LinkedIn Sponsors a Career Blog

One of the better blogs aimed at younger workers and their career options is Penelope Trunk's Brazen Careerist.

From BC:

Penelope Trunk writes career advice for a new generation of workers. She explains why old advice - like pay your dues, climb the ladder, and don't have gaps in your resume - is outdated and irrelevant in today's workplace. She has a reputation for giving advice that is counterintuitive but effective, like take long lunches, ignore people who steal your ideas, and stop vying for a promotion.

Anyway, the news came today that LinkedIn has signed on to sponsor her blog. Penelope's blog gets, on average, about 4,500 visitors a day (according to her Sitemeter). As far as independent blogs go, I suppose that's pretty good.

But this isn't really about Penelope's traffic. It's more about what LinkedIn's sponsorship says about their marketing and corporate strategy. After all, if there's one site out there that for a while has said it's about one thing ("networking") while making money off another (jobs, recruiters, and job postings), it's LinkedIn.

For example, on the LinkedIn "About Us" page, here's what LinkedIn says about creating a profile:

When you join, you create a profile that summarizes your professional accomplishments. Your profile helps you find and be found by former colleagues, clients, and partners. You can add more connections by inviting trusted contacts to join LinkedIn and connect to you.

There's nothing in there specifically mentioning "jobs." However on the same page it says that "through your network you can:" (following emphasis mine)

* Find potential clients, service providers, subject experts, and partners who come recommended
* Be found for business opportunities
* Search for great jobs
* Discover inside connections that can help you land jobs and close deals
* Post and distribute job listings
* Find high-quality passive candidates
* Get introduced to other professionals through the people you know

So LinkedIn is about networking. But it's also about jobs. And networking too.

Like they say, smoke 'em if you got 'em. Or you gotta dance with who brung ya. Or a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush. OK, maybe not that last one, but you get the point. This might be (to my knowledge) the first career-oriented blog that LinkedIn sponsors, but it definitely won't be the last. This sponsorship (and potential others), in my book, is a strong move by LinkedIn.