LinkedIn’s pot of gold?

Posted by Harry Hayward on
Tuesday, October 28th, 2008 at 2:06 pm

Advertising Age is reporting on LinkedIn’s efforts to create revenue by offering it’s network of members as a massive research sample. An interesting idea on a number of fronts – easy to segment the LinkedIn membership by their profiles; members see the value of surveys in their own work and the beta tests have achieved relatively high open rates, and LinkedIn members tend to be who they claim to be, thus adding to the credibility of results.

LinkedIn is also aware of the danger of over surveying and has placed limitations on the number and type of surveys they will allow.  Good news for those really tired of popups!  And, they are offering a variety of rewards as incentives to complete the survey.  Offers range from  gift cards to charitable donations.  While the company reports that this stream may produce substantial revenue, they are also relying on advertising as a major revenue generator.

The article also points to a real fount of information on digital media advertising and research – the Advertising Research Foundation.