Abstract
LinkedIn is the leading social network site focusing on professional life, with over 500 million customers, but has received far less research attention than Facebook and other personal networks. This study is one of the first to examine gratifications received from using LinkedIn by U.S. adults and relationships between those gratifications and how the site is utilized. Uses and Gratifications Theory served as conceptual framework. The cross-sectional study surveyed 390 active LinkedIn customers 25 and older about gratifications received, intensity of attitudes, and site usage. Exploratory factor analysis and structural equation modeling were used to identify three gratification factors for using LinkedIn: jobs and job affairs, social aspects of employment, and finding old and new friends easily. The social aspects of employment factor had a significant relationship with both intensity of attitudes toward LinkedIn and site usage. This was a surprising finding, since LinkedIn is commonly associated only with utilitarian career-oriented motives, rather than hedonic gratifications like socializing.
Highlights
Social network sites began as cooperative platforms for staying in touch with friends, and have evolved into global, profit-oriented enterprises
Jobs and Job Affairs - LinkedIn customers obtain information about the professional world and search for jobs, and are able to track these topics through the site
Results of Hypothesized Relationships This research found support for H3 and H4, with significant positive relationships emerging between Social Aspects of Employment (F2) and both Intensity of LinkedIn Attitudes (F4) and LinkedIn Usage (F5)
Summary
Social network sites began as cooperative platforms for staying in touch with friends, and have evolved into global, profit-oriented enterprises. Their growth and near-ubiquity in modern life make these social network sites (SNSs) a consequential topic for site users, managers, and scholarly researchers. The majority of SNS research has examined Facebook, which focuses on personal life, with numerous studies in multiple nations analyzing customer gratifications received from using the site (Kim, Shin, & Ahn, 2011; Park & Lee, 2014; Urista, Dong, & Day, 2008). There has been relatively little examination of gratifications from using LinkedIn, which is the leading SNS focused on professional life and has over 500 million customers worldwide (“Most famous social network sites,” 2018).
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