LinkedIn Overview
Undoubtedly, one of the largest and most popular professional social networks is LinkedIn. Founded by Reid Hoffman, an American venture capitalist, and other founding team members in 2003, LinkedIn has since grown to “nearly 800 million members in more than 200 countries and territories worldwide” (LinkedIn, n.d., para. 1). According to Microsoft, which acquired the company in 2016, LinkedIn primarily generates revenue through membership subscriptions, advertising sales, and recruitment solutions (LinkedIn, n.d., para. 5). Moreover, LinkedIn’s revenue has steadily increased throughout the years and recently surpassed $10 billion in Q4 FY21 (LinkedIn, 2021, para. 1). It is by far, the go-to destination for professionals and recruiters.
LinkedIn is accessible on the web across multiple platforms and operating systems. However, for this review, we will briefly evaluate its mobile application from an Apple iPhone and offer a few recommendations to improve its usability. The current version of the LinkedIn iOS application as of this post is 9.1.242. Upon launching the app, you are presented with a Sign In screen. If you are joining LinkedIn for the first time, you can do so by using the Join LinkedIn link provided. The Sign In screen is clean and simple, without any distracting elements such as an animated background.
Figure 1
LinkedIn Sign In Screen
After completing the sign-in, you are presented with your Home feed. LinkedIn displays several buttons to navigate its primary functions towards the bottom of the app, including Home, My Network, Post, Notifications, and Jobs. Placing these elements at the bottom allows LinkedIn to use most of the screen’s real estate to emphasize the site’s content. The feed on the Home screen allows one to swipe up or down to view posts, much like many other social network applications, making for a familiar and intuitive experience. Likewise, each post also has common elements, such as the ability to like, comment, share, and send the post to others on your network. Interestingly, holding down the like button pops up a menu of other ways to add your sentiment, typically not found in some less popular social network apps.
| Figure 2 Home Screen Feed |
Figure 3 Like Button's Additional Sentiments |
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Improvements
Although LinkedIn’s mobile application user interface is reasonably easy to navigate, further opportunities exist to refine the experience and value to its members. First, the content in LinkedIn is rich, vast, and arguably is one of its leading drivers to keep users active on its platform. Consequently, LinkedIn allows one to save a post for review later. However, finding your saved posts is not so easy. Saved items require five steps to get to them, and their location is a bit obscure. From the Home screen, one must perform the following actions:- Press your profile icon
- Press the View Profile link
- Scroll down the screen midway
- Find and press the My Items menu item
- Press the Saved Posts menu item
Figure 4
My Items Menu
Second, LinkedIn should include a feature to enable users to subscribe and listen to podcasts from within the app directly. Although a user can find postings of podcasts from other members, a user must leave the platform to listen to them. Finally, another critical component to LinkedIn is making new connections with other members to land an opportunity or expand one’s business. LinkedIn should provide a feature that summarizes your connections in a meaningful way instead of storing them as a list of contacts. For example, organizing and displaying your connections as follows:
- Top 10 most active users from your network
- Top 10 least active users from your network
- The percentage of your connections working at companies ranked in the top 10 best places to work
- Connections grouped by specific industry verticals, e.g., Healthcare, Technology, and Retail
References
LinkedIn. (n.d.). About LinkedIn. https://about.linkedin.com
LinkedIn. (2021, July 28). LinkedIn business highlights from Microsoft’s FYI21 Q4 earnings. https://news.linkedin.com/2021/july/linkedin-business-highlights-from-microsoft-s-fy21-q4-earnings
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