Digital Marketing and Technological Insight

LinkedIn, the business social networking service, has decided to join Facebook in letting developers build applications for its site. The goal is to make the site more interactive and drive increased traffic - especially returning traffic. Opening up for developers is the biggest move LinkedIn is making but not the only one. LinkedIn is in the process of launching a beta version of a new home page, which includes expanded news and information relevant to the user. “When we look forward to 2008, we see people and professionals more and more going beyond the connections and actually using LinkedIn to make themselves more productive on a daily basis.” Adam Nash, senior product director, said earlier.

I say great to this - in theory. LinkedIn is a tremendous business resource and one that I use quite often, but not for features or content. I use LinkedIn for what it is meant for, networking with former and current business associates. I spend enough time on sites and blogs getting all the information I need. I go to LinkedIn to either add contacts or see what my current contacts are up to. So I am sure developers will add some cool new applications but in the end I hope that LinkedIn does not lose focus on what they are and try to compete with larger social networking sites.

Here is a link to the announcement on the LinkedIn blog.

• LinkedIn To Open Up For Developers
• Targeted Social Networking Website LinkedIn.com Traffic Up 323% In Past Year
• Facebook Opens Application Directory to Search Engines