As a result of membership growth, increased user engagement and other positive signs, Goldman Sachs’ Heath Terry has upgraded LinkedIn’s rating from “neutral” to “buy.”
The firm has also raised LinkedIn’s price target to $135/share, a declaration that the stock offers “47 percent upside,” according to Business Insider’s Joe Weisenthal.
A number of promising indicators contributed to the increased rating, including:
- Increased membership. LinkedIn neared 150 million registered users at the end of 2011, a 60 percent growth. Since February, Weisenthal reports that LinkedIn has registered more than 150 million users.
- International growth is strong, and the potential for increased growth remains sizable.
- LinkedIn’s newer features like Mobile, Groups and Today are showing a high level of user engagement, which indicates the site is on the right track in terms of delivering features that users want.
Additionally, Weisenthal reports that “Goldman’s own proprietary checks are showing strong enterprise adoption. Recruiters love the product, which is cheaper than competitive offerings.”
So what does LinkedIn’s upgraded rating mean for you? If you’re not already on LinkedIn, now’s the time to register for this powerful professional network. Regardless of whether or not you’re looking for a job, LinkedIn offers a number of features and capabilities that help you grow your professional network, learn more about your industry and give you the upper hand when it comes to new business development and lead generation.
More and more recruiters are turning to LinkedIn, too, meaning that if you’re looking for a job and aren’t on LinkedIn, you might be missing the boat in terms of creating valuable connections and learning about prospective job opportunities.
But make no mistake–it’s not just recruiters who are using the powerful social networking site. LinkedIn is the source of a large number of business leads for us – and for our clients, and it’s a huge part of our inbound marketing strategy.
We’ve long been fans of LinkedIn—aside from using it ourselves, we offer corporate LinkedIn training for our clients. LinkedIn is not only valuable for recruiting, network and new business development, it’s really becoming an extension of a brand’s overall corporate digital presence. We predict that in the coming months a LinkedIn company page will become as ubiquitous as a Facebook business or brand page. What does your LinkedIn company page and/or overall brand presence on LinkedIn look like? Maybe it’s time to give that a second thought.
Congratulations, LinkedIn. We expect that this is just the start of good news to come in 2012.
Image via CNBC
Shelly Kramer is a Principal Analyst and Founding Partner at Futurum Research. A serial entrepreneur with a technology centric focus, she has worked alongside some of the world’s largest brands to embrace disruption and spur innovation, understand and address the realities of the connected customer, and help navigate the process of digital transformation. She brings 20 years’ experience as a brand strategist to her work at Futurum, and has deep experience helping global companies with marketing challenges, GTM strategies, messaging develoment, and driving strategy and digital transformation for B2B brands across multiple verticals. Shelly’s coverage areas include Collaboration/CX/SaaS, platforms, ESG, and Cybersecurity, as well as topics and trends related to the Future of Work, the transformation of the workplace and how people and technology are driving that transformation. A transplanted New Yorker, she has learned to love life in the Midwest, and has firsthand experience that some of the most innovative minds and most successful companies in the world also happen to live in “flyover country.”
