There’s no better place to connect with business professionals than on LinkedIn. Here are the most up-to-date LinkedIn statistics for 2021.
LinkedIn statistics look a little different than they do for some of the other social networks. It’s not the biggest social network, or the one with the largest reach. Some of the numbers are smaller. At first glance, they may not seem as impressive for marketers looking to make a big impression.
But the 38 LinkedIn stats below prove that theory wrong. They show that this business-oriented network is in fact a must for marketers of both B2B and B2C products and services.
When you understand the ways both LinkedIn members and other brands use this network, you gain insights into how you can better incorporate LinkedIn into your social marketing plan for 2021.
Bonus: Download a free guide that shows the 11 tactics Hootsuite’s social media team used to grow their LinkedIn audience from 0 to 278,000 followers.
The network officially launched on May 5, 2003: nine months before Facebook launched at Harvard. LinkedIn is the oldest of the major social networks still in use today.
Those offices are located in more than 30 cities worldwide, including nine in the United States.
This allows many global users to access the network in their native language.
And 15% of all job applications in the U.S. went to remote jobs in November 2020. These LinkedIn stats capture how the way we work changed in 2020.
With more business decision makers and potential new hires working from home, online connections have become increasingly important for business this year.
73% of social media users at least somewhat agree that LinkedIn protects their privacy and data. Compare that to just 53% for Facebook.
To put that number in context, Instagram currently has 1 billion users, and Facebook has 2.74 billion. It’s not the largest of the social networks, but with a specific business focus, it’s an audience worth noticing.
Men significantly outnumber women on LinkedIn overall, but you’ll need to do some research to understand the makeup of your specific LinkedIn audience.
Note that LinkedIn does not report any genders other than male or female.
While the U.S. is LinkedIn’s biggest market at 174M users, the network has gained traction around the world.
LinkedIn’s members live in more than 200 countries. This includes 163 million users in Europe (including the UK), 196 million in Asia Pacific and 107 million in Latin America.
Source: LinkedIn
And 44% of all Internet users in Canada have an account on this social platform. That’s lower than Facebook (83%) and Instagram (51%), but higher than Twitter (42%) and Pinterest (40%).
Source: eMarketer
LinkedIn reports a total of 17 million users in Canada.
It’s not a surprise that more than half of LinkedIn users are in the age group that is starting and growing their careers. It’s a professional network, after all.
Source: Hootsuite & We Are Social
This is an important group for brands: 41% of older millennials—aged 26 to 35—have decision-making responsibilities.
The potential market for your product is always shifting. Ad targeting is good, but targeting your ads too narrowly means you miss out on potential future decision makers.
In fact, Gates often appears in the list of most engaging articles shared monthly in the LinkedIn Water Cooler Series. Yes, he benefits from name recognition. But he’s also known for tapping into the issues people care about right now.
Why should marketers care about Bill Gates’ success on LinkedIn? It’s a good opportunity to model success. Take a look at some of his content to see what you can learn from his approach.
If your company is hiring, your LinkedIn Page can be a key source of potential new employees.
When hiring managers can’t screen potential new hires in person, tools like LinkedIn are even more important. And 81% of talent professionals say that virtual recruiting will continue when the pandemic is over.
If that last LinkedIn stat didn’t convince you it’s worth having a solid presence on this network, this one should. Any company planning to hire new employees in 2021 needs a polished LinkedIn Page.
That’s a year-over-year calculation for Q1 of the 2021 fiscal year. With connections unable to meet in person, they’re messaging each other more than ever on this business social network.
Companies and individual LinkedIn members have ramped up their LinkedIn content to stay in touch with professional contacts and colleagues in this unprecedented year.
(Phew, we made it all the way to stat 16 before saying “unprecedented.”)
That’s a year-over-year calculation for October 2020.
LinkedIn Live launched in February 2019 but really took off during this year of finding alternate ways to connect. The number of LinkedIn Live streams increased 89% from March to June alone.
This percentage hasn’t changed since 2018, so take it with a grain of salt.
However, it makes sense that LinkedIn’s user base would be more likely to use the network from a computer, since they may be browsing during working hours, or for work purposes.
Bonus: Download a free guide that shows the 11 tactics Hootsuite’s social media team used to grow their LinkedIn audience from 0 to 278,000 followers.
Get the free guide right now!Nine billion content impressions, to be precise.
LinkedIn has transitioned from being “just” a recruitment platform to being a professional network where people educate and inform themselves and learn about other companies in their industry.
This makes a lot of sense: your company’s employees are the people who care most about seeing your brand succeed.
Boosting brand reputation via employee advocacy is a winning strategy for companies that develop a comprehensive program.
This reinforces the LinkedIn stat above. Your employees are an important part of your LinkedIn marketing strategy.
If you’re not sure where to get started on employee advocacy, check out Hootsuite Amplify.
Larger images do even better, with 38% higher click-through rates than other images. LinkedIn recommends 1200 x 627 pixels.
Not sure what kinds of images to post with your LinkedIn updates? Check out these free stock photo sites.
Video is the most re-shared form of content on LinkedIn. If you want other LinkedIn members to help spread your message for you, video is the way to go.
That is, 13% of people over the age of thirteen. While this isn’t the highest reach among social networks, LinkedIn has the advantage of a self-selected user-base that cares about their work.
That’s a 3.5% increase from Q3.
From job experience to education to firm industry and size to interests, there are plenty of ways to make sure your ad matches the right audience.
As we said earlier, LinkedIn is not just about recruiting anymore. Ads can boost purchase intent, leading to more sales down the road.
The platform’s chief selling point for marketers is its ability to target an audience by their job, not just their demographics.
This allows B2B marketers in particular to reach the people who make the buying decisions.
These are not influencers in the sense of influencer marketing. Instead, they are top decision makers or decision impactors within organizations.
It’s no wonder, as this network allows brands to reach both consumers and B2B prospects, as well as new hires.
Product Pages are a new LinkedIn feature for 2020. Use them to highlight specific products with ratings and reviews, generate leads, and incorporate custom call-to-action buttons.
This makes LinkedIn the top network for B2B content marketers, followed by Twitter and Facebook (82% each).
This is not surprising, given that LinkedIn offers a context in which people expect and seek out business-related content.
Source: Content Marketing Institute
It’s not a shock that the top organic social network for B2B marketers is also the top paid social network. Facebook comes in next at 67%, followed by Twitter at 27%.
If you’re new to using paid features on LinkedIn, we’ve got a whole guide to LinkedIn ads to get you started.
LinkedIn ranks behind Facebook and Instagram for B2B purchase research, but ahead of Twitter and Pinterest.
But remember from the LinkedIn stats above that LinkedIn reaches some of the top decision makers out there, so those who do use it for purchase research represent a very valuable audience.
We already saw that LinkedIn video posts get more engagement than regular posts. But Live video takes things up a further notch, with impressively high engagement levels, especially for comments.
That high comment rate shows people are engaged during the live video stream and waiting to interact with the participants.
Don’t think you can just let your LinkedIn Company Page sit there idle. You need to regularly share updates if you want to maintain a high engagement rate on LinkedIn. The good news is you only need to post once a week to achieve that higher engagement level.
Our research shows that the best day to post on LinkedIn is Wednesday for B2B brands, or Monday and Wednesday for B2C brands.
They also get 7x more impressions per follower and 11x more clicks per follower. Like the LinkedIn company page statistic above, this shows the value of keeping your LinkedIn page up-to-date and active.
This is the first year that LinkedIn will pass the 50% milestone, according to eMarketer estimates.
Source: eMarketer
Note that this specifically excludes companies using LinkedIn only for recruiting purposes. This represents marketing efforts on LinkedIn. If you’re not marketing on this network, you’ll be in the minority by the end of this year.
Easily manage your LinkedIn Page alongside your other social channels using Hootsuite. From a single platform you can schedule and share content—including video—engage your network, and boost top-performing content. Try it today.
Social media training courses are a great way for digital marketers to level up their skillset. Extra credentials never hurt anybody either.
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