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LinkedIn Restricts API Usage
mpicpp points out LinkedIn's new API policy. "LinkedIn is restricting access to most of its application programming interfaces (APIs) to companies that have struck up partnerships with the social networking company. 'Over the past several years, we've seen some exciting applications from our developer community. While many delivered value back to our members and LinkedIn, not all have,' wrote Adam Trachtenberg, director of the LinkedIn developer network, explaining in a blog post the change in the company's API policy. Starting May 12, LinkedIn will only offer a handful of its APIs for general use, namely those that allow users and companies to post information about themselves on the service. After then, only companies that have enrolled in LinkedIn's partner program will have API access. Samsung, WeChat, and Evernote have already struck such partnerships. Currently, the social networking service offers a wide range of APIs, which allow third-party programs to draw content from, and place content into, LinkedIn. APIs have been seen as an additional channel for businesses to interact with their users and partners. A few companies, however, have recently scaled back access to APIs, which provide the programmatic ability to access a company's services and data. Netflix shut its public API channel in November, preferring to channel its user information through a small number of partners. ESPN also disabled public access to its APIs in December. LinkedIn's move is evidence of how the business use of APIs are evolving, said John Musser, founder and CEO at API Science, which offers an API performance testing service."
I do, and I'm no manager (thank god). It's a fairly useful tool to get updates on job changes and anniversaries of friends and colleagues, and to stay in touch; in other words: "Facebook for work". My more active relations often post useful work-related articles or events on LinkedIn. And it's proven to be a very useful tool to get in touch with people at other companies with whom I have no prior relations. Faster and more effective than cold calling the receptionist (it helps when I represent a company with a name that generally opens doors).
It's not just for managers, in fact, line managers are generally the least active contacts on LinkedIn. Unsurprisingly it seems to offer the most value to people who have to network a lot: account managers, entrepreneurs, but also consultants, freelancers, etc.
If construction was anything like programming, an incorrectly fitted lock would bring down the entire building...
LinkedIn has 2 main income streams. The first is by selling job ads to employers. These are relatively expensive (compared to other job boards) costing $250+
The other is recurring subscriptions which give you additional features. A base account can only "see" 3rd degree connections when doing a search. When you purchase a premium account you are able to get access to the entirety of linkedin's network. This is a huge difference if you are searching for a particular skill set or position.
The other is InMails. These are direct messages that you can send directly to another user without being connected to them. Until January this year LinkedIn guaranteed a response in 7 days or you got your inmail credit back. Now they have flipped it so you get a credit back if you get a response.
A full subscription account costs c$1000 a month. It tends to be used by recruiters and internal HR people the most.
As a general rule of thumb about 40% of the workforce has a linkedin account. Depending on the industry it can be as low as 10% (hospitality) or as high as 90% (marketing). If you are in an outward facing role you will tend to have a linkedin profile.
Currently linkedin has about 330 million accounts, 100 million or so in the US.
So, Linkedin usage has an inverse correlation with job utility.