from AskMyDaddy

What is the real value of a business account?

You asked

Should I get a business account?

MyLinkDaddy writes

That depends on why you need it and your own LinkedIn network. So I can only describe my own situation and hope there are a few things that you can take away. Your mileage will vary.

The primary value of the business account comes from seeing the full LinkedIn network and having InMails and added Introductions. The basic $20/month biz account gives you three InMails per month and 15 Introductions, as opposed to 5 Introductions with the free account.

See the entire LinkedIn network

Business members have a tab on their search results that allows them to see not just the first 500 results in their network, but 100 additional results in the entire LinkedIn network.

Now I have a large network with 15,000 direct connections, 2 million LinkedIn members within two connections, and 7 million total in my direct network. 99.9% of LinkedIn members that I want to reach are in my direct network. 99% are only 2 connections away. I've been an extremely active member for four years and have never had to go outside my network.

LinkedIn is somewhat flat due to the work of supernetworkers like myself who have connections across the world. Even if you have just a few hundred connections, you likely already have access to 3-4 million members in your own network, and limited need to go outside it. But if you're just starting on LinkedIn, accessing the whole network can be a strong incentive to a business account.

InMails

InMails are presented as a magical tool to directly contact other executives. It's equivalent paying $5 for a lead. It's not as purty as you would think.

1. It's just an Introduction. Sending an email is no different from sending a direct Introduction to a fellow LinkedIn group member. Aside from a different name and tiny logo, It doesn't receive special handling or delivery.
2. It's not guaranteed. Just like an Introduction, there is no guarantee that InMails are received. The member can be have an invalid address or simply no longer be using LinkedIn. I personally have experienced that 30-50% of InMails are not answered (see InactiveMembers). So reliability is low. LinkedIn does give you another InMail if one isn't answered in a week. So you typically will get 4-5 InMails per month. Still, that's of little help when you're trying to reach someone immediately.
3. It's an opportunity, not a lead. You're not getting an actual lead. Unlike other sites you don't receive contact info. You can't send a direct email or call the other person. It's just an opportunity to initiate contact via a direct Introduction.

The value of InMails are also affected by the size of your network. With my large network many people that I want to contact are fellow group members or only 2 connections away, so the direct nature of InMails just saves me only the time associated with one connection forwarding the message. Thuus I find InMails to be only somewhat more valuable than an Introduction.

If you have a small network your recipient may be 3 connections away or inthe extened LinkedIn network. InMails may be the only way to ensure your message is received in a reasonable time.

Additional Introductions

I make sure my Introductions don't age more than a week and keep them regularly used to the limit. On average I get 4 Introductions per month per allotted Introduction. So the 15 business Introductions result in about 60 Introductions per month. To me that is the primary value of a business account.

Why I'm a business account subscriber

I am in the networking business through my company, The DallasBlue Business Network. I use LinkedIn introductions as a personal, critical, and low cost part of DallasBlue marketing. So I do have a business account. I typically don't have messages that need to be received immediately. What is important for me is to be able contact a fair number of local networkers.

MarcFreedman