10 Business Lessons From LinkedIn

2. • The huge amount of data that is available about LinkedIn users is the sites hidden asset Many businesses have hidden assets that could create a whole new stream of income Often these opportunities are found amongst the customers that you already have not the ones that you want to acquire 1 • •

3. • In 2013 LinkedIn decided to remove its Answers section from the site. This was a well known part of the site where users could pose and answer each others question. While the answers section of the site was well known it was not well used by members. LinkedIn removed the function rather than allow it to distract them from their core focus. • 2 • •

4. • One of Reid Hoffman’s guiding philosophies when looking for business opportunities is to go big. As he has noted whether you are working on a small business or a big business you still have to do roughly the same amount of work so you may as well go for the biggest opportunities. LinkedIn sought to dominate the online networking space for business professionals and it has managed to achieve this. • 3 •

5. • To have a successful social networking LinkedIn needed to have a deeper level of engagement with its users. To achieve this it added functions which would draw users back on a regular basis. To do this it made the site more social and content driven by adding in functions such as LinkedIn groups. 4 • •

6. • CEO LinkedIn Hoffman has coined a phrase which he calls being “flexibly persistent”. The digital world that LinkedIn operates in, changes so rapidly that being too fixed in your goals does not provide the flexibility to succeed. At the same time if you don’t have a sense of where you are going and you aren’t persistent then you won’t achieve much either. • 5 •

7. • Reid Hoffman looks for opportunities to disrupt existing industries. He is not looking to simply improve a business or product slightly. Instead he wants to completely disrupt the status quo. By doing so he is able to become a market leader in this space. LinkedIn achieved exactly that by becoming a whole new way to manage your professional network and your career. • 6 • •

8. • The first social networking sites such as Friendster and MySpace focused on appearing sexy and fun. LinkedIn on the other hand was entering a traditionally boring space. However as we have seen LinkedIn is one of the only social networking sites that has not only survived but has even thrived. Sometimes the best opportunities are not with those that on the outside look the most interesting. • 7 • •

9. • In the early days of social networking, it was believed that people would use them primarily for activities such as dating. However that presented a problem because users would either find someone and leave the network or they would become frustrated and give up. The model guaranteed a high churn rate in users. LinkedIn instead focused on a model which would allow them to retain its users for the long term. • 8 •

10. • Hoffman perceives the idea of good luck a little differently to many people. When most people think of good luck it is something going well for them or their business succeeding. Hoffman instead says that good luck is being presented with an excellent opportunity that you can then pursue. That opportunity is the good luck but it is still up to you to do something with it. • 9 •

11. • Itwas Reid Hoffman’s own network that played a crucial role in the success of LinkedIn. As part of the “PayPal Mafia” he had access to capital and talent that would allow LinkedIn to capture the entire online business networking space. Whether you’re just starting out as an entrepreneur or you have a few wins under your belt, your network will be invaluable to your success. • 10 •