A couple of months ago I decided to start a survey on peoples use of LinkedIn, and especially how important a good profile is. I really wasn’t sure how many responses I would get, or what they would tell me, but I was definitely surprised, in a good way! To begin with, it just shows the power of social media that using just 3 tools, (LinkedIn, Twitter and the 4Networking forum) I received 100 responses in 2 weeks!

Initially, this was going to be for my own use as an internal marketing tool, however the response I got from people made me decide to produce a report on the findings. You can download the full report by signing up on the right of this page, however here is a quick summary for you!

Of the 100 respondents, 82% use LinkedIn as a search engine to find suppliers or other businesses, and 86% say that a limited profile will have an effect on their purchasing decision.

A staggering 98% use LinkedIn to refer people on to others, and only 14% would refer you on if you have a limited profile.

Now of course, it is down to interpretation what a ‘limited’ profile is, but what it is saying is that its important to be as good as it can be!

Responses from a question around frustrations with the system really highlighted a need for better education around how to use LinkedIn to its fulll potential. There is a lot of confusion around what settings are standard LinkedIn settings, and which are peoples individual profile settings.

If you haven’t already taken part and would like to would like to, Click here to take survey. I will keep it open and continue to update the results.

I hope you find the results as useful and interesting as I have. Please download the full report, let me know your thoughts below, and also if the results will have an impact on the way you use LinkedIn.