn was co-founded in 2003 by Reid Hoffman and a team of colleagues he had worked with from SocialNet and PayPal. The company began as a way for professionals to connect with each other, like an online address book. The following year they introduced groups, and in 2005 job posting and subscriptions became available. With a little over 11 years of experience in the job search industry, LinkedIn isn't the longest-standing company, but it's been around long enough to make major progress over the years, especially with its reach.
Customer Support
LinkedIn has a help forum discussion board where users can ask questions and receive responses from other users as well as LinkedIn staff. Users can sort discussion threads by most active, most votes, and newest, and apply more specific filters as they search for similar inquiries.
The preferred contact with customer service directly was via an online form. After requesting information, customers immediately receive an automated answer acknowledging receipt of the issue. Responses are generally answered within 24 hours.
The Bad
- Resources and learning materials
Resources and Learning Materials
LinkedIn provides surprisingly little educational content to free account holders. Of course, their social network platform is a great avenue to find and share materials, lists, and tips on job-related items from other sources, but there are many other job search websites that have a more broad and deep reservoir of articles on their blogs.
Paid job seekers get access to Lynda.com, a partner site and app with over 4,000 expert-led employment and business courses. Anyone can access a free trial to Lynda services through the website or app before needing to pay.
The Bottom Line
LinkedIn has a great reputation with business professionals and companies across nearly every industry, and it is a clear leader in its own industry of job search and recruitment. Users have access to people, jobs, news, updates, and insights that can help lead to relevant jobs or potential employees. Job seekers do have to pay to access many of the features on LinkedIn, like their InMail messaging system, whereas most companies do not charge job seekers. But where it seems like everyone is on LinkedIn nowadays, it's probably worth the investment.
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User Reviews
Star Rating
185 Reviews
Review Breakdown
Sentiment Criteria
Michelle SM.
Even with my qualifications and years of experience I never got a respond. I also had connect with management. In the end I went to the company website and applied as I did before
Matters
Great way to connect with people and network. Real people and a real career building tool!
Paige Stockard
LinkedIn is a great way to make and keep connections with people that you go to school with or are in your workplace. It's also super easy to connect with people in your field of expertise or the field that you want to pursue a career in!
boscoe16
Not great to navigate for searches. Lots of clutter and redirecting. Overall okay.
Teagan Jarvis
I like linked in but I’m getting really tired of them trying to persuade me to go premium. If I’m honest there’s not a lot of reasons for someone like myself, aka not an HR head doing mass recruiting, to be on LinkedIn other than to flex myself and my page.
Kajsa Kirby
I've had a very positive experience w LinkedIn. I like how you can search for so many jobs and it seems like such a prominent platform that almost everyone I know who has one! This makes searches result in a large variety of job opportunities.
Nathan
I love using LinkedIn to keep in touch with all the professional updates for the people in my life. I find it is a great platform to stay in contact.
pdanielson13
It's a good source of finding people with jobs. I suggest a tutorial on how to use Linkedin. To this day, I have an account yet I don't know how to use it. Linkedin is a great source of people who have jobs yet I am not familiar of using it.
Iris Sanders
I really love that LinkedIn promotes networking opportunities and helps me create professional connections. I use it all the time and I get really positive messages anytime I update my profile!
Patrick Curry
I've had a LinkedIn account for awhile and love it that I can meet other professionals and the job recommendations I receive. I have received advancement in my career thanks to LinkedIn and building a professional profile to get my self out there.
JP
Was very helpful for me when I was searching for a job. Was able to connect with a few other previous co-workers and that in turn helped get me my current job.
Dave_
Great resource to network with professionals, collaborate, and refer others. They have good services to help build a better resume and better professional network.
Tagg
LinkedIn is a great way to see if you have any connections within a company that could put a good word in for you in order to be able to get a job there.
Norma Grove
I have my name come up in many searches. I have yet to receive contact from anyone. I am retired and perhaps that is the reason. It is a good way to stay in touch with friends and see their updates on their work status and advancements. It lets us know who has work anniversaries. It might be better suited to those actually searching for work. I mostly used it to stay in touch and just in case something were to open up that would interest me job-wise.
Brittany Wilkinson
I updated my LinkenIn account which helped me to get my job qualifications into the eyes of businesses seeking new employees. I was able to find a job in a new field that I enjoy. LinkendIn made this process super easy and almost effortless on my part.
Wayne Young
Linkedin is a good site to connect with other professionals on a social media cite dedicated to professional matters. There is a strictly business atmosphere. It is a good source to investigate other professionals you come in contact with.
Jaci Rhoades
I like that LinkedIn allows you to show a timeline of your personal and professional life. You're allowed to disclose information about your achievements based on your personal and professional life. This allows the potential employer a full perspective of things that were going on in your life while obtaining your career and pursuing your dreams.
Diana Ploeger
Can build own profile with company providing feedback to improve it. I encourage my college students to develop their profile and maintain it through their education so that upon graduation it reflects the student’s knowledge, skills, and experiences.
Danny Reeder
I've been using LinkedIn for 6+ years now and it's been a great tool to make new, professional connections. They have a great platform that allows me to discuss my line of work with other professionals/ in the community.
Ashley Ulibarri
I love that LinkedIn is unique in that it’s also a networking site and you can connect with people and stay in touch with colleagues and in a more professional social setting. I also love how you can easily apply for jobs with a simple push of a button.
Kevin Liu
I love using LinkedIn when I am looking for a new position. I believe this has been the best tool to do a Career change and to connect to the right people in an organization to try and land a job. I love how users control their profiles and you can easily see people in their organizations.
Jon Moreno
Highly recommend for a great career and networking source. The app is easy to navigate and user friendly.
Scott A. Johnson
LinkedIn is a great way to find, network with, and collaborate with other professionals in your industry. It serves as a platform to connect on projects, discover professionals with expertise you can leverage, and, in some cases, gather leads for sales. Recruiters can also find you if you are seeking to change employment or careers. The one drawback is you will likely receive a lot of spam messages from contacts that connect with you only to immediately solicit sales from you.
Berenice Ramos
I made my curriculum here , good accuracy and lot of companies using this website to find good people
Amanda Vangeli
Very easy to find jobs that are hiring, especially during this pandemic. I found my most recent position on Linkedin and am very satisfied!
Francis Soyer
You get out of it what you put into it with LINKED IN. The key is to make as many possible connections you can-in your field or not. We will all succeed if we work together!
Kenneth Hawkins
LinkedIn has been a great communication tool with employers and former coworkers. I enjoy getting updates on promotions and company deliverables.
Cornejo
What I like about LinkedIn is that I can build a strong network with exceptional people and share and meet new people.
Tomas Miranda
LinkedIn is a great tool for networking and job searching. It also provides great insight as to different companies and their people. I also enjoy the articles which gave industry insights by its users.
Rosa and Carla Ruiz
Love how easy it is to navigate the app and how its not only about personal encounters but also professional job related news.
Joe Khawaja
LinkedIn has become very commercial. Instead of networking, professional development and jobs it’s focus is increasing on unnecessary solicitation of sales and marketing.
Judy Feldmeier
Really like the ease of how to use it and how it suggests people to connect with to grow your network.
Kayla Dison
i like linkedin but i think the site could be modified for easier search when looking to hire
Ajay Patel
Good interface for networking. The only negative thing that i have found is that there are a lot or sales/business reps on the site that message you and that gets irritating.
Nena McFarland
Great topics for management and human resources. Good to see what others are doing in my industry.
paul gingell
Its a platform that i use regularly and mostly for people to connect & share,discuss there opinons about jobs and career lifestyles and to post pictures of recent work carried out by themselves or other people which can be very interesting. Overall i think this platform helps a lot of people from different industrys to connect and form a network.
Larryluv85
Very helpful with researching individuals for different positions, able to see potential clients resumes
Seyan Lucero
The site is very good at finding jobs that meet my skill set. However, the resume portion of the system could allow for more variance. The integration to apply is a bit wonky.
Nichaela Jimerson
I like that outside of keeping me updated on positions in my area I can also stay in touch with previous co-workers. You can even recommend people for awesome positions
MissHmong95
Not too bad but I rather go with ziprecriters. Not too much information on this app.
BrooklynWriter
Great content site that charges way too much for what it offers. The premium experience consists of little more than getting some free emails. You can get most of the utility from this site for free.
Dorothy
LinkedIn adds ease to networking through the different features on the site. Free messaging, connections, plus customized searches based on profession or school all make LinkedIn essential for maintaining connections and building new ones.
Debra Millender
LinkedIn is a great source for making new business contacts and networking as well as getting your resume' into the right hands.
Ryan
Job seeking platform is by far the best platform out there. I used them about 5 years ago and wasn't good, they have really improved the service. The level of targeting is excellent!
Dali
I like staying connected with colleagues from long ago that I know longer work with but would like to maintain a professional relationship with since we spend so much time at work. To throw away those years of comradery seems a shame, no?
Dawn East
I use LinkedIn all the time for showing where I've worked, for how long and what I did there. It's great for networking!
BC Adsmkowski
Very informative professional social media. A great quality of people who are open minded to business opportunities.
Sam edge
I love linked in! It’s easy to get more recognition from companies and makes you look more professional!
Ben and Cin
Great place to network and meet your potential employers. I found out a lot about a company I was interviewing for just by looking at their LinkedIn page.
Marianouro1
Good attention. Very easy to work with. Nice and logical internet base platform. Good work