LinkedIn: home to the global business elite The latest round of the Global Business Elite survey shows over a third of the world’s most influential and affluent people using LinkedIn at least once a month. The study, which includes the leadership and senior employees of large corporations worldwide, confirmed that 36% are LinkedIn members who use the platform on a monthly basis. Within Europe, each of these members controls budgets of €9.2 million on average. The research shows the same level of penetration for LinkedIn amongst the highest-level C-Suite executives, 118,000 of whom use the network daily. And the platform also reaches 58% of international business travellers. Top business users are amongst LinkedIn’s most engaged and digitally savvy members, with 83% accessing content via a smartphone. And with personal net worth averaging €719,000 each amongst European users, they represent the most valuable consumers on the planet.

1. Global Business Elite 2012
Overview

2. Key Highlights
2
 LinkedIn reaches more Business Elite (459K+) and C-Suite (274K+)
monthly than any other international news and business website
measured.
 LinkedIn attracts the highest number of BE purchase decision makers
(412K+) with high net worth and big purchasing budgets.
 LinkedIn Business Elite are a digitally savvy lot: downloading apps on
their phones, accessing content via smartphones and visiting social
media sites regularly.
 Nearly a third of LinkedIn’s BE visitors connect via a mobile device –
highest among the sites measured.
 LinkedIn is seen as an important business destination for senior
executives globally as visitors most often come from strategic planning,
management, finance and marketing functions.

3. 36%
28%
19%
17% 16%
14%
12%
10%
9% 8% 8%
6% 6%
LinkedIn reaches more Business Elite monthly
than any other site measured
3Source: BE: Global 2012
459K+ BE visit LinkedIn monthly
202K+ BE visit LinkedIn daily

4. 36%
27%
21%
19%
15%
13% 12% 11%
9% 9% 8%
6% 6%
LinkedIn reaches more C-suite monthly than
any other site measured
4Source: BE: Global 2012
274K+ C-suite visit LinkedIn monthly
118K+ C-suite visit LinkedIn daily

5. >1.3x
LinkedIn attracts the highest number of BE
Purchase Decision Makers
5Source: BE: Global 2012
9%
10%
12%
14%
17%
18%
21%
29%
29%
39%= 412K+
decision makers
monthly

6. LinkedIn’s BE users are High Net Worth
individuals with big Purchasing Budgets
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Average Age
Average Salary
Average Net Worth
C-Suite
Average Business
Purchase
Source: BE: Global 2012
Purchase Decision
Maker
44 yrs.
Europe US Asia
51yrs. 46 yrs.
€160K $453K $198K
€719K $2.4m $1.2m
57% 65% 44%
88% 94% 74%
€8.2m $20m $4.3m

7. LinkedIn’s BE users are influencers and
challenge seekers
7
79% Influence people’s opinions,
actions and decisions
75% find it important that companies
are viewed as innovators
81% enjoy engaging on international
culture & business practices or news &
affairs
70% pursue challenge, novelty and
change
Note: Global data here includes US and Europe audience only. Source: BE: Global 2012

8. LinkedIn’s Business Elite are digitally-savvy
Source: BE: Global 2012
Download new app for
smartphone/ tablet monthly
Access news via app on
smartphone/ tablet monthly
Access content via
smartphone monthly
Access content via tablet
monthly
Visit a social media
website monthly 44%
44%
70%
57%
48%
64%
54%
83%
69%
61%

9. Nearly a third of LinkedIn’s Business Elite
access it via a mobile device
9
13%
7% 7% 7%
5% 3% 3% 3% 3% 2% 2%
13%
9%
6% 7%
6%
5% 5%
4% 4%
3% 3%
3%
3%
3%
2%
2%
2% 1%
2% 1%
2%
1%
29%
19%
17%
8% 8%
5%
+
Tablet Only
Smartphone Only
Tablet & Smartphone
15%
6%
Source: BE: Global 2012
10%10%
12%

10. LinkedIn’s BE users work mostly in Strategic
planning, General management, Finance and
Marketing
14%
15%
17%
17%
18%
22%
28%
30%
46%
51%
Premises/Property/Production/
Factory/Quality mgmt
Purchasing/Leasing
E-Commerce/Internet Strategy
HR/Training
Domestic/ International Sales
IT/Telecom
Marketing/Advertising/ Communications
Finance (Treasury/Fin Svc/ Foreign Ex./ Cap
Mkt/Funds etc)
General Management
Corporate/Strategic Planning
10Source: BE: Global 2012

11. Background and Methodology
Appendix
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12. Background
The series of surveys now called the Business Elite first appeared in 1973 as the
European Businessmen Readership Survey (EBRS).
The Asia study was launched in 1985, followed by surveys in Japan (1998), Central
Europe (2000), Australia (2005) and the United States (2006). Similar studies are run in
Latin America and the Middle East.
Objectives of the BE set of surveys:
1. To estimate the size and scope of the business elite audience;
2. To measure their media consumption and business decision-making influence;
3. To support campaign planning targeted at the most senior business executives
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13. The Business Elite are few in number
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General population
836m
BE:Global
database
1.36m
Although Business Elite only represents
0.16% of the World’s population, they are
disproportionately influential relative to their
size.
The audience represents senior Business
Leaders across 3 regions (Asia, Europe and
US).
The Business Elite includes job titles like:
Owner, Partner, President, Chairman, VP,
SVP, EVP, C-suite, MD, Departmental
Director/ Manager, GM and other executives.
The C-Suite job titles includes: CEO, CMO,
CIO, CPO, CTO etc.

14. Methodology
The BE: Global is a harmonised database containing variables common to at least two of
the four regional surveys. It contains data from BE : Asia 2012, BE : Europe 2012,
BE:USA 2012 and BE : Japan 2012.
Sample: 7,169 (Asia) + 7,279 (Europe) + 2,059 (USA) + 611 (Japan) = 17,118
How are the surveys conducted:
1. Identify companies from business directories
2. Executives via telephone screening
3. Self-completion questionnaire via mail
International news and Business sites measured:
bbc.com, bloomberg.com (incorp. bloombergmarkets.com) , businessweek.com ,
cnbc.com, cnn.com, cnnmoney.com (incorp fortune.com), economist.com,
euronews.net, forbes.com, ft.com (Financial Times), hbr.org, nationalgeographic.com,
news.google.com, news.yahoo.com, nytimes.com (The New York Times/International
Herald Tribune), reuters.com time.com, wsj.com (The Wall Street Journal) ,
linkedin.com, twitter.com and, dailybeast.com (incorp. newsweek.com)
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