The Portrait of a Linkedin User

The 2014 Breitbarth Annual LinkedIn overview was recently conducted, providing interesting information regarding the use of LinkedIn by professionals across the country. The overview found that many people use the site in an interesting fashion and some simply aren’t sure how they use the site. For the most part, those who have a LinkedIn account spend approximately 3 hours per week on the site. They use it to make connections, to update their information and to correspond with others.

In addition, the overview found that most people use the site on a free basis. In fact, 81 percent of LinkedIn account members use the free version compared to only 18 percent who pay for their accounts. Another 1 percent has no idea if they pay for their account or not. Other key findings include the visibility of a person’s connections. Just over 64 percent of users allow connections to see the people in their LinkedIn network versus just over 12 percent who do not all this. The other almost 23 percent of users are not sure whether they do or not.

While the average amount of time users spend on LinkedIn is approximately three hours per week, that’s only 43 percent of users. Another 26 percent of users spend approximately three to four hours on the site each week and 30 percent spend five or more hours logged onto LinkedIn each week. What these users find most helpful is the “Who’s Viewed Your Profile” option, followed by the “People You May Know” option, while 50 percent of users find it helpful to be able to directly contact their first-level connections.

For the most part, the study continues to show that users find LinkedIn a helpful resource. Approximately 36 percent of users state that the social network allows them to further expand their connections and contacts to aid their business, while only one percent do not find it useful or helpful at all.

(Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)