Found in Translation

Linking in Language
If you’ve searched for a job in the last several years, chances are you have a
LinkedIn profile. As of early 2012, the professional networking site reported
more than 120 million registered users in more than two hundred countries
around the world. Many social networking sites enable you to connect with
friends and family. A network like LinkedIn serves a slightly different purpose
—to connect with people who can help you get ahead in your career. As
business has grown to be more global in nature, building links to colleagues,
customers, and business partners in other countries is not only more
commonplace than ever before—it’s more important for your career.
As of February 2012, LinkedIn was available in sixteen languages: English,
Czech, Dutch, French, German, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Malay,
Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Spanish, Swedish, and Turkish. Why should
you care? Nico Posner, principal product manager, international at LinkedIn, is
well suited to answer that question.
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He explains, “Whenever we add a new
language to LinkedIn, our existing (usually multilingual) members in countries
where that language is spoken broaden out their LinkedIn network to include
those who only speak the newly added language.”
In other words, each time LinkedIn has a launch in another language, the
overall size of its network increases. And along with it, so do your
opportunities for business introductions and job offers. While it’s true that
many businesspeople around the world speak English, they are more likely to
add contacts if they can use a website in their native language. How much does
translation contribute to the growth of the network? “To date, whenever we
have launched LinkedIn in a new language, the rate of new member sign-ups
has grown by at least double in that country after launch, sometimes by much
more,” Posner points out. Investors, take note. Adding languages is often a
predictor of international revenue growth—not just for LinkedIn, but for other
companies, too.
As the LinkedIn network has grown to encompass users who speak more
languages, the company launched a feature to encourage members to post their
profiles in other languages, too. “A multilingual profile makes you more

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visible and valuable,” comments Posner. How so? Essentially, having a profile
in multiple languages makes it more likely for it to be returned in search
results—not only on LinkedIn, but in search engines such as Bing or Google.
If you watch the job boards, you’ll notice that LinkedIn hires full-time
translators, which helps fuel its international growth. Translation is an
important part of the company’s strategy—just as it is for most social
networks. “If you can’t read it, most likely you can’t use it,” Posner explains.
“No matter how cool, useful, or popular a website may be, the products and
services offered cannot be used or bought in a safe, effective, and meaningful
way on an international scale without translation.”