Well hello LinkedIn Stories, so glad you could finally join us.
The UK has FINALLY been introduced to LinkedIn’s new story feature after 5 months of testing the waters in Brazil, the Netherlands, Australia and France. This new feature offers users a different way of engaging on the platform through short, fast, in the moment photos and videos that only last 24 hours…
sound familiar?
LinkedIn may not be the slickest social media platform around, but with the new redesign, the big bosses are hoping it will make networking amongst professionals a little easier and a more enjoyable experience. The new update also includes a video chat feature, streamlined search functions, and FINALLY the addition of dark mode
. LinkedIn have been looking for new ways for its members to interact in a professional way without it being too business focused, so could this be the way forward?
Stories are so 2018. Did you know…
This isn’t the first time that the stories feature has been available through LinkedIn. In 2018, ‘Student Voices’ was rolled out to all university students in the US, with the hopes of students from different universities interacting and sharing their experiences with one another through the form of video.
Oh, just video? Yep, just video, and this is where it ‘went wrong’.
LinkedIn soon realised that without the all singing, all dancing abilities to add gifs, music, photos: basically, everything that Instagram allows you to do, it wouldn’t take off and be a huge hit. Hence stories disappeared shortly afterwards and we haven’t seen them again on LinkedIn until now…
So why try stories again now?
Well, it’s 2020! Crazy things are happening this year and LinkedIn have said that the new feature is suited for the ‘new normal’ of working from home, and the addition of stories is allowing people to replace those sly printer chats and cuppa tea breaks they’d normally enjoy in the office with a virtual alternative.
So, should I be using stories for my business I hear you say?
In short, of course you should! You should be using your stories, whether that be on your company or personal page, to share what you get up to in your working day, ask questions to your connections, show insights into your business and share tips on how to use certain tools.
By posting these kinds of stories it will encourage your connections to engage with your content and show off your personality a little more. It will also encourage your connections to watch and engage when the stories appear, rather than leaving it for another time. Updating your stories frequently will help strengthen the bond with your connections, leading to them becoming increasingly familiar with you and your brand, which will consequently lead to connections using and recommending your products or services.
But remember, as this is LinkedIn, the platform for professionals, the idea is to keep your stories business focused and relevant. It’s not really the right place to be posting a picture of what you had for breakfast, unless you put a spin on it and make it about a working brunch… I know I’d like to see how runny your eggs were whilst you were sat at your MacBook Pro with an iced vanilla macchiato with extra whip and a metal straw #boujie
So, I guess the question is… will you be using LinkedIn stories on your profile?