LinkedIn Statistics That You Need to Know in 2020
The history of the emergence of LinkedIn, the social network for business communication, cannot be called quick and easy. Reid Hoffman (venture capitalist), Allen Blue (product designer), Konstantin Guericke (marketing professional), Eric Ly (engineer), and Jean-Luc Vaillant (engineer) launched this platform in 2003. At first, it did not show any hope of success.
In 2005, LinkedIn began to attract employers who posted their vacancies and found employees using the social network. Also, companies began to advertise themselves on the platform. The first major success came 4 years after its launch, in 2007, when its number of users grew to 15 million. 4 years later, in 2011, LinkedIn gained worldwide fame and grew to 100 million users. In 2016, there were already 500 million users, and the company was bought by Microsoft for approximately $26 billion.
Today, LinkedIn has evolved from a platform for a job search and making business contacts to one of the largest and most influential social networks. This opened up new opportunities for businesses that are a bit tired of dealing with entertainment platforms. Thanks to the development of the advertising capabilities of the network and the formed business audiences, LinkedIn has also started to be applied in B2B marketing.
For Which Purposes Can LinkedIn Be Used?
1. Search for New Opportunities and/or Development of Your Career
As we already mentioned, the site was originally conceived as a social network for the exchange of business contacts. Until now, this was its main function. Companies around the world are active on LinkedIn. These companies are from different niches, so you can connect with recruiters and compete for your dream job. With a premium subscription, you can compare your profile with those of other members and assess your competitiveness.
2. Your Business
LinkedIn is a friendly platform for those who want to expand and strengthen their professional relationships. Here, you will find not only valuable employees but also reliable partners with whom you might be able to build a promising project with in the future.
3. Sales
Would you like to strengthen your connections with potential clients? Do you want to find new buyers? Are you looking for new leads? You can do all this with LinkedIn. We will discuss the benefits of this social network for B2B marketing a little later. First, let’s take a look at LinkedIn statistics.
Statistics on LinkedIn: Audience, Geography, and Other Peculiarities of the Social Network
1. How Many People Use Linkedin?
The number of registered users today is 706 million in 200 countries and regions.
By the way, let us remind you that back in 2016, this figure was 500 million, and by the end of 2018, it had increased to 590 million. Thus, the demand for LinkedIn is increasing every year, and the audience is ever-expanding.
Instagram has now 1 billion users, Twitter has 330 million, and Facebook has 2+ billion (according to Oberlo.com).
It should be noted that the audiences’ traits of these social networks are very different from one another.
How Many Active Users Are There on LinkedIn?
The number of LinkedIn active users is 310 million per month.
2. What Is the Sex Breakdown Among Linkedin Users?
There are almost equal shares of male and female users on LinkedIn, with a slight predominance of men: 43 to 57%, respectively. At the same time, the We are Social platform still says that every newly registered user is a man.
Depending on sex, the interaction with the social network is also different. Women are more selective in choosing a job and are more demanding in relation to themselves, while men do not consider it necessary to meet absolutely all the requirements specified by employers before submitting a resume. Therefore, they send applications more often.
3. How Popular Is Linkedin in the USA?
171 million citizens of the USA use LinkedIn. Among all the popular social networks, it occupies the 5th place. Also, interest in the platform is growing every year—in 2018, only 25% of Americans used it.
4. Is LinkedIn Popular in Other Countries?
70% of LinkedIn users live outside of the USA. Even though the US market remains the largest for LinkedIn, 70% of registered users live in other countries. 160 million of them reside in Europe. (Distribution by country is shown in the figure above).
5. What is the Age of LinkedIn Users?
Probably, there is nothing surprising in the fact that the age of users starts at 18 years. 17% of people on the platform are under 24 years old, the 25-30 age group is 44%, and 37% of users on the platform are in the 30-49 age group.
These indicators should be taken into account when setting up your business advertising campaign on this social network.
6. Education of the Audience
51% of Americans with college degrees use LinkedIn (Pew Research Center, 2018). It has successfully surpassed Instagram, Pinterest, and Twitter for this criterion. However, college graduates still prefer Youtube and Facebook.
It is important to keep this in mind when using a social network for business, as the advertising campaigns you run will have to be very different from those on Facebook or Instagram.
7. How is LinkedIn being Used for Business?
Earlier we mentioned that the social network is in demand not only among job seekers but also among business representatives. As of 2019, there were over 30 million registered companies on LinkedIn. Of course, not all of them are managed by the companies themselves (some profiles are created automatically). Still, this does not diminish the importance of the social network in business interactions.
8. 57% of Traffic on LinkedIn is Mobile
Even though the social network for business contacts is most often used during working hours when users are in front of their PCs, mobile traffic is only 57% (according to LinkedIn as of 2018). This is considered a small indicator when compared, for example, to Facebook, which has 98% mobile traffic.
LinkedIn believes that significant changes in favor of mobile traffic can be expected by 2024.
9. Interesting Facts: What Else You Need to Know
Approximately 15% of all LinkedIn users are high-level executives with great influence in professional circles.
Every 10 people on the platform make serious business decisions, 40 million are wealthy users, 17 million are opinion leaders, and 10 million are senior executives (LinkedIn, 2019).
It is impressive, isn’t it?
Why You Should Use Linkedin for B2B Marketing
LinkedIn ranks second in popularity among B2B marketers, being second only to Facebook. It has earned this ranking. All content on this platform, including interactive content, is geared to a business audience. The social network is used to generate leads more often than others, and it also successfully combines marketing and sales. Salespeople using LinkedIn close 50% more deals than their peers who do not use the platform.
LinkedIn network statistics, which we reviewed above, once again confirm the effectiveness of using this social network for B2B marketing.
LinkedIn Advertising Opportunities
LinkedIn is constantly working to expand the platform’s advertising features and what it can offer to businesses. Taking into account the peculiarities of statistical data on gender, age, and geography, you can easily create a suitable advertising campaign and learn how to successfully interact with the platform. One ad on this social network can reach up to 12% of the population. The availability of such advertising is also pleasantly pleasing. Its price per client is much lower than on Google AdWords.
To conclude, it is worth noting that no matter what professional purpose pertaining to your business you plan to use LinkedIn for, it is likely a good option. Consider it particularly when looking for partners, potential customers, conducting advertising, or marketing campaigns. Check out the provided LinkedIn stats in detail and stay tuned to see how you can use this knowledge to benefit your company.
