LinkedIn's Irish users attract advertising interest

BUSINESS-FOCUSED SOCIAL network LinkedIn now has more than 550,000 users in Ireland and is increasingly being used for a variety of purposes other than simply hosting an online CV, according to one of its European sales directors.

Frederik Bernsel, sales director for LinkedIn’s partners in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, says five million people are signing up for the network every month, which now has more than 120 million users worldwide.

People are increasingly using the site as a “virtual Rolodex” says Mr Bernsel, “but one that stays alive and changes as people change job”.

In keeping with that move to business networking on the site, LinkedIn has experienced a marked increase in the use of groups which are formed around specific companies or common interests and which can be open to the public or invitation-only.

Mr Bernsel says LinkedIn is also becoming a news source, both through links posted by contacts which appear in the Updates section of the site and with the new LinkedIn Today feature which displays news relevant to a user’s interests.

London-based Mr Bernsel was in Dublin recently to talk to advertisers who want to use the site. “A lot of publishers talk about targeting, but in a lot of cases it’s implied,” he said.

“On LinkedIn we know exactly who we are displaying ads to.”

Digital ad agency Ad2One is LinkedIn’s partner for display advertising in Ireland and has seen most interest in using the site from car, financial services, telecoms and consumer goods firms.

Mr Bernsel said LinkedIn has a range of other features that companies can use to make their use of advertising more effective, such as polls, company pages and groups.

He gives the example of British Airways, which ran a poll on the site asking users what was important to them when flying business class.

“It looks like an ad and its targeted to users, but it’s an interesting format because it uses the power of social media,” said Mr Bernsel. “If I take the survey it comes up in my newsfeed, so others in my network see it.”

Founded in Silicon Valley in 2002, LinkedIn floated in New York last May and generated revenues of $121 million (€87.8 million) in the three months to the end of June last.