As an enterprise social network, LinkedIn is used by many professionals. In this context, what are the typical opportunities and challenges when it comes to dealing with large volumes of information?

LinkedIn has over 135 million members globally of which over 13 million are in India. Data generated by users creates plenty of opportunities for us, our members and brands. The opportunities far outweigh the challenges. The large volumes of data created on the back of cutting-edge technology and scalable infrastructure enables us to create solutions that benefit professionals and enterprises. As networks become more focused on audiences and consumers look for relevant and contextual information, this data enables us to enhance the entire usage experience. This kind of information will help brands target communication at professionals and gain insights from them.

How does LinkedIn use BI/analytics internally to boost its competitiveness?

Business insights and analysis is critical to what we deliver to brands and members in India. We have a very potent member base of professionals who are educated and many are in decision-making capacities. This makes LinkedIn an attractive platform to engage with professionals. How do we drive our competitiveness? By delivering value to enterprises and users. Because of profile data, tools like ‘People you may know,’ ‘Groups you may like,’ ‘Jobs you may be interested in,’ and our referral engine add value to how LinkedIn provides users with information relevant to them in a professional context.

Beyond this, our Marketing Solutions team helps brands create engagement opportunities with right audiences based on factors such as education, designation, location and so on. What’s more important is that outcomes from all these brand engagement activities are measurable thus giving insights into how consumers have reacted to their communication. Brands have used LinkedIn Company Pages, Groups and Polls. Some companies like American Express are using LinkedIn APIs to create engaging experiences with our members.

How can an enterprise use BI / analytics tools (Signal, Swarm) from LinkedIn?

All our tools were designed to provide insights about the professional sphere. Whether it is Groups, Answers or Polls, the quality of conversations there provides enterprises with insights and counsel on topics relevant to their business. Signal and Swarm are two new tools that provide a deeper level of insights to businesses and professionals.

LinkedIn Swarm visualizes LinkedIn’s most recent company and titles searches, jobs posted, blog entries and shares articles as a moving tag cloud. With more than 135 million members globally, visually depicting, interpreting and classifying the massive amount of data generated by humans is a massive challenge. The above example shows most searched companies in the IT job function on a particular day

LinkedIn Signal is making it easy for all professionals to glean only the most relevant insights from the never-ending stream of status updates and news within their network. In other words, Signal allows all professionals to derive value from the constant online conversations. If you want to visualize data generated on LinkedIn, then Swarm is the tool that can enable those insights. LinkedIn Swarm visualizes LinkedIn’s most recent company and titles searches, jobs posted, and blog entries.

To provide enterprises with more insights, ‘Company Pages’ have a number of tools that provide analysis. Enterprises use LinkedIn to track employee movements within their company through the ‘Follow Company’ tool and also map out employee backgrounds against their industry. Product Recommendations on Company Pages help businesses understand what professionals are discussing about their offerings. Analysis tools provide enterprises insights on where professionals live, where they come from, educational backgrounds, and common skills among other information.

The ‘Analytics’ tab gives access to details like page views, unique visitors, clicks and follower ecosystem. Given that this wealth of data is available for free, it is important that enterprises keep a track of conversations and results on various LinkedIn tools. Such insights can help enterprises take decisions, identify trends and deliver the best results to their clients or for their businesses.

What is the importance or significance of BI / analytics for your firm?

Data is a key aspect of what we do and features that the site provides. It also helps marketers and HR professionals to make the best use of LinkedIn. The insights and analysis derived out of our data continues to make LinkedIn a preferred platform for professionals, as well as brands and recruiters looking to engage with our audiences.

From an analytics perspective, what are the exciting developments that we can expect from LinkedIn?

Innovation is at the core of our business. It is important that we provide our members with solutions that continue to make them productive and successful. We have a strong talent pool and I am sure we will see many more tools that will benefit professionals.

As we move ahead, we will seek to make more use of data. At LinkedIn, features and development are both data driven. How our members use the website helps us understand how we can improve our offerings, create value and deliver a relevant service that will help make professionals productive and successful.