Are LinkedIn Events eventful?

LinkedIn (LI) Events is Meetup for LinkedIn members. It’s been around for over two years now.  What do you think of it? Have you found it valuable? What tips or other uses have you found?

I’ve used LI Events a few times for DallasBlue events. I’ve found it useful for supplementary marketing and services and have added it to my regular event operations. My review and comments are below.

Weak features:

• Primary event listing. Don’t have a web page? LI Events allows you to publish the basic facts, including a link to a web site.  The listing does not provide payment or formal registration.  It’s OK for a simple and free get-together.  It’s adequate for a secondary listing.  But it’s not a selling or registration service.  I don’t recommend it as the primary home for a professional or corporate event.

• LinkedIn community promotion. I’ve seen little evidence that business members turn to LI Events to find a new seminar or business event.  You might attract a few people.  But don’t count on it to fill your meeting.

• Branding. There is little you can do to brand your meeting on LI Events.  The event is associated with your personal profile. You can’t provide a logo, HTML, or otherwise format your listing and description.  Your organization is a single non-descript line in the event overview.  LI provides a custom URL with the event name.  But that is quite long.  Use bit.ly or your favorite url shortener.

Recommended use:

• Contact marketing. LinkedIn makes it easy to invite your connections. The event will also show up in LinkedIn updates on the home page and in email for your LinkedIn buddies.  LinkedIn messaging restrictions apply. You can only invite current connections and send to a maximum of 200 people at a time, which can only be filtered by metro area and industry.  Don’t rely solely on LI Events for your marketing. But it definitely should be a part of your outreach.

• Social communications. LI Events supports comments.  It’s limited compared to LinkedIn group discussions.  Still, it’s a useful real-time and social way to publish event announcements and updates, receive and answer questions, and allow other comments and suggestions. My normal event publishing doesn’t provide this functionality.  I’ve found LI Events to be a nice supplemental resource.

• Online event networking. I’ve been looking for several years for a free service outside Meetup that allows invitees and attendees to look up one another before an event to see who’s coming, plan personal meetings, and initiate contact, as well as to follow up afterward. Only people who RSVP in advance on LinkedIn will be listed in the LI Event, just a subset of actual attendees. So it’s far from a complete solution.  Similar to Event communications, I don’t have a solution for online event networking and so find this to be a helpful, albeit limited, feature.

Be sure to actively promote the LI Events event URL for communications and networking everywhere you list the event – your main event web page, your newsletter, all event marketing pieces, and all registrant messages.

LinkedIn culture jabs users

Jason Alba writes a nice piece detailing LinkedIn’s latest user jab in LinkedIn Free Level Losing Steam as LinkedIn Jumps The Shark. Some users no longer see the full names of 3rd degree connections and out of network LinkedIn members. It’s another in a long line of LinkedIn tactics that limit or restrict their users.

LinkedIn has been implementing this new limitation in stages or according to some magic algorithm.  I had this reported to me a few weeks ago.  But I still see full names in my own free account.

I agree with Jason that this change is important, akin to jumping the shark.  LinkedIn’s robust freemium strategy has been a key ingredient in their success, leading to a dominant market share and 75 million users.  The ability to search and view user names is an industry common feature.  Removing it places LinkedIn at a competitive disadvantage.

It will open the door wider for other networks or services that target the LinkedIn user base.  However LinkedIn’s commanding industry presence puts it in a monopoly position.  This is one area where they don’t have to worry about Facebook.  Users have no place to go.  They are not going to suddenly flee to much smaller business networks like Ecademy, Xing, or Viadeo. Lastly, there has been surprisingly little innovation in this space.

The limitation is expressly designed to motivate more users to pay for the service.  Speculation has been that squeezing users is a strategic move to dress up the income statement in preparation for an IPO.

This is likely accurate. Why else would LinkedIn intentionally downgrade their service?  However it’s certainly not necessary.  The company has claimed that’s it’s been quite profitable for the last few years.   Plus LinkedIn has been rumored to in acquisition/IPO play for at least three years now.

In the end it comes down to corporate culture.  LinkedIn is not a tech-driven company like Google.  It does not delight in new and innovative products and features.  LinkedIn has been and continues to be run by and for venture capitalists.  After several years they’re itchy (yet again) for that multi-billion dollar home run exit.  The only surprise is that they rode the free side of the wave for as long as they did.

Share This – LinkedIn continues to lust after Facebook

LinkedIn continues its derivative copycat strategy with Share This (TechCrunch article).  As a corporate strategy, LI has to be “like” Facebook to defend its turf from FB juggernaut incursion.  As a marketing strategy, deeper integration with the online world builds LI’s brand and reaches a larger audience that can be converted to users and paying subs.

But let’s be clear.  It’s NOT a product strategy.  As LI focuses on marketing and other frills, it continues to neglect the core networking product that is little changed, and in fact is continually restricted, over the years, an area where LI feels little heat from users, competitors, or investors.