{"id":34771,"date":"2022-09-30T17:52:58","date_gmt":"2022-09-30T14:52:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.adcore.com\/blog\/?p=34771"},"modified":"2023-07-18T10:22:27","modified_gmt":"2023-07-18T07:22:27","slug":"what-linkedin-found-out-after-5-years-of-social-experiments","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.adcore.com\/blog\/what-linkedin-found-out-after-5-years-of-social-experiments\/","title":{"rendered":"What LinkedIn Found Out After 5 Years of Social Experiments"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t<div data-elementor-type=\"wp-post\" data-elementor-id=\"34771\" class=\"elementor elementor-34771\" data-elementor-post-type=\"post\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<section class=\"elementor-section elementor-top-section elementor-element elementor-element-4d7b9be2 elementor-section-boxed elementor-section-height-default elementor-section-height-default\" data-id=\"4d7b9be2\" data-element_type=\"section\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-container elementor-column-gap-default\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-column elementor-col-100 elementor-top-column elementor-element elementor-element-62e6fcc5\" data-id=\"62e6fcc5\" data-element_type=\"column\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-wrap elementor-element-populated\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-33a8a33 elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"33a8a33\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t<style>\/*! elementor - v3.22.0 - 24-06-2024 *\/\n.elementor-widget-text-editor.elementor-drop-cap-view-stacked .elementor-drop-cap{background-color:#69727d;color:#fff}.elementor-widget-text-editor.elementor-drop-cap-view-framed .elementor-drop-cap{color:#69727d;border:3px solid;background-color:transparent}.elementor-widget-text-editor:not(.elementor-drop-cap-view-default) .elementor-drop-cap{margin-top:8px}.elementor-widget-text-editor:not(.elementor-drop-cap-view-default) .elementor-drop-cap-letter{width:1em;height:1em}.elementor-widget-text-editor .elementor-drop-cap{float:left;text-align:center;line-height:1;font-size:50px}.elementor-widget-text-editor .elementor-drop-cap-letter{display:inline-block}<\/style>\t\t\t\t<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Everything you need to know in less than 50 words<\/span><\/h2><p><b>After five years of inspecting trends on the platform, LinkedIn found that acquaintances \u2013 not close friends \u2013 have helped people find new jobs. The company pulled this data from 20 million users, so the stats are interesting to people with LinkedIn profiles and anyone using social media platforms.<\/b><\/p><h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Tell Me More<\/span><\/h2><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">LinkedIn users know about the \u201cPeople You May Know\u201d algorithm, which encourages you to connect with people from your extended web of contacts. You might think the suggestions are random, but the developers specifically chose people you didn\u2019t have strong connections with to see what might happen.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The data showed that people with weaker social ties were more likely to help others find jobs. Analysts compared this information to how many people found new jobs based on close friends and connections.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">LinkedIn developers began analyzing extended connections and employment history to suggest diverse users. They wanted to know the likelihood that a user would send an invite to a recommended profile, if that person would accept and what the connection would build.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">From 2015 to 2019, LinkedIn used the algorithm to assign various close and distant contacts to four million profiles. After analyzing this experiment, they tried it on over 16 million people starting in 2019.<\/span><\/p><h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">How It Worked<\/span><\/h2><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">People with a LinkedIn profile have various connections, such as:<\/span><\/p><ul><li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">First degree<\/span><\/li><li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Second degree<\/span><\/li><li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Third degree<\/span><\/li><\/ul><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">People you add as friends on LinkedIn are your first-degree connections. Anyone who networks with your first-degree matches is a second-degree connection. From there, the web stretches out to mark third-degree connections as those users connected to second-degree profiles. You can also see mutual contacts you share with a profile to help you network.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When LinkedIn suggests you add \u201cPeople You May Know,\u201d they either pick from your second and third-degree connections or add random profiles from your relevant field. Throughout the social experiment, developers mixed suggestions of people you were likely to work with and people you\u2019d never encounter otherwise.<\/span><\/p><h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Purpose<\/span><\/h2><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Over the years of the social experiment, LinkedIn found that people were more likely to connect with a random profile for help in the job market over someone they knew personally. The developers were testing \u201c<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.journals.uchicago.edu\/doi\/abs\/10.1086\/225469\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">the strength of weak ties<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">,\u201d a 1973 study that researchers often revisit.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The idea is that your close friends and coworkers have similar interests and job histories, so you have a limited pool of new opportunities. But when you expand beyond your standard social and networking circle, you have more exposure to different industries, companies, and opportunities.<\/span><\/p><h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Backlash<\/span><\/h2><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Despite the positive results many people experienced as they broadened their network, there was still backlash regarding the experiment. People were angry that LinkedIn possibly changed the outcome of their employment.\u00a0<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">However, as the platform\u2019s privacy policy states, they have the right to use personal data, and that knowledge falls to the users. Seeing how LinkedIn uses personal data might inspire users to be more cautious when creating online profiles.<\/span><\/p><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Source: <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2022\/09\/24\/business\/linkedin-social-experiments.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">New York Times<\/span><\/a><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-b7f2cd8 elementor-widget elementor-widget-template\" data-id=\"b7f2cd8\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"template.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-template\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div data-elementor-type=\"section\" data-elementor-id=\"29332\" class=\"elementor elementor-29332\" data-elementor-post-type=\"elementor_library\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<section class=\"elementor-section elementor-top-section elementor-element elementor-element-6c9eca04 elementor-section-boxed elementor-section-height-default elementor-section-height-default\" data-id=\"6c9eca04\" data-element_type=\"section\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-container elementor-column-gap-default\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-column elementor-col-100 elementor-top-column elementor-element elementor-element-4798cb28\" data-id=\"4798cb28\" data-element_type=\"column\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-wrap elementor-element-populated\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-65cc919a elementor-hidden-desktop elementor-widget elementor-widget-shortcode\" data-id=\"65cc919a\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"shortcode.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-shortcode\">\n<div class=\"wpcf7 no-js\" id=\"wpcf7-f28319-o1\" lang=\"en-US\" dir=\"ltr\">\n<div class=\"screen-reader-response\"><p role=\"status\" aria-live=\"polite\" aria-atomic=\"true\"><\/p> <ul><\/ul><\/div>\n<form action=\"\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34771#wpcf7-f28319-o1\" method=\"post\" class=\"wpcf7-form init\" aria-label=\"Contact form\" novalidate=\"novalidate\" data-status=\"init\">\n<div style=\"display: none;\">\n<input type=\"hidden\" name=\"_wpcf7\" value=\"28319\" \/>\n<input type=\"hidden\" name=\"_wpcf7_version\" value=\"5.9.6\" \/>\n<input type=\"hidden\" name=\"_wpcf7_locale\" value=\"en_US\" \/>\n<input type=\"hidden\" name=\"_wpcf7_unit_tag\" value=\"wpcf7-f28319-o1\" \/>\n<input type=\"hidden\" name=\"_wpcf7_container_post\" value=\"0\" \/>\n<input type=\"hidden\" name=\"_wpcf7_posted_data_hash\" value=\"\" \/>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"yos mobile\">\n\t<div class=\"post-contact\">\n\t\t<p class=\"title\">Get exclusive CMO tips that I only share with email subscribers.\n\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t<div class=\"form-item\">\n\t\t\t<p class=\"input\"><span class=\"wpcf7-form-control-wrap\" data-name=\"email-001\"><input size=\"40\" maxlength=\"80\" class=\"wpcf7-form-control wpcf7-email wpcf7-validates-as-required wpcf7-text wpcf7-validates-as-email\" aria-required=\"true\" aria-invalid=\"false\" placeholder=\"Email address\" value=\"\" type=\"email\" name=\"email-001\" \/><\/span>\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p class=\"send\"><input class=\"wpcf7-form-control wpcf7-submit has-spinner\" type=\"submit\" value=\"SUBSCRIBE\" \/>\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<p class=\"yos-img\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/NEW_YOS.png\" \/>\n\t\t<\/p>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div><div class=\"wpcf7-response-output\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><\/div>\n<\/form>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-dcf3f00 elementor-widget elementor-widget-menu-anchor\" data-id=\"dcf3f00\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"menu-anchor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t<style>\/*! elementor - v3.22.0 - 24-06-2024 *\/\nbody.elementor-page .elementor-widget-menu-anchor{margin-bottom:0}<\/style>\t\t<div class=\"elementor-menu-anchor\" id=\"printful\"><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>After five years of inspecting trends on the platform, LinkedIn found that acquaintances \u2013 not close friends \u2013 have helped people find new jobs. The company pulled this data from 20 million users, so the stats are interesting to people&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":34772,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[{"category_link":"https:\/\/www.adcore.com\/blog\/ad-platforms\/","category_name":"Ad Platforms"},{"category_link":"https:\/\/www.adcore.com\/blog\/all\/","category_name":"All"},{"category_link":"https:\/\/www.adcore.com\/blog\/ad-platforms\/linkedin-ads\/","category_name":"LinkedIn Ads"},{"category_link":"https:\/\/www.adcore.com\/blog\/marketing\/","category_name":"Marketing"},{"category_link":"https:\/\/www.adcore.com\/blog\/marketing\/research\/","category_name":"Research"}],"tags":[],"authors":[],"article_types":[180],"staff_picks":[],"promotions":[178],"class_list":["post-34771","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ad-platforms","category-all","category-linkedin-ads","category-marketing","category-research","article_types-news","promotions-microsoft-coupon"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.adcore.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34771","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.adcore.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.adcore.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.adcore.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.adcore.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34771"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.adcore.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34771\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36258,"href":"https:\/\/www.adcore.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34771\/revisions\/36258"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.adcore.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34772"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.adcore.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34771"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.adcore.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34771"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.adcore.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34771"},{"taxonomy":"authors","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.adcore.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/authors?post=34771"},{"taxonomy":"article_types","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.adcore.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article_types?post=34771"},{"taxonomy":"staff_picks","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.adcore.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/staff_picks?post=34771"},{"taxonomy":"promotions","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.adcore.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/promotions?post=34771"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}