LinkedIn is known as a business-oriented social network, used for professional networking, job-hunting, industry content and news, and so forth. And despite newer social platforms that are more popular among the general population, LinkedIn still reigns in the business world, according to an August 2014 study by Content Marketing Institute (CMI) and MarketingProfs.
Fully 94% of business-to-business (B2B) marketers in North America said they used LinkedIn to distribute content, the highest usage rate and 6 percentage points above second-place Twitter. Facebook, which often dominates every social ranking, came in third (84%). LinkedIn was also the most effective for content distribution, garnering 63% of responses, compared with 55% for Twitter and 32% for Facebook.
Similarly, August 20014 polling by Kapost found that US B2B marketers turned to LinkedIn for marketing news far more frequently than other social media sites. Nearly half looked at LinkedIn “all the time” for marketing info, compared with 30.3% who said the same for Twitter and 15.8% for Facebook. Just 7.4% of B2B marketers never looked at LinkedIn for marketing news, the lowest response rate for that frequency and only one in the single digits.
eMarketer estimated in December 2014 that LinkedIn’s US ad revenues, which come via its Talent Solutions and Marketing Solutions—which include its new Direct Sponsored Content and Sponsored Updates programs—will climb 21.1% to $511.8 million in 2015. Mobile and Sponsored Update advertisements are driving the company’s ad revenue growth. The social network’s mobile ad revenues will undergo massive growth through 2016, the last year of our forecast, fueled by its successful mobile monetization and small revenue bases. By 2016, LinkedIn’s mobile ad earnings will reach $140.9 million, up from $103.1 million this year and compared with $48.8 million in 2014 and $5.4 million in 2013.