NEWS26 March 2010
US— LinkedIn has canned its b2b survey sample offering after a year and six months, citing a need to “refocus research efforts” to help increase its largest revenue lines faster.
Anderson Analytics boss Tom Anderson broke the news on his blog, having been a user of the sample service. He quotes LinkedIn’s senior director of enterprise solutions Dan Shapero, who explained that while survey sample is no longer “generally available”, the business networking site will continue to offer sample to “a handful of strategic research clients”.
Meanwhile, he said: “We’re deploying research products that help us build larger relationships with our HR and advertising clients.”
LinkedIn launched its b2b sample offering in October 2008 to much fanfare, with the site boasting of its ability to provide researchers with easy access to IT and business decision-makers, who are much in demand for survey purposes.
“Highly promising” it may have been (said Forrester analyst Brad Bortner) but clearly sample provision proved not to be a major money-spinner for the 60-million member community.
Bloggers are split as to why, however. Anderson argues that the margins weren’t there as researchers weren’t “willing to pay for greater quality”. But Kantar’s Tom Ewing advances the case that LinkedIn was overly prescriptive about what could and could not be done with its sample.
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3 Comments
Peter Cole
14 years ago
The big barrier for my clients to using them for sample was not flexibility but cost. I didn't find the restrictions to be overly burdensome, but when you're at $150 per complete just for fielding and without any mark-up... well... the desire and the money was simply not there for most research. At those prices, you could purchase sample and do phone interviews or go F2F in some markets. Still... as a resource it will be sorely missed for the highly targeted, low incidence studies.
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Neel
11 years ago
This shows real expertise. Thanks for the anwser.
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Anon
11 years ago
A really good awnser, full of rationality!
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