First, let me say that I am a fan of LinkedIn. LinkedIn is a great professional networking site that adds value to both organizations, professionals, job seekers, and recruiters alike. LinkedIn does have its limitations but it has done a good job carving out a fairly large niche market in the Social Networking space.

LinkedIn allowed me as a recruiter to directly source senior level executive candidates for Visible Technologies. This  enabled the company to recruit for very senior positions without resorting to the use of a very expensive executive search agency. That is a very valuable resource.

That being said, I recently purchased an iPhone 3GS and downloaded the LinkedIn iPhone App. There are plenty of product reviews floating around on the web, so I won’t go into the actual product specs in great detail. However, I was surprised in doing a quick Google search on “LinkedIn iPhone App”, how positive the reviews were.  See the reviews at AppSafari or  SocialTimes; both of which are in the Top 5 Google search results. I think LinkedIn fundamentally missed the mark on their iPhone app.

First, whenever you launch an add-on product or service, you need to design it in context of your core product or service strengths and value. LinkedIn is not a communication platform whose value relies on connection or status updates, yet half of their iPhone App is dedicated to this. Having even a couple Open Networkers (see my previous posts on Open Networking), removes any desire I have to follow my LinkedIn contact connection updates. Of the current network updates I have in my LinkedIn iPhone App, 49 of the 50 updates are connection updates. Connection Updates are arguably the least interesting type of update on LinkedIn (vs. status updates, question / answer updates, or profile updates). Of those 49 connection updates, Open Networkers comprise of 45 of those updates.

Yes, 90% of my LinkedIn iPhone App updates consist of Open Networker connection updates, which has the same value to me as the phone company informing me that the White Pages just got updated. Even worse, every connection update is listed out individually. Why not incorporate the same feature as in the LinkedIn weekly emails updates where connection updates are aggregated by person? That way I don’t see every new connection that an Open Networker, who 35 new connections in one day, has, I only see they have 35 new connections with the option to drill down further.   

LinkedIn is not the place I go to understand what people in my Social Network are currently up to. I don’t feel a compelling need to check LinkedIn everyday and certainly not with their iPhone App. Twitter and Facebook have a stranglehold on that space. I have a healthy number of LinkedIn connections (238, I am selective in whom I connect with), and of my connections three, yes 3, have updated their status on LinkedIn within the last 48 hours.

LinkedIn’s iPhone App is a useful tool with its connection and search capabilities, a tool to be used in specific circumstances. That is the area that LinkedIn is strong, being a great tool for specific uses, i.e. Recruiting, Finding a Job, Professional Networking, and Researching People and Organizations. Monetize what you do well, don’t create products that service the areas you don’t. 

Dan Hall

Sourcing Seattle