A high proportion of people I know use Facebook as their social network and LinkedIn as their business network. LinkedIn has executed well in capturing a massive audience of business users with over 300 million members, especially in North America which has approximately one third of the network’s members (with Europe quickly catching up). Having done so, it is well positioned to replicate what Facebook has done on the social side – capture business discussions. The question is how can they best do this? LinkedIn’s Influencer Series identifies the most influential voices on LinkedIn and invites them to allow LinkedIn to distribute their articles. The distribution goes to the LinkedIn feeds of people who have opted into seeing posts from each writer. However, the relatively small number of posts and limited distribution doesn’t drive the user value and uptick in page views that could be possible if LinkedIn is to own business discussion in the way that Facebook owns social discussion. Earlier this year LinkedIn recognized this opportunity and opened its Influencer programs to its wider member base with hopes that it would generate more engagement. The move came shortly after the company disclosed that page views declined for the second consecutive quarter.

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