The LinkedIn train of updates has slowed somewhat this year in comparison to the bullet train of changes in 2021.   

LinkedIn now has over 830 million global and 12.7 million Australian members. The Q3 FY22 report lists a 34 percent increase in marketing solution revenue and a 22 percent increase in platform engagement. 

LinkedIn also celebrated its 19th birthday this month with co-founder Reid Hoffman posting: 

“19 years ago today, from my living room apartment in Mountain View, I emailed 350 people I knew from my 10-plus years working in Silicon Valley and invited them to join me on a new digital platform my co-founders and I had just launched, LinkedIn.”

It’s an understatement to say LinkedIn has changed the world of careers and business from Reid’s’ living room in 2003. The platform is not perfect with various negatives and interface issues. But it still wins hands down as the world’s No.1 professional network with profound value. 

Editorial news uptick

The last twelve months has seen a seismic shift and focus within editorial and news upticks under the stewardship of LinkedIn’s Global Editor in Chief, Daniel Roth.  

In April, Press Gazette reported that ‘LinkedIn is tripling the number of editors it employs in the UK as part of wider growth that will see it employ nearly 200 journalists worldwide’.

This is important for PR, organisations and media publishers to factor as the intent of the Microsoft owned platform is to grow their market positioning as a formidable news distribution source alongside collaborations with international and national media channels.

Of note, the LinkedIn News Australia page has over 517,489 subscribers.  News UK, 1.3 million, News Asia, 2.3 million and News (Global) 8.6 million.  

Political content opt out 

Given we are heading into an election it’s worth sharing an interesting tool rolling out in beta mode to a range of USA members.  

The ‘No Politics opt-out’  tool setting filters out the content from political parties, candidates and election information and more.  LinkedIn’s CEO, Ryan Roslansky says that if effective, there will be a wider global roll out this year.

Curious if this was available now in Australia what the uptake would be?  Hmm and wow! 

New and hot

Here is a few new features which add value and grit:

Lead Generation Forms 

Flexible lead generation form tool with CTA’s on Company & Showcase Pages. A Privacy Policy URL is required to create for member protection.  Awesome tool. Set up information here.

Newsletters for Companies 

Newsletters are being rolled out for publishing under Company & Showcase Pages. This is significant and will be essential for larger brands and companies who have a strong Follower base. 

Like Newsletters currently from personal profiles, they are subscriber and notification based with Google indexing SEO juice.  

Workplace Module 

Section in Company Pages to list top workplace and HR policies that employees care about.  With candidates rigorously researching and evaluating new employers and organisations, the Workplace Module section will be a valuable part of building employee branding and trust.

Website Link on Profiles

This is such a long awaited and brilliant update.    Right under the headline field with Creator Mode activated, you can add a live URL hyperlinked to any website or page.  Adding a personalised description to encourage clicks, it’s a great user experience and engagement feature.  

What’s old and not cool?

Members using faux influence programs, confected engagement pods and other dubious paid likes and engagement strategies. Sad to see the proliferation amongst highly qualified and clever people, let alone the grifters.

Dodgy marketing and lead generation businesses engaged to drive sales leads and appointment bookings via automation and 1970’s style sales pitch messages into Inboxes. This has become very dangerous as accessing personal profiles is against the User Agreement and compromise profiles. 

Profile suspensions can result and it’s just not worth the risk, let alone the reputational fall out.  Trust is lost, not just for the organisation but LinkedIn user experience broadly. Don’t hand over personal profile information and access outside your organisation.

What’s next in 2022?

I say hold your hat and tail for some surprises and updates later in the year.  We are all hoping for a better message experience and keen to see the next iteration of hashtags and creator mode for content creators.   

As ever, new features can roll out at snail’s pace, others will instantly appear like magic. Stay tuned.