With unemployment nearing all-time lows, how is LinkedIn faring? Are job seekers still using the site? Does it have any relevance in the new labor environment?In a word: yes.LinkedIn’s performance was stronger than ever to close out Q4 2014, with some astounding numbers. Let’s jump into the details.First, user growth has been stable:
LinkedIn now has 347 million monthly active users, surpassing Twitter and Instagram. Growth is plateauing, but still strong at 5% quarter over quarter:
Marketing Solutions, which is the advertising part of LinkedIn that marketers and communicators use, showed astonishing growth, hitting $153 million in revenue:
While LinkedIn always sees a bit of a bump in Q4, Q4 2014 was exceptional, at 40% quarter over quarter:
In the call notes, LinkedIn attributes this growth to its continued integration of Bizo, its marketing tools suite for B2B marketing. This strong growth has powered LinkedIn to new heights in terms of revenue per user:
LinkedIn is just pennies away from crossing $2.00 revenue per user, and the trend for growth continues upward:
What does all of this mean?For marketers and communicators, the momentum has reversed in terms of balance between corporations and job seekers. Job seekers are now in the driver’s seat of the economy as unemployment scrapes new lows. As a result, employers are using LinkedIn more. This perspective is confirmed by 10% growth in LinkedIn’s corporate customers portfolio.Employer growth is good news for marketers and communicators because corporate employees are very often the people we’re trying to reach. While job seekers and people making career transitions provide marketers with an opportunity to glean intelligence about a company, it’s the employees of corporations who are decision makers, especially in B2B marketing. Now that the pendulum has swung to employees using the network to source candidates (or possibly switch jobs), marketers will enjoy more fruitful marketing potential on the platform.The major announcement that B2B marketers are waiting for, the relaunch of Bizo, appears to be coming in late Q1 or early Q2. In the earnings call, CFO Steve Sordello said that the salesforce was being retrained in Q1 to sell Bizo’s services as part of an integrated marketing suite.For middle of the funnel marketers, LinkedIn’s new Sales Navigator mobile app may also be worth a look. It requires the $80/month subscription, but for anyone needing outbound lead generation for social selling, the service could pay for itself in one deal. Even communicators could potentially use the service for pitching, if your media targets tend to be active on LinkedIn.Overall, LinkedIn’s strong Q4 performance and upcoming product launches make it an essential part of any marketer’s toolkit, especially on the B2B side. Pay careful attention to their blog for announcements about the Bizo relaunch!Christopher S. PennVice President, Marketing Technology[cta]
What’s a Rich Text element?
The rich text element allows you to create and format headings, paragraphs, blockquotes, images, and video all in one place instead of having to add and format them individually. Just double-click and easily create content.
The rich text element allows you to create and format headings, paragraphs, blockquotes, images, and video all in one place instead of having to add and format them individually. Just double-click and easily create content.
Static and dynamic content editing
A rich text element can be used with static or dynamic content. For static content, just drop it into any page and begin editing. For dynamic content, add a rich text field to any collection and then connect a rich text element to that field in the settings panel. Voila!
How to customize formatting for each rich text
Headings, paragraphs, blockquotes, figures, images, and figure captions can all be styled after a class is added to the rich text element using the "When inside of" nested selector system.
