LinkedIn Updates and You — New Pricing Plans
Looking at some of LinkedIn's recent changes – Fall, 2014 edition
This begins a short series on Frugal Guidance 2 looking at some of the more significant changes for LinkedIn members. There is some very good news to share, some not-so-good, and some that is just confusing.
Part 1 – The Bad News – Price Increases
Higher costs and fewer choices for premium services
Thinking about upgrading your LinkedIn account to a job seeker, business, recruiter or the new sales navigator plan? The bad news is that there are fewer choices and higher costs. The good news is that LinkedIn does offer more free resources (PDFs, ebooks and a white paper) to help you make your decision and a 30-day free trial.
First, LinkedIn eliminated it's cheapest (and most-difficult-to-find) premium level which, at $7.99 per month, was the easiest way to get just a few Inmail credits and improved search. (All the prices quoted here are in U.S. dollars. Rates differ for other countries.)
If you already subscribe at a lower price for a plan that no longer is advertised, you can keep that plan as long as your credit card info is current and no payment is refused. So, if you have an older, cheaper account, you may want to keep it to lock in the lower premiums.
You can downgrade to a free basic account at the end of any premium month when you cancel the premium service, but not if you pay annually.
If you agree to pay annually for memberships you get a twenty per cent discount, but you have to pay up front for the year instead of monthly. (There is no longer an annual discount for the Job Seeker account.)
Your LinkedIn fees might be tax deductible (in the U.S.) as a job seeking or business expense. Check with your tax advisor. Some employers might offer to pay for your upgrade, but check to see if there are strings attached. See ourFrugal Guidance 2 post on Protecting Your LinkedIn Account from Your Employer, Part 1 for what to watch out for.
The 30-Day Free Trial
If you haven't used a free trial in the past year, you can sign up for a free trial for the upgrade of your choice. (This used to be by invitation only.) You do need to give LinkedIn your credit card info when signing up for the trial. If you don't give LinkedIn notice to cancel before the end of the 30 days, you will be automatically charged for the next month's membership fee. (I'd give LinkedIn at least a few days advance notice if you want to cancel.)
Job Seeker Accounts
Basic Job Seeker accounts have increased to $29.99 / month. (If my memory serves, it was $24.95 previously.) I know job hunters for whom this is just too much money. However, if you are a new member, just starting your profile and building your connections, it might be worth it for a few months.
With Job Seeker premium, you will get three free InMails per month (a way to send a message to somebody you arenot connected to on LinkedIn). You also get membership in a premium-only job search group where members can go to ask questions and discuss the job search process. (When I tried the Job Seeker account, I thought the job search group was the best reason to pay the extra money.) There is also job seeker webinar on how to use LinkedIn for job hunting for premium members.
To see more about Job Seeker Premium benefits, LinkedIn has a new 30-page PDF. They also offer a good Job Search Checklist.
LinkedIn also offers a Slideshare stack with information about using InMail, titled You've Got InMail. If you are job hunting also check the links below for info on marketing yourself and how employers use LinkedIn for hiring.
Veterans (and reserve and active duty servicemen) may be eligible for a free year of Job Seeker Premium. See theVeterans Subscription Page for more info.
By the way, LinkedIn no longer offers the Job Seeker Badge for profiles, which is actually a good thing.
Business Plus Accounts
The basic Business plan is gone; the current plan, Business Plus, is now a whopping $59.99 a month (double the old basic plan, I believe). A 20% annual discount comes to $575.88 if you pay in advance. You can sign up for a 30-day trial if you haven't tried another trial in the past 12 months.
Business Plus offers 10 free InMails per month, expanded search tools, the ability to view 3rd level connections, and expanded view of who looks at your account.
This now appears to be the lowest price for any upgrade except the Job Seeker Premium.
Sales Navigator
Sales Navigator is a new plan which adds sales lead and other tools on top of Business Plus features. It costs $79.99 / month or $779.88 / year.
Go to LinkedIn's Sales Lead Generation Success page and you can learn more about what LinkedIn offers. They also offer a free ebook, 7 Ways Sales Professionals Drive Revenue with Social Selling with tips from Koka Sexton. (This ebook might be of interest to people who engage in social selling off of LinkedIn, too.)
There is also a Sales Prospecting Page. In addition, LinkedIn offers a free white paper on Social Buying Meets Social Selling: How Trusted Networks Improve the Purchase Experience.
Since Job Hunting is also a sales-related activity these days, these free ebooks and papers might be useful for job hunters as well as people looking at buying a sales package on LinkedIn.
Recruiter Lite
Recruiter Lite offers more tools and InMails specifically for recruiters, for $119.95 / month, or $1,199.40 annually.
For full-fledged corporate recruiting, though, you need to get a price quote (LinkedIn doesn't post the pricing formula on their site). However, this costs thousands of dollars per person — something few independent recruiters would use.
For an intro on how to use LinkedIn for corporate recruiting, you can request a free copy of The Modern Recruiter's Guide by filling out a form. Job hunters also might want to read this to learn more about how recruiters use LinkedIn. (You can also read our Frugal Guidance 2 post on What Job Hunters Should Know About The Corporate Recruiters' LinkedIn.)
You can also fill out a form to get Small Business Recruiting and Hiring: The Ultimate LinkedIn Guide.
Both of these may give you a better idea of what to expect before getting the Recruiter Lite or the pro level upgrades.
Recruiters can also request a free demo on their LinkedIn Talent Solutions page.
Conclusion
In announcing their changes, LinkedIn calls the new plans a simplification, with only one level for each type of premium account. (It's interesting how LinkedIn Corporate-Speak uses "simplification" and not "price hike.") The plans they eliminated appear to have been the cheaper ones, so it is a major price increase for most new premium customers.
LinkedIn certainly has the right to charge what they feel their members will pay, but it is certainly disappointing that they decided to eliminate the entry-level memberships for those who wanted to dip their toes into premium services. It would have been civil to alert users of the coming price hikes so they could have upgraded earlier to lock in the lower rates, too. Of course, LinkedIn almost never alerts users of coming changes, and this was no exception.
Coming Soon
This is the first part of a series on recent LinkedIn updates. We'll soon have info on some of the new features on downloading your LinkedIn data, changes to LinkedIn Search, invitations, and more.
Do you think LinkedIn's pricing structure is still a good deal? Share your thoughts in the comments, below.
Credits:
Title Image Mind Map created in iThoughtsHD mind mapping program for the iPad.
The Money Tree image is by "digitalart" and FreeDigitalPhotos.net.
2 Comments
Disappointed in the higher fees for premium..
I think this takes it out of the hands of small businesses and into the hands of corporations.. As someone who's in business development a lot of my time, a premium account would be ideal, but not at these prices..
Pm
[…] is an excellent article by Andy Brandt that reviews the recent price […]