LinkedIndia
I’ve been waiting for a while to use that headline in a blog post ;) Recently, we reached a great milestone in our business – 1 million members in India. Between those of us at LinkedIn who are from India originally (including our very own Blogger-In-Chief Mario Sundar), and those of us who spend time there, there are a lot of us who are both personally and professionally excited about this achievement.
But we can’t take all the credit – it’s the enthusiasm and success of our members that has driven this growth.
When I was in Delhi recently, I sat down with one member, Ajay Jain, an author, journalist, blogger, and enthusiastic LinkedIn user to ask him how LinkedIn has made a difference in his career. Here’s what he said:
LinkedIn has actually enabled me to move from being just a journalist and blogger to being an author and publisher too. And the site has proven to be just the right marketing platform too for all my work. I wrote my book after extensively interviewing and interacting with LinkedIn users. I use LinkedIn Answers to get additional inputs for any newspaper columns and blogs posts I write. All this has enabled me to enhance my brand equity in many ways giving me visibility and introductions to valued people who I would otherwise have never known about. LinkedIn is working for me. All I am doing is following my own advice in my book.
But we know that there are thousands of more member stories out there. I posted a question on Answers yesterday to find more successes:
We’ve already gotten some great answers, and we’d love to have more – feel free to post your own story on Answers, or on this blog.
Our million member milestone is good news for our members outside of India, too – in an increasingly global economy, LinkedIn continues to expand in markets around the world, and in a very big way. With over 24 million members representing every country you can think of, we’re the world’s largest and most powerful online professional network.
What does this mean for you? Unparalleled opportunities to accelerate your own professional success, by building relationships and exchanging knowledge, opportunities and advice– across town, or across the ocean. Looking for a marketer in Mumbai? A supplier in Sao Paulo? An answer from Amsterdam? We’ve got you covered.
We here at LinkedIn will be celebrating our million Indian members with a small celebration – watch for photos on our Flickr stream next week. But more importantly, we want to offer up a big THANK YOU to our current and future Indian members – and to the members around the world who invited them.
trackback
http://blog.linkedin.com/2008/06/26/linkedindia/trackback/
Atul Arora June 26th, 2008
Also, according to google trends for websites, India drives the second most unique visitors after United States to LinkedIn
http://trends.google.com/websites?q=linkedin.com&geo=all&date=all&sort=0
Carole Low June 26th, 2008
Congratulations, I can hardly wait to see what other regions that you dive into! That’s inspiring!
A bit off topic:
I’m looking into ways for a U.S. B2B company to be successful in marketing efforts aimed towards businesses in India, so this coincidental timing is excellent! However, I only found an option to chose “internationalization” or “marketing” and not a hybrid like international marketing. Any suggestions?
Thanks in advance!
namrata June 29th, 2008
hi,i feel thrilled in being connnected to so many people whom i know /dont know. i can even share the work i am doing in the field of medicine and surgery and may those who require benefit from it .jai gurudev.
Gautam June 30th, 2008
Why doesn’t Linkedin own the Linked.in India specific domain?
Deepak July 1st, 2008
Hi Liz,
Would be curious to know the numbers Linkedin is doing in China as well?
Deepak
Brian Douglas July 3rd, 2008
I am new to Linkedin, and excited about the “India” buzz. In my heart lies the spirit of the Indian culture(s). I would love to find a company where I could utilize my expertise to grow and manage their business/vendor base in India. I am open to regular travel or relocation.
Liz O'Donnell July 3rd, 2008
@ Carole: I presume you’re referring to Answers? I’ve passed on your feedback to the group who takes care of Answers here. We periodically add categories on an as-needed basis, so your feedback is welcome.
In the meantime, when using Answers, I’d suggest using the general marketing category, as the Internationalization category tends to have more of a technical bent.
@ Gautam: thanks for the suggestion! we should definitely look into that
@ Deepak: Generally speaking, we don’t talk about member numbers on a per-country basis. We do occasionally make exceptions for significant milestones such as this one for India, which remains our largest country in the Asia Pacific region. When we reach a million members in China, I’m sure we’ll let everyone know!
@ all:
Thanks so much for your comments, both here and on Answers!
Liz O'Donnell July 3rd, 2008
@ Carole: I presume you’re referring to Answers? I’ve passed on your feedback to the group who takes care of Answers here. We periodically add categories on an as-needed basis, so your feedback is welcome.
In the meantime, when using Answers, I’d suggest using the general marketing category, as the Internationalization category tends to have more of a technical bent.
@ Gautam: thanks for the suggestion! we should definitely look into that
@ Deepak: Generally speaking, we don’t talk about member numbers on a per-country basis. We do occasionally make exceptions for significant milestones such as this one for India, which remains our largest country in the Asia Pacific region. When we reach a million members in China, I’m sure we’ll let everyone know!
@ all:
Thanks so much for your comments, both here and on Answers!
Rajesh Dhuddu, PMP, COP July 6th, 2008
Hi
I am writing this in response to the question, “Indian Linkedin members, How do you use Linked In?”.
This question not only made me think, “How do I use Linkedin to identify good practices by me if any?”, but also helped me come across some requirements and ideas.
I am not sure whether these currently exist even in Premium account (I used premium membership for 3+ months). If they exist, please help me in using them
1) Expanding Network – My job demands meeting several people all over the globe as I work for a KPO / BPO firm. After meeting, I generally consolidate the business cards and look them up on Linkedin. If I find them, I send them a note thanking for the meeting, at times summarizing key points we discussed all in the Linkedin invite to join my network and stay connected.
Requirements & Ideas
If you find the profile, it is easy to add the person into your network.
However, when more and more people join your network, it is very difficult to track and at times identify them. To avoid this, it will be helpful to create a remarks column against the name of the individual. I rather prefer to call them as, “Li-mark a shortened form for Linkedin remark”.
This should facilitate the user to add Li-mark such as, “Met the person in a xyz event on mm/dd/yy and planned a particular activity as a follow up”. Basically, Li-mark should accommodate free text for user to enter whatever s/he likes to add to the contact.
Now, there are cases where I do not find the profiles of certain individuals whom I met, as they are yet to open an account. In such cases, I send an invite to the person and depending on the need to be connected, I motivate the individual to open a Linkedin account.
I think, if there is any reward program it may help in more people signing up for Linkedin. For eg, a person inviting another person to open an Linkedin account can accumulate some points, once the person joins which can be used to upgrade the account from basic to premium
2) Communicating Updates – When I accomplish something, I update my profile on Linked-In. This is helpful as it gets reflected in the network updates section which will get picked up by my network and also recruiters if they are tracking me.
Requirements & Ideas
If there are several people in a network, the updates kind of get lost in the clutter of so many other updates. In such a scenario, having a feature like prioritizing updates depending on importance of a particular contact will be helpful. Priority can be assigned if the user has included certain network contacts in the tracking list.
If you find these useful, I would love to share more ideas on a regular basis. Let me know if there is an innovation club that you run to obtain inputs for Product Development on a continuous basis.
Manoj Samuel July 8th, 2008
Great job Linkedin. We are happy to know that you are growing at such a fast pace. Wish you all luck. You should soon hit the 2M mark. I love your product.
Aravindan Umashankar July 14th, 2008
The world wide web has fostered the growth of an individual. The Brand “YOU” as the next biggest agenda as envisioned by Tom Peters has really gotten the biggest impetus in the form of linkedin.
May be i have a distinct bias because of my expereince , by i do not find anyother social networking site more engaging to a Generation X than linkedin. Orkut,Facebook et al may be tracking sticky eyeballs from the Generation Y and Gen Z but a serious amout of rich and meaningful interactions gets transacted out here at linkedin.
It is quite impossible to maintain sanctity in the www pas the forces out there are myraid and multiple in varied contexts. Yet linked in has been able to harness the DNA of the likeminded people to rein in the rumblings of the wilderness which is quite prominent on the web.
India i believe mainly due to the vast pools of english intellects and children of the new information economy will drive growth for web majors world wide. The unprecedented ramp up to a fast million users at linkedin is a testimony. In another era it would have taken a few decade to achieve this kind of patronage.
Now having gotten here what do we have to do to get there:
There is a world which is waiting to make a meaning ful contribution to this august company of a million protagninists. Spell out a few agendas for them as i am sure they will agree :
Build a leadership by unsing this community to enable :
A green world ahead of us.
A pluralistic world tolerant to the many diffrences those in many way enrich our existance in the planet.
A world enabling welfare and wellbeing across all continents.
An inclusive world accomdating the many myraid diversities in our society.
Above all spread peace, prosperity and share wealth irrespective of who one is !!
Deepak July 5th, 2009
Is it possible to attached some more applications to Linkedin the way its done on Facebook?
Interactivity of Facebook is something which allows users to connect faster. I guess Linkedin is focussing on creating membership upgrades and that something which is limiting its growth and popularity.
Deepak Motiramani September 19th, 2009
Here is my own study on Linkedin. On my previous comment about comparison on facebook and linkedin, i can’t stop using both of them. Facebook more for personal use and Linkedin for Professional.
Following are benefits of Linkedin for Professional use.
1. Networking: Linkedin provides to connect with rigt connections and not just anybody. Its more targetted and search really helps to narrow down to right contact. Advanced Search feature in Business Account helps connect with right networking opportunities.
2. Acceptability in Corporate:
Companies are understanding the value of professional networking and are allowing employees to access business opportunities of lead generation and spotting talent.
3. Recommendations:
Professional recommendations over the years build a reputation and helps in personal branding.
4. Application Integration
Business related applications like slideshare and tripit are useful and help in powered networking to inform connection about travel and presentations.
5. Groups
These are targetted groups available for business domain specific contacts, news, discussions etc.
Looking forward to more localized networking with Linkedin.
Deepak Motiramani
Dirk Frey September 29th, 2009
@ Deepak- Thanks for your insights about the site. We are all very excited about our membership growth in India.