The (Silent) Rise of LinkedIn
August 5th, 2011 by Kevin Smith
LinkedIn –Facebook’s more professional cousin – recently surpassed MySpace to become the No. 2 social-networking service in the U.S. I’m not entirely sure what surprised me about this news more – the fact that LinkedIn became #2 or that MySpace had held the position for that long.
Now keep in mind that the #2 spot was secured with 33.9 million visitors in June – a 63% increase from 2010 – however Facebook
Slow and steady
had 160.9 million visitors. That’s kind of like saying you came in second at the Boston Marathon – but really there were only two runners…and the Kenyan guy nearly lapped you on his way to victory.
Now that’s not to say that LinkedIn isn’t a social media power – it definitely is – and even more so since it’s very successful IPO (whether or not the IPO should have been so successful is a different topic all together).
However, while they must take some satisfaction from surpassing MySpace, LinkedIn should consider taking a few lessons lessons from MySpace’s history as well.
Remember when you last used MySpace? For me, it was July 24th, 2008. I know this because that’s when I wrote “I’d rather you visit me on Facebook” as my status update and never went back. MySpace was huge, innovative and exciting – enough for News Corp to purchase it for $580 million. Years later, it’s just an animated .gif wasteland filled with bands that you’ve never heard of that recently sold for just $35 million.
JT knows that it was just a movie, right?
The problem was that MySpace never did anything. Sure they expanded into markets and recently changed the logo and look of the site – but it’s still an eye sore of a page and basically useless to the average social media user.
The biggest lesson that can be learned from the former #2 social networking site is the difference between them and Facebook. That difference is that Facebook became a platform and MySpace was always just a website.
You basically can’t visit a website now without seeing Facebook integration. And by the looks of it, LinkedIn is following suit with their Apply with LinkedIn button that employers can add to their own website. The challenge becomes what more can they do to
keep moving forward and become ingrained within their users every day lives while still being a social network for professionals.
Kevin Smith is an Account Supervisor at PJA Advertising & Marketing. Follow him on Twitter: @Mr_KevinSmith
