LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional network with over 810 million members as of October 2022. However, in recent years LinkedIn has faced criticism for lagging behind other social networks in terms of user experience and engagement. While LinkedIn remains an important platform for professionals, there are a few key reasons why the site seems to be falling behind its competitors:
Reason 1: Outdated Design and User Interface
LinkedIn’s user interface and overall design has remained largely unchanged for years. The desktop site and mobile app look rather dated compared to more modern social platforms. LinkedIn has prioritized function over form, with little consideration for aesthetics or visual appeal. This makes the platform feel clunky and unintuitive to navigate. Users have been requesting UI improvements and modern features for some time, but product evolution has been slow.
Reason 2: Algorithm and Feed Problems
LinkedIn’s feed algorithm has also received backlash for being ineffective. Many users complain that their feeds are flooded with irrelevant content from people they don’t know or random companies. Seeing unimportant updates can make the platform feel like information overload. The algorithm does a poor job of showing users the most useful and engaging content. Additionally, LinkedIn still lacks core feed features that users expect, such as commentary threads and options to manage spam/unfollow accounts.
Reason 3: Lack of Community
Unlike other social networks, LinkedIn lacks a true sense of community among its members. Most engagement on LinkedIn remains surface level, with members connecting for purely professional purposes. There is little space for more personal bonding, sharing of interests/hobbies, or exploring passions outside of career topics. This one-dimensional focus limits LinkedIn’s ability to foster genuine connections and relationships between members.
Problems with User Engagement
Beyond just its outdated design and features, LinkedIn also suffers from lagging user engagement. Here are some of the main problems impacting member activity and participation:
Low Post Engagement
Engagement metrics for the average LinkedIn post are quite low, especially compared to other platforms. For example, most LinkedIn posts receive single-digit likes and comments, while a popular tweet or Instagram photo can receive hundreds or thousands of engagements. The lack of interest makes posting on LinkedIn feel rather pointless for personal branding.
Minimal Sharing of Content
Additionally, few users actively share or repost content on LinkedIn. This limits the reach of posts, as sharing is the main way for content to spread across social platforms. The lack of a “viral” effect makes it difficult for brands, influencers, and thought leaders to expand their audience organically through LinkedIn posting.
Declining User Posting Activity
Posting activity overall has been declining, as users feel disillusioned by low engagement and Algorithm problems. 85% of LinkedIn members are considered “passive” users who simply consume content without actively posting themselves. Only 15% of members actively create personal or professional updates. Declining participation feeds into the issues around lack of community and irrelevant feeds.
| Year | Active Posters | Passive Consumers |
|---|---|---|
| 2017 | 25% | 75% |
| 2022 | 15% | 85% |
User Complaints Around Engagement
Many users directly complain about LinkedIn’s engagement problems on forums and social media:
- “I stopped posting on LinkedIn because it felt pointless when posts get 2 likes.”
- “None of my connections actually engage with my posts anyway.”
- “Getting traction on LinkedIn is impossible, the algorithm makes it too hard to grow an audience.”
These sentiments demonstrate how LinkedIn has failed to incentivize participation and create a truly collaborative network.
Barriers to Innovation
LinkedIn’s lagging user experience and engagement stem from a few key barriers that prevent meaningful innovation:
Conflicting Business Model
As a public company, LinkedIn prioritizes revenue growth and shareholder value. This skews product development towards sales-focused features vs. consumer-focused features. Things like targeted advertising and premium subscriptions generate more direct revenue than improving core user features. But this comes at the cost of user experience.
Lack of Competition
LinkedIn has little competition in the professional social network space. There are no real alternative platforms with comparable network effects and professional focus. This lack of competition reduces pressure for LinkedIn to truly innovate. They control their niche market without the threat of user churn.
Slow Pace of Execution
LinkedIn tends to be very slow and iterative when rolling out new features or redesigns. For example, their mobile app redesign took months of incremental A/B testing before reaching all users. Twitter or Instagram can push changes to their entire userbase much quicker by comparison. This slow pace stems from LinkedIn prioritizing stability and avoiding platform disruption. But it comes at the cost of Swift innovation.
The Impact on Businesses and Professionals
LinkedIn’s stagnation has tangible impacts both for businesses/brands using it for marketing, and professionals relying on it for networking:
Declining Social Selling
With users less engaged, it has become more difficult for salespeople and brands to generate leads and connections through social selling on LinkedIn. Response rates to outreach are dropping as members disengage.
Less Organic Reach
Through the algorithm and feed changes, businesses have seen a steep drop in ability to reach LinkedIn users organically. More budget must be allocated to sponsored posts and ads.
Reduced Job Market Transparency
Professionals have less visibility into career opportunities, company insights, and industry trends as useful content gets buried. Networking and growth of one’s reputation is also hampered.
Loss of Trust in the Platform
Both businesses and professionals have grown weary of investing time and resources into a platform that provides diminishing returns vs. other networks. Confidence and trust in LinkedIn as a go-to resource has declined.
LinkedIn’s Efforts to Address the Issues
In fairness, LinkedIn has acknowledged many of these problems and appears to be taking steps to address them:
Algorithm Improvements
LinkedIn is working to improve relevance in the feed algorithm, trying to balance automation with user interests. More A/B testing continues to refine recommendations.
Enhanced Engagement Features
Additions like the “clapping” reaction and comment threading aim to increase engagement with posts and content. Users also have more control around muting content/accounts.
Learning Paths and Courses
LinkedIn Learning provides professional development courses and technical skill training. This could improve the platform’s value beyond networking.
Creators Community
A new creators community aims to provide more support and features for thought leaders to develop high value content and expand their audience.
Partner Programs
By opening its platform through partnerships, LinkedIn hopes to improve integrations and opportunities for creators and businesses to enrich services.
Modernized Interface
A redesigned mobile experience with modern features is slowly rolling out to address dated interface complaints. This includes things like dark mode, refreshed profiles, etc.
Forecast and Outlook
Despite these efforts, it remains unclear if LinkedIn will be able to fully reinvigorate engagement and reverse negative platform perceptions. However, here are some potential outcomes:
Continued Decline in Organic Engagement
The worst case scenario sees engagement metrics continuing to decrease as users disengage further. Businesses allocate budgets elsewhere while professionals migrate some networking to other platforms.
Minor Improvements, But No Major Turnaround
A more likely scenario is minor incremental improvements from LinkedIn’s changes and feature launches, but no major rejuvenation of the platform. Core issues around algorithm and design remain mostly unresolved.
New Leadership and Shift in Strategy
If user backlash continues, it’s possible LinkedIn could face pressure for new leadership and an overhaul of strategic priorities. A shift from monetization to user experience could catalyze innovation.
Emergence of New Professional Network
Perhaps the greatest threat is a new entrant launching an alternative professional network that gains traction and challenges LinkedIn’s dominance. This would force more urgent changes, but also risks fragmenting the space.
Conclusion
In summary, LinkedIn’s lagging user experience and dated interface compared to other social networks has stifled engagement, hindered organic content reach, and damaged platform trust. While LinkedIn remains the definitive professional network, failure to address core issues has allowed rivals to gain ground and weakened LinkedIn’s value proposition as competition for attention and marketing dollars grows fiercer across the social landscape. Turning the tide will require strategic changes and a re-alignment of LinkedIn’s innovation roadmap to focus more wholly on the end user rather than monetization.