With IT budgets on the rise and most IT organizations planning significant investments in 2011-12, the software market is positioned for its strongest growth in a decade. We surveyed 800 U.S. IT Leaders and C-Level IT executives who are active members of LinkedIn. The study examined decision-making responsibilities, LinkedIn usage, trust factors, purchase intentions, and brand affinities.

1. Marketing Solutions
Reach IT Software Buyers
with LinkedIn
SOFTWARE DECISION LinkedIn IT Software Buyer Audience Study, 2011
MAKERS ON LINKEDIN
With IT budgets on the rise and most IT organizations planning significant
ACTIVE BUYERS investments in 2011-12, the software market is positioned for its strongest
92% plan enterprise software growth in a decade.1
purchases in the next 12 months
Software marketers can take advantage of these opportunities with
ENGAGED LinkedIn. LinkedIn’s membership includes leaders from every Fortune 500
Spend 5-9x more time at LinkedIn company2 as well as executives at thousands of small and mid-sized
than leading IT sites businesses. LinkedIn connects marketers with the most influential,
affluent, and educated audience on the web3 – but can it connect you
AUTHENTIC with senior IT executives who drive enterprise software purchase
Participate under their real names
decisions? This is the question we looked at in LinkedIn’s 2011 U.S. IT
and company affiliations
Software Buyer audience study.
TRUST LINKEDIN & THEIR We surveyed 800 U.S. IT Leaders and C-Level IT executives who are active
PROFESSIONAL NETWORK members of LinkedIn. The study examined decision-making responsibilities,
93% rely on their work colleagues /
LinkedIn usage, trust factors, purchase intentions, and brand affinities to
professional network for software
learn whether IT executives on LinkedIn:
recommendations
56% look to LinkedIn for • Influence software purchase decisions at their companies
enterprise software information
• Actively use LinkedIn to do their jobs and make IT decisions
• Have budget for major enterprise software purchases in the next
12 months
• Recognize and recommend specific enterprise software brands
SENIORITY OF LINKEDIN STUDY PARTICIPANTS
CIO, CTO, COO IT C-LEVEL
VP
DIRECTOR IT LEADERS
MANAGER
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50%
Participants in the 2011 IT Software Buyer audience study included a representative sample
of C-level IT executives (CIOs, CTOs and COOs with IT responsibilities) and IT Leaders (VPs,
Directors, and Managers). Base: all survey respondents (n=800)
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2. REACH SENIOR IT IT executives are active on LinkedIn – and not just for
DECISION MAKERS ON job searches
The number of channels that compete for the attention of technology
LINKEDIN
leaders continues to grow. How are these IT executives using LinkedIn,
OVER 88,000 IT LEADERS AND C-LEVEL
and how does their LinkedIn usage compare with time spent on leading
IT EXECUTIVES ARE ACTIVE ON
LINKEDIN EACH MONTH 4 IT channels?
As a group, IT professionals tend to be early adopters and have long
75,000+
IT LEADERS
been actively engaged on LinkedIn. In fact, IT professionals who visit
LinkedIn spend more time on site per visit – and view more pages per
visit – than they do at leading IT sites such as ZDNet, IDG, and Ziff Davis
Enterprise.5
IT PROFESSIONALS ON LINKEDIN ARE HIGHLY
ENGAGED
34
12,000+
Average Pages per Visitor (US)
Minutes per Visitor (US)
C-LEVEL IT EXECS 19
4
3 3 2 2
2
LinkedIn ZDNet IDG Tech Network Ziff Davis Enterprise
Sites
IT professionals spend more time and view more pages per visit on LinkedIn than on leading IT sites.6
Do IT executives spend their time on LinkedIn to network, share
recommendations, and seek IT information – or are they simply looking
for jobs? We examined the activities of IT executives on LinkedIn during
a typical month and found that IT executives primarily use LinkedIn to
engage in professional networking activities, view people and profiles,
participate in LinkedIn Groups around a professional interest, and learn
about companies and products. Participation in each of these activities
exceeds job hunting by a wide margin.7
IT execs on LinkedIn are senior decision makers
It can be difficult for marketing professionals to ensure that their
messages are reaching the right people at the right level in an
organization. LinkedIn makes it easier for marketers to reach their target
audience, because LinkedIn members participate under their real names
and organizational affiliations, and senior executives comprise a
significant portion of the overall audience.
Of the 800 IT executives who participated in the LinkedIn Software
Buyer audience study, 70 percent were director level or above,8
76 percent are employed by organizations that have over 1,000
employees, and all play a significant role in IT software purchase
decisions in their companies.
2

3. IT execs trust their colleagues and professional networks REACH ACTIVE
According to Forrester Research, business technology buyers consistently SOFTWARE BUYERS
rank ‘peers and colleagues’ as the number one source of influence in the
92%
buying process.9 The LinkedIn Software Buyer audience study reinforces
this finding, with 93% of decision makers looking to their colleagues and
professional networks for trusted advice on enterprise software purchases.
OF IT EXECUTIVES SURVEYED
Furthermore, IT executives on LinkedIn are exceptionally well connected,
with three to five times more connections in their network than the PLAN AN
average LinkedIn member.10
ENTERPRISE
LINKEDIN CONNECTS SOFTWARE DECISION SOFTWARE
MAKERS TO TRUSTED ADVICE PURCHASE
When deciding whether to purchase a particular software product for your company or IN THE NEXT 12 MONTHS;
institution, do you trust recommendations from the following sources? 79% PLAN TWO OR MORE
WORK COLLEAGUES/
PROFESSIONAL NETWORK 93%
INDUSTRY ANALYSTS
(GARTNER/FORRESTER /IDC) 80%
IT PUBLICATIONS (CNET,
ZDNET, ETC.) 59%
CONSULTANTS 58%
CATEGORIES INCLUDED
IT FORUMS AND MESSAGE
51%
BOARDS
IN THE STUDY
VENDOR WEBSITES 23%
VENDOR SALESPEOPLE 22% ANTI-VIRUS SOLUTIONS
BACK-UP SOFTWARE
0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%
BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE SOLUTIONS
When making software purchase decisions, ‘Work colleagues/professional network’ is the #1 trusted resource for IT
executives on LinkedIn, surpassing other trusted sources of information. Base: All survey respondents. (n=800) CLOUD-BASED SOLUTIONS
COLLABORATION SOFTWARE
IT executives consider LinkedIn to be an important asset in getting their
CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT (CRM)
jobs done, with 50 percent or more of respondents rating LinkedIn a
ENTERPRISE RESOURCE PLANNING (ERP)
good resource for:
VIRTUALIZATION SOLUTIONS
• Getting information about enterprise software companies or products
• Getting advice on how to solve an enterprise software challenge
• Finding recommendations for enterprise software products
Additionally, 24 percent of C-level IT executives stated that information
on LinkedIn had directly influenced a recent enterprise software purchase
decision.
IT execs on LinkedIn are active enterprise software buyers
With major analyst firms reporting double-digit increases in spending
across most software categories in 2011-201211, it’s not surprising that
most IT executives on LinkedIn are planning major purchases.
We surveyed LinkedIn users on their purchase plans across major
enterprise software categories and found that 92% of IT executives had
budgeted purchases in at least one software category, 79 percent in
2 or more categories, and 59 percent in 3 or more categories.
We also looked at purchase plans by category and measured awareness of
major software brands across multiple categories. Contact your LinkedIn
account executive for more information on specific brands and categories.

4. Advertise on LinkedIn BRANDS INCLUDED
LinkedIn is a powerful vehicle for enterprise software marketers to reach IN THE STUDY
their target audience. Our marketing solutions provide advertisers with
the ability to target audiences based on our members’ profile information, 3COM JUNIPER
including job title, job function, seniority, company name, company size, 8X8 KODAK
industry, and geography.
ACER LENOVO
To learn more about the LinkedIn IT Software Buyer audience study and APPLE LG
how you can tap into LinkedIn’s audience of affluent, influential, AVAYA MICROSOFT
hard-to-reach professionals, contact your LinkedIn account executive. BARRACUDA MOTOROLA
BLACKBERRY NEC
Methodology BROTHER NETAPP
LinkedIn’s 2011 U.S. IT Software Buyer audience study was an online BUFFALO NETGEAR
survey fielded in Q1 2011. The survey was conducted with 800 active,
CANON NOKIA
U.S. LinkedIn members whose LinkedIn profiles met the definition of IT
Leaders and C-Level execs, and who were screened for their involvement CISCO NORTEL
in IT software purchase decisions within their organization. For the DELL ORACLE
purposes of this survey, ‘active’ means a LinkedIn member who has used EMC PALM
LinkedIn at least once in the last 30 days.
EPSON SAMSUNG
The demographics of the survey were representative of the broader FABRK SEAGATE/MAXTOR
LinkedIn Audience at the time the survey was conducted. A total of 800 HITACHI SONY
LinkedIn members completed the survey; however, a number of analyses HP SUN MICROSYSTEMS
focused on subsets of participants (n ~634 and n~166). The margin of
HTC TOSHIBA
error on reported percentages is +/- 3.5% for the entire sample. The
margins of error for subgroup analyses are +/- 3.9% for the IT Leader IBM WESTERN DIGITAL
subgroup (n=634) and +/- 7.6% for the C-Level IT executive subgroup IOMEGA XEROX
(n=166), assuming a 95% confidence level.
Software categories included in this study: cloud-based solutions, CRM,
collaboration, antivirus solutions, business intelligence, ERP, backup
software, and virtualization solutions.
For more information
http://marketing.linkedin.com/contact
1
Andrew Bartels, Vice President and Principal Analyst, Forrester Research, “What CEOs Of Small Software Companies
Need to do In 2011” July 7, 2011.
2
As of January 2011, LinkedIn counts executives from all 2010 Fortune 500 companies as members.
3
The Nielsen Company @Plan data, released December 2010. U.S. LinkedIn members include more decision makers,
more college and post graduates, with higher average household incomes, than many leading business websites.
4
LinkedIn active audience, February 2011. At the time the survey was conducted, 88,000 IT decision makers were
active on LinkedIn each month, and the number continue to grow.
5
Comparative pages per visitor and minutes per visitor from the Nielsen Company, @Plan January 2011.
6
Nielsen Company, @Plan January 2011.
7
In January 2011, 90% of active IT executives communicated with their network, 82% searched or viewed profiles, 31%
participated in a LinkedIn group for like-minded professionals, whereas only 12% looked at job listings.
8
At the time the survey was conducted, 22 percent of participants in LinkedIn’s 2011 U.S. IT Software Audience Study
2011 were C-level executives in IT (CIOs, CTOs , COOs), 10 percent were vice presidents, 38 percent directors, and
32 percent managers.
9
Kim Celestre, Senior Analyst, Forrester Research, referencing Forrester’s Social Technographics® findings in her June
14, 2011 report, "The Social Tech Product Launch: Monitor Social Conversations to Guide New Product
Introductions.”
10
‘Number of connections’ data based on LinkedIn active audience statistics, January 2011.
11
Andrew Bartels, Vice President and Principal Analyst, Forrester Research, “Mid-year update: Tech Industry Outlook
for 2011 and 2012” (teleconference presentation), June 23, 2011.
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States and/or other countries. All other brands and trademarks are property of their respective owners. All rights reserved.
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