LinkedIn is a platform used by over 740 million professionals globally for networking, job searching, professional connections, and more. But is LinkedIn truly a social networking site, or is it something else entirely? In this comprehensive 5,000 word analysis, we’ll examine LinkedIn’s features, purposes, and uses to determine whether it qualifies as a true social networking site.
Defining Social Networking Sites
Before determining if LinkedIn fits the definition, let’s first establish what exactly social networking sites are. Social networking sites are online platforms that allow users to create public profiles and interact with other users on the platform. Key features of social networking sites include:
- User profiles – Allow users to provide information about themselves visible to others.
- Friends/connections – Enable users to connect with other users.
- Sharing content – Allow users to share photos, videos, text posts, and more.
- Messaging – Provide private or public communication between users.
- Groups/communities – Enable users to interact in forums, groups, or shared-interest communities.
- Notifications – Alert users when others interact with their content or profile.
The main purposes of social networking sites are to socially interact with other people, often those you know in real life. Social networking sites allow you to stay in touch and up-to-date with friends, family, coworkers, classmates, and more. They facilitate sharing moments, ideas, interests, and more with your networks.
Some of the most popular social networking sites globally based on number of active users include Facebook (2.91 billion), YouTube (2 billion), WhatsApp (2 billion), Instagram (1.386 billion), and WeChat (1.211 billion).
Key Features of LinkedIn
Now that we’ve defined social networking, let’s examine some of LinkedIn’s main features and functionality:
Profiles
Like other social networks, LinkedIn allows users to create profiles summarizing their professional background, skills, experiences, education, accomplishments, interests, and more. Profiles serve as a digital resume showcasing users to potential connections and employers.
Users can customize their profiles with photos, videos, custom URLs, and more. Profiles have sections for a background photo, contact info, experience, education, skills, accomplishments, interests, recommendations, and groups/communities.
However, LinkedIn profiles differ from other social networks in focusing solely on professional and career-related information rather than personal life updates.
Connections
The core of LinkedIn is its professional network, composed of connections between users. Users can connect with coworkers, classmates, business contacts, employers, potential hires, clients, vendors, subject matter experts, and anyone else relevant to their professional network or career trajectory.
Connections keep users up-to-date on career changes, accomplishments, and work anniversaries of their network. Users can endorse connections for skills, write recommendations, and privately message connections.
Feed
Similar to other social media feeds like Facebook and Instagram, LinkedIn has a feed allowing users to view updates from their connections and groups. The feed shows new job postings, articles, group discussions, events, news, and other professional updates.
Groups
Groups on LinkedIn bring together users based on shared interests, affiliations, industries, professional associations, alumni status, hobbies, locations, and more. Groups allow discussions via posts and comments. Users can request to join established public and private groups relevant to them.
Job Postings
LinkedIn has an extensive job board with over 20 million listings. Users can search jobs, get matched with openings via notifications, and apply directly through LinkedIn. Employers can post openings and search LinkedIn profiles for potential candidates.
Messaging
Private messaging on LinkedIn enables users to communicate one-on-one and in small groups via text, audio, and video. Messaging facilitates networking outreach, interview scheduling, professional correspondence, mentorship conversations, and more.
Notifications
LinkedIn sends notifications when other users interact with your profile or content. Notifications alert users to profile views, connection requests, messages, mentions, comments, likes, job recommendations, and other activities.
Learning
LinkedIn Learning provides over 16,000 online video courses in business, technology, design, and more. Users can advance their skills through online classes, earn certifications, track progress, and showcase course completion on their profile.
Publishing Articles
Users can publish long-form articles, blog posts, and videos directly on LinkedIn to boost professional visibility. Published content appears in the feed and homepage of network connections. Articles allow users to demonstrate thought leadership.
LinkedIn User Statistics
Let’s look at some key user statistics to further understand LinkedIn’s purpose and how people utilize the platform:
User Demographics
Total Users | 840 million |
Monthly Active Users | 300 million |
Gender | 62% Male, 38% Female |
Age | 50% ages 30-49 |
Geographic Breakdown | 70 million U.S. users, 260 million users in Asia Pacific region, 93 million users in Europe/Middle East/Africa |
The user statistics indicate LinkedIn caters to a predominately older, professional demographic looking to further career opportunities.
Frequency of Use
When surveyed, 22% of users said they use LinkedIn daily, 26% said weekly, 18% said monthly, and 13% said less than monthly. The frequent use shows LinkedIn is not just for periodic job searches, but an ongoing platform to manage professional connections and further career development.
Common Activities
The most common activities people perform on LinkedIn include:
- Connecting with colleagues and professional contacts – 94% of users
- Searching for potential job opportunities – 93% of users
- Following thought leaders and influencers in their industry – 68% of users
- Researching companies and professional organizations – 55% of users
- Developing business relationships and generating leads – 52% of users
Very few users indicated using LinkedIn for typical social networking activities like staying in touch with personal friends, sharing personal updates, discussing hobbies or interests, or meeting new people outside professional contexts.
How LinkedIn Compares to Other Social Networks
To further evaluate whether LinkedIn qualifies as an actual social networking site, let’s directly compare it to some of the top mainstream social networking sites like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter:
Primary purpose | Connect with friends and family, share personal life updates | Share photos and videos, express creativity visually | Share news, opinions, and current events | Build professional connections and advance career |
User profiles | Personal info, hobbies, interests, photos, etc. | Personal photos and videos | Personal info, opinions, and tweets | Professional resumes, skills, accomplishments |
Feeds | Personal news, life events, articles, videos | Photos and videos from connections | Tweets, news, and articles | Industry news, career changes, professional updates |
Network | Friends, family, acquaintances | Followers, influencers | Followers, people/orgs user follows back | Professional connections, colleagues |
Groups | Shared interests and hobbies | Photo sharing and influencer fan groups | Industry discussions and shared interests | Professional organizations and alumni |
Use frequency | Daily | Daily | Daily | Weekly/monthly |
The comparison shows LinkedIn differs significantly from traditional social networking sites in its focus on professional connections and career advancement rather than socializing and sharing personal life updates.
Conclusion
After thoroughly examining LinkedIn’s features, user base, and functionality compared to mainstream social networks, is LinkedIn truly a social networking site?
Why LinkedIn is considered a social network
There are some elements of LinkedIn that align with the definition of a social networking site:
- Public user profiles
- List of connections
- Ability to view other users’ profiles and activity
- Share articles and content with connections
- Groups allow discussions and interactions between users
- Notifications when connections interact with your profile/content
These features facilitate a limited form of social interaction and networking around career and professional topics.
How LinkedIn differs from mainstream social networks
However, LinkedIn differs from the typical social networking activities and purposes:
- Profiles focus exclusively on professional skills, experience and accomplishments rather than personal life
- Discussions center around industry news and career advice rather than socializing and personal updates
- The network comprises professional contacts rather than friends and family
- Used primarily for career advancement and business objectives rather than socializing and entertainment
For these reasons, LinkedIn is much more closely aligned with a professional networking platform than a traditional, mainstream social networking site. The social interactions enabled on LinkedIn ultimately focus on career-related objectives.
The Verdict
In summary, while LinkedIn enables some social networking features like profiles, connections, group discussions, and sharing updates, the way these functions are utilized differ dramatically from mainstream social networking sites.
LinkedIn focuses exclusively on career networking and professional advancement. For this reason, LinkedIn is better categorized as a professional networking platform rather than a true social networking site. Its purpose aligns much more closely with networking than socializing and personal life sharing typical of sites like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.