LinkedIn accelerates past 5million members in Australia

THE astounding acceleration in market penetration of professional online network, LinkedIn, from 4million users in March this year to more than 5million today, has also revealed its most active user sectors: information technology and services, construction, financial services, education management, and hospital/health care.

 

LinkedIn's membership base has had an extraordinary acceleration since October 2008 when it had just 540,000 members in Australia and it is now regarded as the world's largest professional network on the internet.

Globally, the professional network currently attracts more than two new members every second and has grown to 259 million members this year, in its 10th year of operation.  LinkedIn has also expanded its local presence with over 150 staff across three offices in Sydney, Melbourne and Perth.

LinkedIn Australia, New Zealand and Southeast Asia  managing director Clifford Rosenberg said with more than  5 million professionals in Australia, LinkedIn is now reaching critical mass with early adopters, such as professionals in IT and marketing being joined by professionals in other industries, including healthcare and education.

The student market continues to be LinkedIn's fastest growing demographic globally, with more than 30 million students, with recent university graduates realising the potential of LinkedIn in enabling them to become more productive and successful in their careers.

He said LinkedIn's Influencer program has now attracted more than  300 global leaders to engage millions of professionals on LinkedIn with proprietary insights, since its launch a year ago. 

In 2013, four Australia-based influencers joined the program, the latest of which is Qantas CEO, Alan Joyce. Mr Joyce joined the growing list of influencers in Australia, which now includes Mike Smith (CEO, ANZ), Creel Price (entrepreneur and founder, Entreprenaissance Movement), Matt Barrie (CEO, Freelancer.com) and Naomi Simson (CEO, RedBalloon).

"This is yet another important milestone, illustrating that Australians really understand the potential economic opportunities that they can create by leveraging online professional networks," Mr Rosenberg said.

"We are also seeing a strong uptake from our Australian members leveraging LinkedIn as a professional content platform to discover and share insights, locally in Australia and globally as well.

"Our rapid product innovation, which includes adding more influencers to our platform, more enhanced mobile applications and the recent launch of LinkedIn University Pages, is enabling us to deliver even greater value to our members."

He said LinkedIn continued to see strong demand and response for its suite of services, including talent and marketing solutions.

"We are seeing a growing, diverse portfolio of Australian companies taking notice of the increasingly massive data set LinkedIn provides and using it to transform the way they hire talent, market their brand and sell more effectively," Mr Rosenberg said.

A number of global companies based in Australia are also early adopters of LinkedIn's latest product innovation. 

Mr Rosenberg said, for example, Telstra was among an exclusive list of global companies leveraging LinkedIn's recent roll out of Sponsored Updates to raise awareness and shape perception, drive quality leads and build relationships with Australian professionals.

LinkedIn has a diversified business model with revenue coming from sectors it calls Talent Solutions, Marketing Solutions and Premium Subscriptions products. Headquartered in Silicon Valley, California, LinkedIn has offices across the globe.

 

LinkedIn membership usage in Australia:

Top 5 companies by employee members in Australia

•1.   Telstra

•2.   National Australia Bank

•3.   Commonwealth Bank

•4.   ANZ

•5.   Westpac

Top 5 Industries represented in Australia

•1.   Information Technology and Services

•2.   Construction

•3.   Financial Services

•4.   Education Management

•5.   Hospital & Health Care

Top 5 companies Australian members follow

•1.   Google

•2.   Telstra

•3.   Rio Tinto

•4.   Commonwealth Bank

•5.   National Australia Bank

Top 5 influencers followed by Australian members

•1.   Richard Branson

•2.   Deepak Chopra

•3.   Barack Obama

•4.   Anthony Robbins

•5.   Jack Welch

Top 5 LinkedIn Groups Australian members are a part of

•1.   Australian IT Industry

•2.   Ex-Telstra Employees

•3.   TED: Ideas Worth Spreading - Unofficial

•4.   Australian Human Resources Institute

•5.   Social Media Marketing

Top 5 Job Titles

•1.   Owner

•2.   Director

•3.   Manager

•4.   Managing director

•5.   Teacher

Top 5 Universities Australian members attended

•1.   Monash University

•2.   RMIT University

•3.   University of New South Wales

•4.   University of Sydney

•5.   University of Melbourne

Top 5 Endorsed Skills

•1.   Management

•2.   Strategy

•3.   Change Management

•4.   Project Management

•5.   Leadership

www.linkedin.com

-Ends-