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Post image for New LinkedIn research reveals which professionals conquer their to-do lists

New LinkedIn research reveals which professionals conquer their to-do lists

by Jake on May 23, 2012

LinkedIn, the world’s largest professional network with 161 million members worldwide, today released data about professionals and their daily to-do lists. The study examined how professionals in different industries tackle tasks planned for a given workday; the differences between men and women’s to-do list habits; and global insights on where professionals keep to-do lists and what gets in the way of completing them.

LinkedIn surveyed more than 6,500 professionals globally. The study showed that the likelihood that a professional will complete their to-do list varied by industry. Professionals in agriculture claim to be the most productive, with 83 percent of agriculture professionals stating they regularly fulfill most or all of their planned tasks. Professionals in the legal industry had the lowest completion rate on their daily plans, with 66 percent of respondents accomplishing most or all tasks.

Art industry professionals (40 percent) agreed the most with this statement, “I tend to be distracted easily.” Agriculture industry professionals agreed the least with that statement; only 18 percent of professionals in the agriculture industry are easily distracted.

  • The study shows that 63 percent of all professionals frequently create to-do lists.
  • Seventy-one percent of women say they frequently keep to-do lists.
  • Only 60 percent of men say they frequently keep to-do lists.

Globally, 50 percent of those who jot down to-do lists do so by hand, while 45 percent create them electronically. The remaining five percent reported storing their lists in alternative places, like “In my mind only,” “Piles of files,” or other locations like whiteboards or chalkboards. When it comes to checking the boxes on their to-do lists, only 11 percent of professionals globally reported accomplishing all of the tasks they plan to do in a given workday. Survey respondents pointed to unplanned tasks (such as unscheduled phone calls, emails and meetings) as primary cause for not completing all items on their to-do lists.

“No matter what industry you’re in, you can’t avoid surprise phone calls, meetings or other unplanned tasks that can get between you and your to-do list, but you can amplify efficiency throughout your day to get it all done,” said LinkedIn’s connection director, Nicole Williams. “Summon the collective intelligence on LinkedIn to work smarter and solve challenges quickly. Save time by arming yourself with insights before meetings.”

Follow these “to-dos” to save time in your workday and cross more tasks off the list:

  1. Make meetings more efficient
    Check out meeting participants’ LinkedIn Profiles ahead of time to get a sense for what they bring to the table. Past experience and specific skills of your meeting cohorts could come in handy to creatively solve a problem — thereby keeping your meeting time to a minimum.
  2. Crowd source your challenge
    Use LinkedIn Answers and LinkedIn Groups to tap into the wisdom of your LinkedIn network or the rest of the 161 million LinkedIn members. By posing questions and starting discussions you’ll be able to assemble solutions in record time.
  3. Get up to speed in an instant
    Rather than visiting various news sources each morning, get your daily news fix in one place via LinkedIn Today. Customize LinkedIn Today so you get news that’s relevant to you and your clients. Access LinkedIn Today from your desk, iPad or phone by downloading LinkedIn Mobile.

Learn more about LinkedIn’s professional to-do list study and download an infographic on LinkedIn’s Blog.

Post image for LinkedIn Announces First Quarter 2012 Financial Results

LinkedIn Announces First Quarter 2012 Financial Results

by Jake on May 5, 2012

Mountain View, Calif. — May 3, 2012 — LinkedIn Corporation (NYSE: LNKD), the world’s largest professional network on the Internet with 161 million members, reported its financial results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2012:

  • Revenue for the first quarter was $188.5 million, an increase of 101% compared to $93.9 million in the first quarter of 2011.
  • Net income for the first quarter was $5.0 million, compared to net income of $2.1 million for the first quarter 2011.  Non-GAAP net income for the first quarter was $16.9 million, compared to $5.8 million for the first quarter of 2011.  Non-GAAP measures exclude tax-affected stock-based compensation expense and tax-affected amortization of acquired intangible assets.
  • Adjusted EBITDA for the first quarter was $38.1 million, or 20% of revenue, compared to $13.3 million for the first quarter of 2011, or 14% of revenue.
  • GAAP EPS for the first quarter was $0.04; Non-GAAP EPS for the first quarter was $0.15.

“LinkedIn’s solid performance in the first quarter built on the company’s momentum in 2011,” said Jeff Weiner, CEO of LinkedIn. “We saw strength across all key metrics from member signups and engagement to significant revenue growth across our three product lines.”

First Quarter Financial Details and Operating Summary
LinkedIn reported revenue of $188.5 million for the first quarter ended March 31, 2012, an increase of 101% compared to the first quarter of 2011, and the 7th straight quarter of greater than 100% year-over-year growth.

  • Hiring Solutions: Revenue from Hiring Solutions products totaled $102.6 million, an increase of 121% compared to the first quarter of 2011.  Hiring Solutions revenue represented 54% of total revenue in the first quarter of 2012, compared to 49% in the first quarter of 2011.
  • Marketing Solutions: Revenue from Marketing Solutions products totaled $48.0 million, an increase of 73% compared to the first quarter of 2011.  Marketing Solutions revenue represented 26% of total revenue in the first quarter of 2012, compared to 30% in the first quarter of 2011.
  • Premium Subscriptions: Revenue from Premium Subscriptions products totaled $37.9 million, an increase of 91% compared to the first quarter of 2011. Premium Subscriptions represented 20% of total revenue in the first quarter of 2012, compared to 21% of revenue in the first quarter of 2011.

Revenue from the U.S. totaled $120.8 million, and represented 64% of total revenue in the first quarter of 2012.  Revenue from international markets totaled $67.6 million, and represented 36% of total revenue in the first quarter of 2012.

Revenue from the field sales channel totaled $101.5 million, and represented 54% of total revenue in the first quarter of 2012.  Revenue from the online, direct sales channel totaled $87.0 million, and represented 46% of total revenue in the first quarter of 2012.

GAAP net income for the first quarter was $5.0 million, compared to net income of $2.1 million for the first quarter of 2011.  Non-GAAP net income for the first quarter was $16.9 million, compared to $5.8 million in the first quarter of 2011.

Adjusted EBITDA was $38.1 million for the first quarter of 2012, or 20% of revenue, compared to $13.3 million for the first quarter of 2011, or 14% of revenue.

GAAP EPS was $0.04 based on 111.3 million fully-diluted weighted shares outstanding compared to $0.00 for the first quarter of 2011 based on 51.5 million fully-diluted weighted shares outstanding.  Non-GAAP EPS was $0.15 based on 111.3 million fully-diluted weighted shares outstanding compared to $0.06 for the first quarter of 2011 based on 97.1 million fully-diluted weighted shares outstanding.

“LinkedIn grew over 100% for the seventh consecutive quarter and achieved records for adjusted EBITDA, operating and free cash flow,” said Steve Sordello, CFO of LinkedIn. “We remain focused on investing in our technology and product platform as well as expanding our business in new international markets and customer segments.”

For additional information, please see the “Selected Company Metrics and Financials” page on LinkedIn’s Investor Relations site.

First Quarter Highlights and Strategic Announcements

  • In January, LinkedIn began an early rollout of Talent Pipeline with five charter customers including PepsiCo, Pfizer, Red Hat, Netflix, and First Citizens Bank. Available to all Recruiter customers in Q2, Talent Pipeline allows recruiters and hiring managers to manage, track, and stay in touch with all their target candidates regardless of source.
  • In February, LinkedIn launched the Follow Company button for the more than two million companies with active LinkedIn company pages, making it easier for professionals to follow those companies on LinkedIn from anywhere on the web.
  • In March, LinkedIn introduced a new version of People You May Know. This new streamlined tool makes it even easier for professionals to grow their networks through a simpler, more visual user experience.
  • In the first quarter, LinkedIn continued its global growth strategy by adding two new languages (Czech and Dutch) to the LinkedIn platform, and an office in Madrid.

Business Outlook
LinkedIn is providing guidance for the second quarter of 2012, and revising guidance for the full year 2012 on revenue, adjusted EBITDA, depreciation and amortization, and stock-based compensation.

  • Q2 2012 Guidance: Revenue for the second quarter of 2012 is projected to range between $210 million to $215 million.  The company expects adjusted EBITDA to range between $40 million and $42 million.  The company expects depreciation and amortization to range between $18.5 million and $19.5 million, and stock-based compensation to range between $18 million and $19 million.
  • Full Year 2012 Guidance: The company has revised upward its expected revenue range to $880 million to $900 million from the prior range of $840 million to $860 million.  The company has also revised upward its expected adjusted EBITDA range to $170 million to $175 million from the prior range of $155 million to $165 million.  The projected range for depreciation and amortization has increased to $75 million to $85 million from $70 million to $80 million, and stock-based compensation has increased to $80 million to $90 million from $65 million to $75 million.
Post image for Linkedin Buys Slideshare

Linkedin Buys Slideshare

by Jake on May 4, 2012

LinkedIn (NYSE:LNKD), the world’s largest professional network on the Internet with 161 million members worldwide, today announced it agreed to acquire SlideShare, a leading professional content sharing community.

The transaction is valued at approximately $118.75 million, subject to adjustment, in a combination of approximately 45 percent cash and approximately 55 percent stock. Subject to the completion of customary conditions, the acquisition is expected to close during the second quarter of 2012.

Founded in October 2006, SlideShare helps professionals discover people through content, and content through people. SlideShare users have uploaded more than nine million presentations, and according to comScore, in March SlideShare had nearly 29 million unique visitors, ranking it among the most heavily trafficked sites for professional content.

SlideShare is also enabling the sharing of presentations across the Web; nearly 7.4 million presentations hosted by SlideShare are embedded across more than 1.4 million unique domains.

“Presentations are one of the main ways in which professionals capture and share their experiences and knowledge, which in turn helps shape their professional identity,” said LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner. “These presentations also enable professionals to discover new connections and gain the insights they need to become more productive and successful in their careers, aligning perfectly with LinkedIn’s mission and helping us deliver even more value for our members. We’re very excited to welcome the SlideShare team to LinkedIn.”

Rashmi Sinha, CEO of SlideShare commented, “We built SlideShare to help professionals share presentations and connect people through content. What we can build with LinkedIn, the largest professional network on the Internet, is the most natural extension of this vision. I am excited about what we can build together.”

Deep Nishar, LinkedIn’s Senior Vice President of Product and User Experience, blogged about the acquisition at http://blog.linkedin.com/topic/slideshare/, and a SlideShare presentation outlining the deal can be found on LinkedIn’s SlideShare page at: http://www.slideshare.net/linkedin/linkedin-and-slideshare and on the investor relations section of the LinkedIn website at: http://investors.linkedin.com/.

Post image for LinkedIn Rolls Out Talent Pipeline To Recruiters Worldwide

LinkedIn Rolls Out Talent Pipeline To Recruiters Worldwide

by Jake on April 25, 2012

LinkedIn, the world’s largest professional network with more than 150 million members, today announced the roll-out of LinkedIn Talent Pipeline to its thousands of corporate recruiting customers worldwide. Talent Pipeline enables recruiters to easily manage all of their talent leads in one place, regardless of the source, helping them recruit top talent more quickly. Talent Pipeline will be included for free as part of LinkedIn’s flagship Recruiter product.

Talent Pipeline addresses a new reality facing recruiters. In a quickly changing business environment, recruiters need to react faster to hiring needs. Simultaneously, the rise of social media and other new sources of potential candidates are driving a shift toward more direct sourcing and recruiters expanding their search beyond active candidates to include ‘passive’ candidates; those professionals not currently looking for their next career opportunity. Professional networks like LinkedIn have made it possible to recruit passive candidates at scale for the first time.

Identifying and building relationships with these potential hires before they enter the formal job application process enables companies to react faster to hiring needs as they arise. In fact, 92 percent of senior leaders in human resources and talent acquisition in the US regard recruiting passive candidates as central to or a part of their recruitment strategy, and 61 percent plan to increase their focus on recruiting passive candidates this year, according to recent research conducted by LinkedIn*.

This strategy makes pipelining a top priority, but the proliferation of sources – from business cards collected at conferences and recruiting events to niche job sites and referrals – makes it difficult for recruiters to track and stay up to date with all their leads. Current pipelining tools fall short, according to 86 percent of survey respondents.

“With the rise in sources of passive talent, recruiters need a simple and intelligent way to grow, track, and stay in touch with their talent pipeline,” said Parker Barrile, head of products for LinkedIn Hiring Solutions. “We’re dedicated to building best-in-class products to help recruiters connect talent with opportunity worldwide, and Talent Pipeline is the next step. It’s an easy extension of the sourcing that recruiting teams already do on the network today.”

Most passive candidates have not applied for a job in the past, so they are not in a company’s Applicant Tracking System (ATS). Many recruiters currently track leads in spreadsheets, which don’t allow for collaboration, or databases which quickly grow stale. Talent Pipeline solves these problems, enabling recruiters to:

  • Import leads and résumés into Recruiter, which are then compared to LinkedIn’s network 150 million members and paired with the relevant profile, which members keep updated even when they aren’t job hunting
  • Search, tag, and share records across the recruiting team like any profile sourced on LinkedIn. And with new tools for adding a lead’s source and status, recruiters can report on and improve the efficiency of their pipeline activities.
  • Evaluate and build relationships with leads, based on the insights provided by the LinkedIn profile, including shared connections, activity updates, recommendations and shared groups.

LinkedIn worked with a number of large recruiters to develop Talent Pipeline, including PepsiCo, Pfizer, Red Hat, First Citizens Bank and Netflix. Existing customers of LinkedIn Recruiter will begin seeing Talent Pipeline incorporated into the platform over the coming weeks.

“This solution will transform what’s possible for our recruiting organization,” said Jim Schnyder, senior recruitment lead at PepsiCo. ‘In Talent Pipeline, we now have a centralized system in which we can create talent pools – based on LinkedIn searches, but also from other sources that we upload to the Recruiter platform, such as our own spreadsheets, random files, and more – that are globally accessible, searchable and editable.”

Post image for Linkedin Opens Hong Kong Office

Linkedin Opens Hong Kong Office

by Jake on April 25, 2012

Linkedin has announced this week the opening of a new office in Hong Kong which is it 25th globally and 9th in the Asia Pacific region.

A company statement released on Tuesday by Linkedin informed the world that the establishment of a local presence in Hong Kong reflected the company’s continued growth in the Asian region.

There are currently over 25 million users of Linkedin in the Asia region and it opened an office in Singapore last May which currently serves as its regional headquarters. They also have offices in Tokyo, Bangalore, Melbourne and Perth within the region with several local language sites such as Japanese and Korean.

“We are thrilled to be expanding our footprint in the region at a time when professionals in Hong Kong are placing a growing emphasis on social media,” said Arvind Rajan, LinkedIn’s managing director and vice president for Asia-Pacific and Japan.

“With more than 2,400 regional company offices and over 1,300 regional headquarters, Hong Kong’s skilled talent base and reputation as a leading international center of finance and business make it an important market for LinkedIn, given our aim is to connect the world’s talent with opportunity.”

The Hong Kong office will support around 500,000 users in the territory and currently employs around 6 people.

Post image for Linkedin Stock Up

Linkedin Stock Up

by Jake on April 12, 2012

Well it was a good days trading for Linkedin (LNKD) stocks today seeing it rise by 8.44% from its opening price of 99.75 to its close at 105.90 giving them a market cap of US$10.85bn

The trading graph for today:

So far from 3rd January 2012 to 11 April that’s a massive 52.31% increase in price.

Not only is Linkedin a great platform for business, but a mighty good investment too as per Goldman Sachs buy rating that was issued recently on the stock. We keep a close eye on the markets here at Linkedin News and will continue to monitor the price over the course of the year.

Photo courtesy of herval at Flickr. Some rights reserved

Post image for Linkedin Lets Loose New Targeted Follower Tools

Linkedin Lets Loose New Targeted Follower Tools

by Jake on April 11, 2012

So it’s another big day for launches over at Linkedin as they launch two new targeting and analytics products which will be of huge interest to those involved in marketing. The new functions being rolled out are aimed at companies who have followers on Linkedin and called ‘Follower Statistics’ and ‘Targeted Updates.’

The Follower Statistics product is basically a dashboard for analytics that will give companies the ability to see how effective and engaging their status updates are performing. Anyone from the digital marketing world will already know how important this is and I have personally lost count the amount of hours personally spent digging around in the data provided by Google Analytics for sites I’ve worked on.

The other launch is the Targeted Updates feature that in a nutshell gives companies the ability to segment the professionals who follow them. They can use a range of options for this such as industry sector, company size, non-company staff, seniority, actual job and geographical location.

With this new feature companies will have the added power to send different and targeted status updates to their followers depending on what group they fit into with the new filters. I’m sure you will agree that this is a big function and will massively overhaul marketing on Linkedin.

In the first instance as Linkedin rolls out the new features they will be limited to a handful of companies such as Dell, Microsoft, AT&T as well as Samsung Mobile. Over the next few months they will receive a wider system roll out so keep your eyes open as we will post here as soon as they are more widely available.

These new products will greatly enhance engagement with a company’s followers and Jonathan Lister, VP of North American Ad Sales said, ‘The value of the [follower] ecosystem is really driving media efficiency, [It’s] giving marketers very precise abilities to target and send messages in a really compelling way.’

Lister was also quoted as saying that 70% of Linkedin members follow companies or most certainly would given the chance. The actual current figure remains undisclosed.

All in all I like these new features and can’t wait to get to play around with them personally.

Photo by Nan Palmero on Flickr. Some rights reserved

 

Post image for Facebook To Buy Instagram

Facebook To Buy Instagram

by Jake on April 10, 2012

So news of a new acquisition hits the world as Facebook announces it is going to buy Instagram for $1bn (£629m) in a mix of cash and stocks.

Instagram is one of those online success stories that has seen massive growth since it’s launch in October 2010 when it was initially offered as only an iPhone app. Last week they announced a version for the ever growing Android market too.

The app is a free one and gives users the ability to take a photo and post it to their social media networks immediately. They have the option of 17 filters to apply to the photos they take allowing them to change the colour balance and add cool effects. It’s a cool app and I admit that it happens to be one of my favourites on my iPhone.

There are more than 30 million users of the app and they upload around 5 million photos per day.

Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook has pledged to continue developing Istagram allowing it to remain as a separate brand with the ability to post to multiple social media networks such as twitter.

The Facebook founder write on his fan page: “We think the fact that Instagram is connected to other services beyond Facebook is an important part of the experience.

“We plan on keeping features like the ability to post to other social networks, the ability to not share your Instagrams on Facebook if you want, and the ability to have followers and follow people separately from your friends on Facebook.”

“This is an important milestone for Facebook because it’s the first time we’ve ever acquired a product and company with so many users. We don’t plan on doing many more of these, if any at all.”

This is a major acquisition which has moved ahead at a fast pace ahead of Facebook’s planned flotation on the stock markets later this year. The firm is expected to float in may or June of this year for around $100bn

Post image for Welcome to Linkedin News

Welcome to Linkedin News

by Jake on April 9, 2012

So here we are with our very first post here at Linkedin News. The site is still under development but we have a huge amount of content all ready to be published here so as to help you get the most out of Linkedin. Looking to use the platform for business? We can help with some choice tips and advice for that.

Maybe you need to hire the very best talent in the market to help your company grow? No problems, we will show you some insider tips that the top head hunters around the world use.

There will be videos, articles and infographics to highlight all the latest trends with Linkedin as well as regular newsletters just in case you missed an article or two during the month.

So check back soon and we look forward to guiding through Linkedin and turning you into a true power user.

All the best.