This week in my Media Law and Literacy course we were learning about the theory of Diffusions of Innovations, which is the discussion of how an innovation gains popularity and becomes a staple of human society. The founder of the theory, Everett Rogers, believes that there are four elements that influence the spread: the idea itself, communication channels, time and a social system. While discussing recent innovations that followed this trend, I wanted to take a look at how LinkedIn became the staple of business connectivity, and how it could affect society in the future.
LinkedIn was founded in 2002 and officially launched in 2003. The site is one of the oldest social sites, being founded before YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter. The idea itself came from
Reid Hoffman, who started the company in his living room. Hoffman is a very successful
entrepreneur who was on the board of other successful companies like Google, eBay and
was even close with Elon Musk by helping with PayPal’s construction.
The idea of a business social media site spread like wildfire. Within two years of its launch,
it already had five million users. With the growing popularity of FaceBook coinciding with
LinkedIn’s release, the site began to really gain traction. One year later in 2007, the site tripled
in user base, with over 17 million accounts. Since then, it has rapidly grown into the monster
that it is now. LinkedIn currently has over half a billion users and essentially has a monopoly on
the business social media market. Time and the rise of social media in our current society has
helped to push the idea to the monster status it has now. I think that LinkedIn is a great example
that helps prove Everett Rogers's theory of Diffusion of Innovations. It truly followed all four of the
elements that influence the spread of an idea.
it already had five million users. With the growing popularity of FaceBook coinciding with
LinkedIn’s release, the site began to really gain traction. One year later in 2007, the site tripled
in user base, with over 17 million accounts. Since then, it has rapidly grown into the monster
that it is now. LinkedIn currently has over half a billion users and essentially has a monopoly on
the business social media market. Time and the rise of social media in our current society has
helped to push the idea to the monster status it has now. I think that LinkedIn is a great example
that helps prove Everett Rogers's theory of Diffusion of Innovations. It truly followed all four of the
elements that influence the spread of an idea.
I now wonder what the future of LinkedIn looks like, and how it will affect society in the future.
I think that LinkedIn is just another testament to how powerful the internet has become and how
helpful it can be. Creating ease for businesses in finding employees, while also making it easier
for people to find a job that is a perfect match is really important. Business efficiency is important
for capitalism and helps our society overall progress. Now companies can spend less time and
money on sifting through thousands of physical resumes and interviewing people who are not good
matches. They can easily find prospects that will fit their needs and find all relevant information that
helps them to make an informed decision. I think that LinkedIn is a fantastic innovation, and I believe
in the future there will be more sites and innovations similar in principle to it.
I think that LinkedIn is just another testament to how powerful the internet has become and how
helpful it can be. Creating ease for businesses in finding employees, while also making it easier
for people to find a job that is a perfect match is really important. Business efficiency is important
for capitalism and helps our society overall progress. Now companies can spend less time and
money on sifting through thousands of physical resumes and interviewing people who are not good
matches. They can easily find prospects that will fit their needs and find all relevant information that
helps them to make an informed decision. I think that LinkedIn is a fantastic innovation, and I believe
in the future there will be more sites and innovations similar in principle to it.
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