I received an interesting little reminder from Reid Hoffman, CEO and co-founder of LinkedIn, today. He reminded me that I was member number 154,825 on the, then fledgling social network. Today, LinkedIn topped 100 million members (that’s 100,000,000), and they are reported to be adding two new members every second. That’s one-fifth of the population of North America. However you want to measure it, it’s a big number.
It has been fascinating to watch the growth of LinkedIn since Hoffman and his cronies launched it back in 2002. It was originally conceived of as a networking and career resource; a place where you could post your credentials and look for job opportunities. They actually launched the LinkedIn Jobs as their first premium service in March 2005. Since then it has evolved into the go-to resource for professionals in all walks of life looking to network with peers, potential customers, and potential employers.
Today’s note from Hoffman is, in itself, an interesting experiment in social networking. In monitoring Twitter, Facebook, and other social media channels, I see my other connections sharing their membership numbers with their friends to see when they joined LinkedIn – “where were you when.” It’s generating a lot of buzz.
Of course, you can’t count 100 million people in your pool of closest friends. This is where the theory of the Strength of Weak Ties comes into play; where you find the connections you are seeking because you know someone who knows someone who can introduce you. It’s also interesting to see the sub-groups that have evolved within LinkedIn. LinkedIn Groups have proven an ideal way for peers and professionals to connect, just check out our main NETSHARE group as an example, and we have a number of sub-groups open to members. Clearly, LinkedIn has become the first stop for recruiters and hiring managers looking for talent because it offers a vast pool of searchable talent.
By contrast, I have been reviewing the history of NETSHARE. Our web presence predates LinkedIn by almost a decade – we launched our first web site in 1995 and our first searchable online job database in 1997. Where LinkedIn has built its user base with job seekers suddenly thrust into the job market, and demand from sales professionals and others prospecting for contacts, NETSHARE continues to remain focused on serving senior managers ($100,000 salary and up) with personalized services and networking. Where LinkedIn uses loose associations to build contacts, we provide one-to-one counseling and introduce members who can help one another, often with a phone call rather than an in-mail. We believe that networking needs to be more personal, which is why we continue to check all our job listings before they are posted, host weekly welcome calls, and career coaching calls for members.
So by combining the personalized service and custom career management tools we provide at NETSHARE with the broad reach of resources like LinkedIn, executives can develop a cohesive career management strategy and find the right hiring authorities and companies who can advance their careers.
(If you want to learn more about NETSHARE membership you can always visit us at www.netshare.com. And be sure to check out our next session of Experts Connection session with Jason Alba on “LinkedIn For Executives - Beyond The Basics.“)
