A Million Irish People are members of Linkedin! #gosh

The Silicon Republic is reporting that LinkedIn reaches 1m Irish members, reveals details on employment at home and abroad. This includes about 100,000 Irish users living abroad. This is an astounding number and in the article, Sharon McCooey of Linkedin is quoted as saying “One million Irish members is an important milestone for us, illustrating that Irish professionals really understand the potential of LinkedIn to network, showcase their experience and seek out job opportunities”.

Image source: Silicon Republic.

The population of Ireland is 4,588,252 according to the 2011 census. 535,3893 of the population are over 65, and 1,205,527 are aged 18 or younger (Data source: Central Statistics Office). It's my guess that not many in these two age groups are members of Linkedin, so if we discount them we are left with about 3 million people - so, one third of these are members of Linkedin. Phenomenal!

Though I keep my own Linkedin profile up-to-date, I am not a big user. I do like to see who has looked up my profile, but most of the news flow is about who has connected with each other. I know there is a lot more useful information in there, but I just don't seem to be bothered to check it out. How useful is it for me to know that I am linked to "6,894,555+ professionals" according to my profile? It would take 80 days just to count to that number non-stop! One of the things that annoys me about Linkedin is "Endorsements". I have been "endorsed" for Lecturing by people I know have never been to a lecture of mine. I have been "endorsed" for Moodle by folks who have no idea what I do with Moodle and have never seen one of my Moodle course pages. I have been "endorsed" for stuff by people that I have never met and only know via Linkedin. While is is great to be endorsed for anything, I'm not sure how valuable many endorsements are. When I endorse others it is always on the basis that I am familiar with the work that person has done that I am aware of.