Linkedin - No more Free Job Posts !!!

Linkedin has rolled out a subtle but important change to the groups. When you go to the JOBS section of any group on Linkedin, you now only see Paid Linkedin Jobs, the free jobs are now in subtab (Career discussions). This would dramatically drop the views your Free job post get on Linkedin groups.

Not a surprising move by Linkedin to drive customers to pay for the job posting. If you started your group on Linkedin, now you have less control of it (they did not even notify the group creators about this change, quietly rolled it out)

Comment by Paul Alfred on March 28, 2011 at 12:54pm: That IPO is about to pounce Investors want to milk those revenue streams... I would ...

Comment by Gary Franklin on March 28, 2011 at 1:15pm: a big fail by LinkedIn IMHO and a betrayal to Group users and Group owners alike. A year ago I made the decision to move the Group I founded and still manage away from LinkedIn to its own dedicated platform. It has taken a long time and we are nearly ready to move. This latest change by them vindicates that decision. There has been much written about the value of engagement with connections on LinkedIn, much of it by LinkedIn themselves, yet they fail to engage with the very people that have made them what they are and to a certain extent depend on.

Comment by Suresh on March 28, 2011 at 3:11pm: Gary, you are right on about the groups. Good ole Bait and Switch, if you ask me.

Comment by Paul Alfred on March 28, 2011 at 6:26pm: @Gary and @ Dr. Raghavan - I hear your pain but try and look at this from an Investor perspective - perhaps LinkedIn Executive Mgmt should have found a better way of doing this.

Comment by pam claughton on March 28, 2011 at 7:23pm: Honestly, I always found it odd they allowed free jobs, given that they have the paid ones.

Comment by Mike Rasmussen on March 28, 2011 at 11:59pm: One can still post as a discussion to the main group discussion forum. Instead of a long JD I post a 1 liner, that is the way to leverage for success, they can't stop that.

Comment by Christopher Poreda on March 29, 2011 at 7:50am: I agree with Pam. Obviously these are smart guys but like so many other companies with smart guys, they may be losing their focus and working on too many verticals...thus diluting their brand. Think theladders.com.

Linkedin.com is a remarkable networking tool and have brilliantly developed a model to generate revenue...tease recruiters and sales people with access and charge them to gain more. Stick with that, let the groups post jobs, increase traffic and make it up on advertising.

Comment by Suresh on March 29, 2011 at 8:55am: There may be some group creators who would pay for more control of their groups. Atleast thats an option they should have pursued, considering some groups have thousands of members.

Comment by Christopher Poreda on March 29, 2011 at 10:10am: Good point Suresh!

Comment by Valentino Martinez on March 30, 2011 at 3:27am: Next LinkedIn will start charging a space rental fee to keep one's Profile on their website...picture will cost extra.

Carbonite will be next to hold stored data hostage but will give access for a PRICE.