LinkedIn implementing Online Dating sites tactics
Following the improvement made to the My Connection page, LinkedIn came out with two new features:
- Premium Featured Members
- Who’s Viewed My Profile (full story here)
Both features have been around for a long time on Online Dating sites and serve as baits for non-paying members to buy premium memberships. I think this is a smart move that will probably have strong impact on the number of new premium members.
Now all LinkedIn has to do is add the ability to upload photos and potentially an Instant Message and become the elite online dating site for professionals.
LinkedIn also came out recently with better ways to find people who are not necessarily in your connection list. On the search results page, just above the list of names, a new section was added with suggested searches:
- Current employees of a company
- Execs at a company will list all Partners, Chiefs, VPs, and Directors in a company. I am sure that personal financial advisers & life insurance agents would love this new tool.
- “Similar Searches” is very interesting. I am still not clear on the relevance algo and how they come up with those suggestions (search routes of the masses?), but the results can certainly help someone who is interested in finding leads into companies who operate in the same category/industry.
