Friday Fact Box - LinkedIn
by Dianne Shelton on 2010/07/30
LinkedIn was first established in 2003 and to date has approximately 70 million users worldwide. As a huge fan of Social Media myself, I find LinkedIn useful for networking, sharing contacts and promoting your personal brand.
Last week I stumbled upon some interesting statistics on the usage of LinkedIn, and what made them so relevant is that they focus on the South African market. Mike Saunders recently did research on users of LinkedIn in South Africa and these are some of the key findings from the report:
From Mike Saunders – WOZA LinkedIn (2010)
- There are 660 000 registered LinkedIn users in South Africa.
- Of these users: 94 000 are in management positions, 50 000 are company directors, 75 000 are business owners and 26 000 are consultants.
- The top three industries for LinkedIn users are high technology (114 734 users), finance (100 187 users) and corporate (68 105 users).
You may also be interested to know what the age breakdown is of South African LinkedIn users:
- 18 – 24: 49 432
- 25 – 34: 104 800
- 35 – 54: 27 537T
This information is fantastic to know from a local perspective, but it is also interesting to see how South Africa compares on a worldwide level.
From the LinkedIn blog – Audience Profile (Summer 2009)
- The average age of LinkedIn users is 43 years.
- 77.6% are college or postgraduates.
- 6.2% are at a CEO level, 14.1% in senior management and 32.1% in middle management or above.
From Penn Olson – The State of LinkedIn (May 2010)
- 61% of LinkedIn users are male and 39% are female.
- The top three job fields for LinkedIn users are engineering (15%), sales (11%) and admin (9%).
Not quite as popular as other social networking tools such as Facebook and Twitter, yet LinkedIn usage continues to grow and more people are beginning to recognise its value for business and personal use every day.
Also check out:
- How Social Media Can Connect You With the Staff You Need
- Perception is Everything - 4 Tips for Personal Branding
