Professional networking site LinkedIn has realised that it has to go the Facebook and Twitter way in a bid to stay relevant in this tech era.
The California-based company, which saw its user base declining in the last two quarters, is gearing up to make up lost ground by launching a publishing platform. LinkedIn says the platform will be a one-stop destination to consume, create and share content.
Experts feel that the move is aimed at reigniting waning interest among users, who consider LinkedIn as just an upgraded digital resume platform for jobs and career growth. The NYSE-listed firm’s page views had slipped for the second successive quarter by a percentage point. The October-December 2013 quarter saw it record 139 million unique visitors, according to Comscore data.
Kiruba Shankar, a social media expert and founder at Business Blogging, says that people are finding more value in Facebook, which is getting smarter and adding more business-linked features.
Comparing LinkedIn to BlackBerry and Facebook to iPhone, Shankar says that LinkedIn will face the same fate as Blackberry if it does not add more features.
“They should have a far more user-friendly mobile app and launch features to attract even 13--year olds. People should not go to LinkedIn only for jobs but for social interactions also,” he added.
LinkedIn, which has 277 million members globally, is repositioning itself not just as a platform for headhunters and job-seekers, but as a social site with new features such as news, links and status updates. LinkedIn has announced that these features will help users enhance their profiles with essays, work samples or industry manifestos for better opportunities.
Ryan Roslansky, Head, Content, in a statement said that the new blogging platform will allow about 25,000 members to publish long-format original content tied to their professional identities.
It will be expanding the feature to all members in multiple languages over the next few weeks.