LinkedIn's second quarter financials are out. The company has beat analyst expectations and also raised guidance for the remainder of 2012. Revenue in Q2 was $228.2 million, which is up 89 percent from a year ago when LinkedIn announced $121 million in Q2 2011 revenue. Analysts were expecting revenue of $216 million for the quarter. LinkedIn's revenue was up across its Hiring Solutions products (107 percent increase YoY), Marketing Solutions (64 percent YoY) and Premium Subscriptions (82 percent YoY). U.S. revenues accounted for 65 percent of LinkedIn's overall income. The company's a [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social Media | LinkedIn

By now, we've all heard about Twitter's little break-up with LinkedIn – and discovered the consequence in our now tweet-free LinkedIn timelines. As social media marketers, this adds a new wrinkle to our already hectic days of trying to juggle multiple social media channels. LinkedIn may not be the sexiest social network, but it's still an important one. It's part of the Big Three (behind only Facebook and Twitter in popularity) and used by 73 percent of marketers, according to a recent study. So while we wait on LinkedIn's new update, life goes on -- as do social media updates. What [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social Media | LinkedIn | Social Media Marketing | Social Media Marketing Column

The annual American Customer Satisfaction Index is out for social media sites, measuring satisfaction with Google+ for the first time against other social networks. What a debut! Google's year-old social network had the best satisfaction while the world's most popular social network, Facebook, came in last. Top Marks For Google+ The scores look like this: On the scale, 100 would be perfect satisfaction. Google+ came in at 78, or what I'd call a B- or C+ letter grade, far from perfect. But it was much better than Twitter (64 points, rated for the first time), LinkedIn (63 points, also rate [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Content Marketing | Facebook | Facebook: Statistics | Features & Analysis | Google: Google+ | LinkedIn | Pinterest | Statistics: General | Statistics: Popularity & Usage | Statistics: Social Media | Top News | Twitter | Wikipedia

The world's most popular professional social network is getting a fresh new look.  Say goodbye to the abundance of white-space, large profile pictures and small post graphics.  The new LinkedIn helps to make the content shared the focal point with a much cleaner, modern look. The design will utilize more greys and blacks (similar to the recently redesigned mobile apps) but the update stream will stay white.  The visuals will be much larger and help draw attention to linked content and conversations that are taking place: One of the biggest changes is that more relevant updates will [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social Media | LinkedIn

A three-year agreement that allowed tweets to auto-publish to LinkedIn is the first casualty of Twitter's plans to tighten rules that cover how its API may be used. In a blog post today, Twitter's Michael Sippey says the company is dialing up enforcement of its API terms with partners in the company's continuing pursuit of giving users a consistent Twitter experience. Ultimately, we want to make sure that the Twitter experience is straightforward and easy to understand -- whether you're on Twitter.com or elsewhere on the web. The first casualty of Twitter's increased enforcement is [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Industry | LinkedIn | Social Media Marketing | Top News | Twitter | Twitter: Business Issues

Professional social network LinkedIn today announced it has agreed to acquire presentation sharing service SlideShare for $118 million in stock and cash, while also reporting earnings of $5 million on revenues of $188 million in the first quarter. Analysts had only expected $179 million in revenue. The SlideShare acquisition will help LinkedIn add additional features to keep its 181 million members (up 58% from the same period last year) engaged. In recent years LinkedIn has added status updates and community features, hoping to get more people to visit the site when they're not hiring or l [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social Media | LinkedIn | Social Media Marketing | Top News

Just over a month ago, LinkedIn announced a follow button for companies that allowed users to connect with brands across the social network.  Today the follower ecosystem is expanding as LinkedIn is now offering follower statistics and targeted updates. The targeted updates functionality will allow companies to target specific messages to a segmented audience.   The above photo shows the various sectors that companies can target with the new update feature. LinkedIn describes targeted updates by saying:  They (marketers) will be able to create hyper-focused follower lists – based [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social Media | LinkedIn | Social Media Marketing | Top News

Facebook. Twitter. Google+. Pinterest. Foursquare. LinkedIn. Path. How many of these social networks do you belong to? Do you participate in every day? Every week? Every month? When a new one comes along does your heart leap in anticipation, or sink a little when you realize it’s one more thing to add to your already burgeoning list of chores; one more series of tasks on an already too-long to-do list? As pervasive as social media seems, it’s still early days and there have already been shakeouts. Some of us are old and hoary enough to remember Orkut, to once have thought we’d neve [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Local | Facebook | Facebook: Business Issues | Facebook: Mobile | Facebook: Open Graph | Foursquare | Google: Google+ | LinkedIn | MySpace | Social Media Marketing Column | Twitter

LinkedIn users will now be able to connect in more ways, to more account types.  A new follow button for companies will allow users to connect to an organization with just one click.  This will give companies the ability to share and become followed in a format very similar to Twitter and Facebook. This type of connection will be beneficial for the sharing of company news, career information and general social-worthy content: [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jykqF-neZ2I[/youtube] The follow button for companies can be customized and quickly installed.  The button resembles Twit [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social Media | LinkedIn | Social Media Marketing

LinkedIn has crossed the 150 million user plateau and today reported a strong 4th quarter that beat Wall Street Estimates. In its earnings announcement today, LinkedIn reported revenue of $167.7 million, a 105 percent increase over the $81.7 million it earned in Q4 of 2010. It also reported 4th quarter profits of $6.9 million -- 12 cents per share. Analysts had projected LinkedIn's profit to be seven cents per share. LinkedIn's 150 million member announcement is about double its membership in the summer of 2010, and almost triple its membership at the end of 2009. The company also re [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Strategy | LinkedIn | Statistics: Popularity & Usage

There is no slow-down in sight for social advertising. According to eMarketer, Twitter ad growth is projected to be up 83% in 2012 and LinkedIn will see a 46.1% increase.  Twitter 2012 advertising revenues are estimated to be 259.9 million while LinkedIn will be close behind at 226 million. Twitter ad revenue is extremely U.S. heavy, with 90% of revenue coming from the states.  Outside countries will make up just 26 million in revenue in 2012.  The ad number is expected to double by 2014 to 540 million dollars worldwide.  This total revenue is tallied up from paid ads only, no costs t [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social Media | LinkedIn | Social Media Marketing | Social Media Marketing: Advertising | Twitter | Twitter: Advertising