LinkedIn is a great platform for connecting with business professionals old and new. You can build upon existing relationships whilst focusing on generating new leads simultaneously. It’s definitely not the largest social network, but where it counts, LinkedIn can be the most fruitful. These Top 2021 LinkedIn stats surrounding the site may not look outwardly impressive, but it’s a must for marketers and salespeople B2B or B2C to be utilising the platform in 2021 (if you’re not already!).
It’s Resilient! LinkedIn turns 18 years old this year, so it can finally drink. The oldest of the major social networks still in use today, the site was launched in May of 2003. The fact it’s stuck around for almost 2 decades is a testament to its evolution – and its usefulness!
Exhibit A is that the site hosts nearly 740 million members across 200 countries and regions worldwide! To put that into context, Facebook has 2.74 billion active users whilst Instagram boasts 1.22 billion. So, whilst you can see that the numbers aren’t as large for LinkedIn, the audience is more concentrated. Looking at it through a professional lens…that’s a lot of opportunity for business. Hola, Bonjour, Guten Tag, let’s not forget the site is also available in 24 languages making it perfect for international sales and networking.
Speaking of LinkedIn turning 18 this year, 59.9% of LinkedIn users are between the ages of 25 and 34 years old. Is it surprising that more than half of the users are young professionals? Not really. It’s a great stepping off point for those starting on their career paths and looking to branch out. Plus, with 40 million people looking for jobs via LinkedIn each week and 3 people being hired through the site every minute, it’s easy to see why a recent graduate or young professional is keen to get logged on.
Don’t get ghosted. Ghosting (noun): the practice of ending a personal relationship with someone by suddenly and without explanation withdrawing from all communication. Thankfully, LinkedIn sees a 48% year-over-year growth in conversations on the platform as of Q1 in 2021. With more connections unable to meet up in real life due to the pandemic, this means more and more people are messaging to maintain those relationships and seek new ones. So, hopefully, you won’t get left on ‘Seen’ next time you reach out…
Getting content with content, LinkedIn has seen an increase of 60% when it comes to those creating and posting content on the platform in 2020. In a bid to be seen and build that all-important engagement, users have been ramping up their posts! And yes, you will get the odd commenter who loves to remind you that ‘LinkedIn isn’t Facebook!’ but LinkedIn has 15 times more content impressions than job postings. That’s nine billion, to be precise.
Social marketing is getting organic. A huge 96% of B2B content marketers use LinkedIn for organic social marketing purposes. That puts it above both Twitter and Facebook in terms of it being the top network for B2B content marketers. This probably comes as no surprise when you consider that LinkedIn’s main purpose is to show people the business-related context they’ve come to expect.
Images get double the engagement whilst videos are found to be 20 times more likely to be shared by other users. So, whilst it isn’t Facebook, posting a funny video or a cute picture of your dog once in a while, isn’t going to cause any harm. And, could actually prove to be more beneficial! It’s not ‘just’ a recruitment platform, the site has become a place to educate and inform others about their company, industry, product or service. Just another reason why it’s become so favoured as the main platform for social selling.
Old enough to be behind the wheel, when you understand that 4 out of 5 people on LinkedIn are the ones driving business decisions, you begin to realise how important getting your content and yourself noticed really is. There are 61 million senior-level influencers using LinkedIn who are the top decision-makers within certain organisations.
As well as the content, another USP of the platform is its ability to target a specific audience. This allows marketers and salespeople to reach not only the ones making the decisions but the ones making the decisions in the exact industries they’re looking for.
So, whilst in comparison to other social networks LinkedIn does get overshadowed, look a little more closely at the statistics and you’ll see why it’s endured almost two decades. Not to be viewed as an underdog, the site has been instrumental in building a reliable, online professional network to connect the world’s business people as well as providing a platform that has pioneered cutting-edge methods of social selling.
If you’re not utilising the site correctly in 2021 these LinkedIn stats should wake you up to use the site to its fullest potential – why not?! Check out some of our free webcasts to get you started on boosting your LinkedIn’s performance.
