Free LinkedIn is Dead
I am declaring that the free version of LinkedIn is dead, may it rest in peace.
I contributed the following quote to the Career Sherpa’s post 31 EXPERTS SHARE PREDICTIONS FOR JOB SEARCH IN 2017:
The assimilation of LinkedIn into Microsoft will mean an acceleration of new features along with higher fees.
I have somewhat of a unique perspective on the acquisition of LinkedIn by Microsoft as I have been through 2 high-profile tech acquisitions in the last 15+ years:
- Agere Inc. was acquired by Lucent Technologies for $415M in 2000
- LifeSize Communications was acquired by Logitech for $405M in 2009
The chipset that Agere Inc. produced is now profitable and alive as part of Intel. LifeSize Communications was later spun out of Logitech and is still alive but… barely.
Life After an Acquisition
In both cases, money was invested in the acquired company with the expectations that there would be rapid returns. Microsoft bought LinkedIn to make money and I am quite sure that the folks at LinkedIn are under tremendous pressure to produce profitable results for their now parent company. That is life after being acquired.
LinkedIn made money from three primary sources prior to the acquisition:
- Premium memberships
- Recruiting packages
- Advertising
I like to claim that LinkedIn was drinking from both ends of the funnel as they collect money from end users who were looking for jobs and from employers who were looking to hire. They were serving two masters which in my opinion is a bad long-term idea.
As someone who has tried to use LinkedIn advertising, it is not very effective and it is expensive. LinkedIn does not have the demographical information that FaceBook has to effectively target ads.
LinkedIn needs to grow revenue and they will do this by starving off the free version of LinkedIn.
Listen to the most recent episode
The Rise of Sales Navigator
LinkedIn needs to move users to one of three paid solutions: Business/Job Seeker, Sales Navigator or Talent Solutions.
How will they do this? By removing features from the free version, it is now “pay to play.”
If you have been looking for a job using LinkedIn advanced search and have a free account you have probably run into the limits on how many searches you can do per month. You have very limited visibility to who has looked at your profile and next they are removing tags and notes from all accounts except Sales Navigator.
I recently posted the following article Say Goodbye to Free LinkedIn – Meet Sales Navigator – LinkedIn is overhauling its website—and we’re pumped! and I got a lot of comments.
Sorry but I am not pumped.
I use the notes feature to help me remember stuff as I suffer from CRS (Can’t Remember …. Stuff).
Sales Navigator has been around for a while and it is LinkedIn’s first foray outside of the talent space. Pushing users to Sales Navigator is LinkedIn’s next area for revenue growth and in my honest opinion, this is where LinkedIn will be spending their development dollars. The talent space is fairly saturated.
Pay to Play
I know from my experiences at my 2 tech startups, LinkedIn is under a lot of pressure to generate revenue.
I was an early beta user of LinkedIn Profinder but I found it to be very flawed for my business model as it only shows me to regional users (Texas) yet my clients are all over the world. Now, they want me to upgrade from my now defunct business package ($239.40/year) to a Business Plus ($575.88/year). I could also upgrade to a Sales Navigator Professional ($779.88/year) but why would I do that? ARG!! They are getting pretty aggressive to get me to upgrade.
I can justify paying for one of these packages through my business.
If you are employed, LinkedIn writes in their frequently asked questions (FAQ) page:
Can I expense my Premium membership?
Yes! Many employers find LinkedIn Premium so valuable that they’ll pay for their employees’ memberships. You can access your receipts anytime from the payment history page.
Will your employer pay for your LinkedIn premium membership? If they do please comment below.
The free version is now dead or at least near death. It has been neutered.
The real losers are the unemployed job seekers or those necessity entrepreneurs who need the functionality.
A good example is my friend John Lewis who was a successful scuba professional until he suffered a major stroke in August 2014. He has since been re-inventing himself as a freelance writer and editor or as I like to say a necessity entrepreneur. As any freelance professional can tell you, LinkedIn is vital to developing new business but shelling out $575 or more is difficult if not impossible when you are getting started.
The Future of Free LinkedIn
My prediction is LinkedIn will continue to produce new features and products to entice users to buy one of the premium products. They will also continue to reduce, limit or eliminate features in the free product to make it effectively a dead product.
I can only imagine what is going on in the product management meetings at LinkedIn. I would love to be a fly on the wall as their product managers grapple with how to serve the demands from the mother ship, Microsoft, to grow revenue.
The free version of LinkedIn is dead. May it rest in peace.
I wanted to let you know that I am glad to get your newsletters and occasionally read your blog. Thanks for doing it. I am VERY disappointed about the possible demise of Linked In. I was just starting to figure it out!
It is not dead but it now costs if you want to get full use of it.
It was never really alive. Sure, it made money capitalizing on the desperation of those seeking a job in a country with a measured unemployment rate of 36 to 42%. Sure, it made money off of companies wanting to consolidate jobs by hiring single individuals that had the experience to do three jobs in one. Sure, it made money from advertisers, that think there are clearly defined segments that can be reached with advertising. That it delivered no real return to any of it’s customers is well-known. that they sold the possibility of expanding on this idea to Microsoft is is legendary. Fact is, for a business to be alive it has to produce results, not just money. Thinking otherwise only demonstrates an immature understanding for what a sustainable business. No respectable, qualified business administrator would think that way. In fact, only an engineer or a financier would focus solely on what they can get and not contribute a real return. Oh wait, LinkedIn was and is run by engineers and financial investors… ah it makes sense now why they never delivered. LinkedIn never impacted my business, but it sure is amusing to see how they sucked in so many people’s money and produced virtually nothing. Get it? LinkedIn: The Virtually Reality of Success.
I am wondering if this is my cue to delete this account. I’ve never honestly felt comfortable with LinkedIn. I don’t like the whole idea of putting out personal info this way for others to view it regardless if this is the wave of the future.
Olga,
I did not say LinkedIn is dead just the free version.
Marc
Thank you for this article. A couple of years ago, LinkedIn provided employers posting a job listing a “button” for “Apply with LinkedIn” (for a fee, I’m sure). As a jobseeker, I thought this was great, no more lengthy, pointless applications to fill out! Just attach my LinkedIn profile, & I’m done! Well, it never resulted in an interview, much less a job, & I notice this feature no longer exists. So, I have been wondering, is LinkedIn of any help to me anymore? It has been discouraging. Let us all know if there is another site for jobseekers that would be more helpful (& free).
The option is still there for companies but many do not use it.
Marc – Nice article and I agree with your message. I was disappointed to hear that Microsoft purchased Linkedin and also felt that meant more fees. I use Linkedin all the time and do not enjoy paying for Sales Navigator either. I was hoping Microsoft would add new features and functionality instead of just rebranding the old free features under new paid subscriptions. Suzy
Suzy,
I am still on the original business plan for about $250 annually. You cannot get this plan anymore but they continue to offer it to those who are currently on it. It is just a matter of time before they force me to upgrade.
Marc
I had a Business Premium plan for 2 years. Ran me $67.00/month. When they rolled out the new layout early last year, they changed the way premium profiles looked. Before, premium accounts had bigger profile and cover photos. You could tell when you were looking at a premium account. Now, they just add a little orange premium logo to the top left of your profile, which is super easy to miss.
Regarding the plan itself – I only kept it for so long because I was told my profile would do really well on their new ProFinder platform. I was in Texas at the time. Some weeks, plenty of leads came thru. But most were window shopping. Not much definitive business came from it. Relocated to the Bay Area, where I was told the ProFinder platform was the most lucrative / popular, and in two weeks, I’ve legit gotten one request. And it wasn’t even grammatical. (Usually serious leads take the time to spell / grammar check their requests).
Not trying to hate on their platform – but I am with you in that they whole “local leads only” thing is kind of silly. Especially given that they give the job poster the option to say “I’m comfortable working virtually.”
I’ve gotten way more serious leads from Upwork. Which is kind of depressing, considering I thought LinkedIn would be a liaison to higher budget projects.
I find that approaching people on a B2B level yields far better results than *any* freelancing platform I’ve tried. Even better than LinkedIn’s.
Justin,
I am still on the basic business plan that lets me received Profinder requests but I cannot respond. I can usually find people through LinkedIn search but as you say it is mostly tire kickers. I had a bunch of conversations but little business has come from it. I will not upgrade unless I see value which I have not seen.
So… I agree with your assessment.
Marc
Well this is comforting. Glad it isn’t just me! I was like darn do I just have a punchable face or something? Haha.
You are not crazy! I worry about losing my insanity though!
Linked In has never helped me get a job, or even really good contacts at potential employers. So I don’t really care if the free version dies, and I won’t pay for an upgrade either while unemployed at least. If it keeps throttling my searches, so be it. They will lose a lot of followers who will just have inactive profiles. If people want to find me they can do so through other sites like Indeed. Especially with the Facebookification of LinkedIn with vanity, political, religious and video postings, I won’t miss it. Good riddance to LinkedIn free version.
Andrew,
I understand where you are coming from.
Marc
Drinking from both ends of the funnel is never a good idea, I agree 100%. Curious to see where the platform goes this year. It is currently one of primary sources for networking and my #1 used social platform for keeping up on all things digital.
Elijah,
I have worked with a lot of Product Managers and I would have loved to have been in some of the initial PM meetings after Microsoft acquired LinkedIn. I have been through 2 large tech acquisitions and it is never pretty. LinkedIn needs more revenue to become profitable and that means selling more and more and more…..
Marc
Quite so, but selling is much more than just grabbing revenue! If Linkedin wants me to upgrade, it has to talk to me about the benefits to me, not just the fancy techie gizmos that I have to bend and twist to fit with. It is pure arrogance for Linkedin to assume they know what I want and unforgivable to tell me what I need.
I recently stopped paying for LI as the lead generation was poor. All LI has become is what jobseekers and sales/Biz Dev/PartnerMktg wanted – an org chart for a company with contact information.
The way for any company to put LI and FB to rest is to have a functioning website that clearly articulates their employee and opportunity needs and the correct people and times to contact them.
I predict that MSFT will do exactly as you have suggested and slowly lose money as companies get better at what I have suggested.
Andrew,
From a lead generation perspective, LI is either great or useless. If you can clearly define your ideal client, male construction owner who has been in business for 3-5 years, under 40 years or age,…. then this really works. If not which is you and I it really does not work for lead generation.
So I feel your pain.
Marc
Anything that Microsoft touches inevitably turns to crap. I knew Linkedin was going to be ruined the moment news broke that it was acquired by Microsoft. If you’ve been following Microsoft for a while, you would know this fact. Refer also to Skype.
The post-Ballmer era of Microsoft is now primarily a cloud and subscription merchant, and that extends to Xbox gaming.