LinkedIn is asking for your passport – here’s what it means to Market Research

As I was going about my daily lazy-scrolling of LinkedIn (as one does), I stumbled upon a new feature:

LinkedIn has grown up. In its early days, it used scrappy growth hacks and dark UX (as one does). Then, a few years into Microsoft’s $26 Bn acquisition of the company, the professional network began professionalizing itself.

What is LinkedIn Persona verification?

LinkedIn has partnered with Persona , a KYC/ identity verification service with the bold goal “to become the identity layer of the internet”. You’ll enter into a separate agreement directly with Persona, when verifying your LinkedIn account.

You’ll take a video, scan your passport, and off you go. You might even get a badge on your LinkedIn profile saying you’re a real human!

Why is LinkedIn doing this?

Verifying users isn’t new to LinkedIn, but historically they’ve been more lenient about enforcing it. If you run a social media site, it’s cool to have lots of users. Especially if your main business is to serve ads , you get paid-per-view of your ad, and nobody can really verify who saw the ad!

Like any social media site, LinkedIn balances user volumes vs. user quality. But advertisers have grown more aware of bots and fake traffic, and less excited about paying for it.

Technical improvements have made it easier for fraudsters to set up spambots, fake accounts and click-farms. Honest platforms and market research firms have been scrambling to keep up . Then GenAI came around and fraudsters weren’t late to notice .

LinkedIn’s move is part of an industry trend

In 2022, Twitter said they removed 1 million fake accounts – every day!

Then came Facebook:

Turns out Facebook removes more than 15 million fake accounts – every day!

Also from the quality control department:

• Google and Yahoo getting stricter about spam emails .
• Spotify cracking down on fraud streams .
• Market research associations teaming up to fight fraud .

Turns out LinkedIn isn’t the only firm fighting spam and fraud accounts. But perhaps fraud is more damaging to a serious professional network than for a birthday-reminder app.

LinkedIn reports that it started squashing loads more fake accounts in H2 2022, now removing almost a quarter of their active user base (counted as monthly active users, “MAUs”). Meanwhile, Facebook keeps deleting a whopping 200% of avg. MAUs – every year!

What can market researchers do?

As Linkedin improves its data quality, the firms using its sample will benefit. The most obvious one to me is expert networks and survey firms who custom-source quality B2B sample.

Expert networks recruit and verify professionals to arrange high-value phone consultations. A positive externality of that is that they accumulate high-quality databases of vetted individuals .

By surveying real humans, you get real data, to make real informed decisions.

The smartest investors have already discovered the Inex One survey platform . Check it out here!