Introduction
LinkedIn is a social networking site that operates in an industry characterized by high levels of competition. However, in the past years of operation, the company has maintained a steady and stable growth in not only its revenue collection, but also on its size of society served. The current operational strategy of LinkedIn, as a company, is good enough to sustain its existence in the market. However, following the growth of the industry and rapid rise in internet technology, LinkedIn requires a set of new strategies that can be incorporated in the system. It’s worth noting that other social media sites are working day and night develop new competitive skills. As a matter of fact, the industry is dominated by multinational companies who are highly equipped with knowledge on the latest technology and applying the technology effectively and on time. For this reason, LinkedIn stands a very little chance of enjoying any technological advantage and, on the other hand, a slight retardation in implementing technology would be used by the competitors to let the company down (Walsleben, 2012). As the CEO, of the company, I have set several strategies that will see LinkedIn not only at the top of the list in m social sites, but also continue expanding its operations, as well as revenue and net earnings. All this is to be achieved through the major sources of revenue accruing to the company at the moment, i.e., hiring solutions, marketing solutions and premium subscriptions.
Increased manpower
Chinese market
The US internet marketing is facing several challenges that are turning the progress in social media to take a different look. The magnitude of growth portrayed by LinkedIn has been reducing with its stock value fluctuating despite the fact that they are higher than the projected ones. This can be attributed to high competition levels in the country. To curb this, my management aims at venturing into the Chinese market. China is a fast growing economy backed up with a high population. Given that a high number of users work to the advantage of the company. Getting fully in the Chinese market is an important growth strategy. Moreover, LinkedIn aims at addressing almost all jobs that are available in their systems and china is seen to have a high capacity of employees and job seekers following its advancement in education and skills. For this reason, the company has sets plans to establish a joint venture in china. As a matter of fact, china will only be the starting point from where more other ventures will be established in other potential countries, and, mostly developing countries. As mentioned earlier, china was chosen as a kickoff point due to its high population backed up by high economic growth rate. Moreover, china has a considerable number of LinkedIn users, tabulated to be about 4 million.
Mobile users
Of late, mobile browsing has become more prominent relative to use of computers to access the internet. Social media hasn’t been left out to accommodate this change. Other competitors have had invested a lot in mobile networking in order to capture the millions of users. The fear in this investment is that, returns from mobile networking are estimated to very low with many companies not revealing their mobile phone revenues. However, a well-planned mobile operation can easily triple revenues of social networking company such as linked in, especially if the company focuses more on long run returns. My management has noticed that LinkedIn has had been involved in offering mobile networking services. We wish to improve on an already established platform and make as attractive to customers as possible. This will be accomplished based on the fact that, one of the key goals of the business is to reach as many users as possible.
At the outset, was the change of mobile view of linked to a new design that is simple and requires fewer data to run. This was set back in 2011 and has been operating well enabling users of any mobile phones ranking from the GPRS enables mobile phones to smartphone users to access linked in a simpler manner (Walsleben 2012). Following this invention, which has also been taken by other social network service providers, my management ought to improve on it by introducing new features that will keep mobile experience with LinkedIn very encouraging. Moreover, in addition to the key aspects of LinkedIn mobile interface, the mobile phone will also be able to give and accept an endorsement that fully allows the user to control his/her professional reputation.
Following increase in demand for smartphones and iPads, LinkedIn projects that, within a couple of months its total traffic would halfway come from mobile users. Already, in some countries, mostly in developing countries such as china, Russia amongst others, 50 percent traffic has already been achieved. For this reason, my management aims at improving the already existing smartphone application by equipping new features that will not only increase efficiency, but also attract more users. Some of the applications that are already established by LinkedIn include flagship application and the publishing –focused pulse. The above applications give the user an easier time in browsing over favorite items his/her LinkedIn profile. , my management is working on setting a standalone contacts application which will be specifically meant for business people who always carry heavy duties in LinkedIn. The application is to be simplified in a manner that it will fit in all smartphones and at the same time include all sections that are essential to these business people. A very important feature that ought to be included in this application is the recruiter experience. Additionally, it’s worth noting that an iPad application has been in operation since 2012 and has been fully performing extraordinarily. However, research has shown that this application is complex and thus my management aims at simplifying it as well as personalizing and designing it in a better way to make it more appealing to users. To enhance a higher reach of users, all these applications are deemed to be free and availed in major application stores such iTunes App store, Androids play store among others.
Nonwhite-collar positions
As noted earlier, LinkedIn generates its revenue from hiring solutions, marketing solutions and premium subscriptions. It has been noted that the first the first source of revenue, which also happens to contribute the highest percentage, has been, marginalized t white collar jobs. In efforts to reach a high number of users, we plan to incorporate the blue color officers such as laborers and other people who have specialized in business ventures. This follows the incorporation of small and medium services which were set two years ago. It has come to our concern that, demand for casual laborers has been high especially in the developed nations where most citizens strive to get white collar positions. Therefore, by incorporating non-white color section in our platform we would not only attract more users but also increase hiring solutions. As a matter of fact, creating the section is simple, and requires little effort in creating its awareness that in turn reduces the time span required to start realizing revenues from the project.
Acquisitions
Social sites industry experiences a highly competitive environment which is majorly worsened by the existence of major multinational companies. Although LinkedIn is one of the most prosperous companies in the industry, a slight competitive disadvantage can see the company fall drastically. It’s for this reason that, linked in is tries to acquire smaller businesses who venture in t its line of business. The main reason behind acquisition is to reduce competition. Additionally, the acquired institution adds some technicalities that can enhance performance to the main institution. LinkedIn, therefore, has put forth acquisition of smaller firms in acting in its line of operation as major growth strategy (Frier, 2014). To start with the company is aiming at acquiring data-savvy job search that goes for the domain bright.com by the end of the first quarter of this year. This won’t be the first LinkedIn’s acquisition as some others have been made such as Rapportive in 2012, Slideshare and pulse. Moreover, after the completion of this deal, that is planned to cost the company about $120 million, distributed among stock and cash, more acquisitions might be considered. A good example that our management has in mind is identified.com that specializes in recruiting. Bright.com has been given prioritized due to its rapid growth as well as including features such as advanced job and job-seeker matching, a feature that lacks in its competitors. For this reason, the management finds that acquiring its engineers will also benefit t LinkedIn company skill wise.
In a nutshell, it’s worth noting that LinkedIn is at a better apposition at the moment, but a slight relaxation in management development goals would not only retard the company’s progress but also give a go through to the competitors. My management is ready and works closely with experts to maintain a steady growth of individuals.
References
Ken Walsleben (2012). Strategic & Entrepreneurial Managment . New York: Syracuse University.
Carter, B. (2013). LinkedIn for business: How advertisers, marketers, and salespeople get leads, sales, and profits from LinkedIn. Indianapolis, Ind: Que Pub.
Frier, S. (2014, February 8). LinkedIn’s Sales Forecast Trails Estimates on Slow Growth - Bloomberg. Retrieved March 3, 2014, from http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-02-06/linkedin-forecasts-sales-that-may-trail-estimates.html
