Cheezhead Recruiting News and Opinion

A new independent study from Anderson Analytics on the demographics of LinkedIn users confirms what we already knew: most of them are loaded.

A staggering 60 percent of the professional network’s users have high incomes and hold executive consultant positions. Executives make up about 28 percent of the users, with an average income of $104,000 (not household income, please note), while 30 percent identify themselves as consultants and make an average of $93,000 per year.

Furthermore the study found that 66 percent of users are decision makers or have some influence in their purchasing decisions at companies, making the site a veritable gold mine for vendors and sales people to mine for contacts.

The study polled 2,000 LinkedIn users and their 52,000 connections and divvied them up into four categories, including “savvy networkers,” “early adopters active in other networks,” executives, “late adopters,” and those “exploring options” on other job boards.

“I strongly believe marketers need to go where consumers are in order to listen to and observe them,” Tom Anderson, founder of Anderson Analytics, said. “This survey showed that online social networks are not only a way for professional groups to stay connected, but powerful tools for business as well.”