LinkedIn - Job Board or Social Network?

Tip o' the hat to Raj Sheth of Recruiter.com for this interesting article: http://www.recruiter.com/i/linkedin-job-board-or-social-network/?goback=.gde_4930685_member_236839301 While I'm tempted to say it doesn't matter, it really does. LinkedIn continues to develop new products for recruiters, a primary customer target group for the company. But I am finding, and hearing from other recruiters, that LinkedIn is now so overrun with recruiters that candidates aren't responding. When a passive candidate gets 5 or more requests per day from recruiters s/he doesn't know, the efficacy of LinkedIn drops way down. I have noticed that response rates to my InMails are dropping as well. With an average of 20% response rate over the long haul (I was a charter member of LinkedIn in beta), my response rate is probably half that today. So, I'm looking at other ways to reach out. I still use LinkedIn as much on identifying people I want to connect with. But I'm getting more creative about the "candidate acquistion" piece. What are your thoughts?