On February 19 LinkedIn opened up its publishing platform to all users. In the past only influencers, including Arianna Huffington (The Huffington Post), Dave Kerpen (Likeable), and Danny Sullivan (Search Engine Land) were allowed to post long-form articles and be “followed” by other users. Now that everyone has access to the feature, it’s important to understand how you can get involved and make the most of this new opportunity.
According to the announcement, the influencer posts have always done very well with nearly 31,000 views and more than 80 comments on average. It’s tough to say what exactly this will mean for the future of LinkedIn, but from a user perspective, it seems like this new initiative isn’t going anywhere. This means the potential to help improve your presence just got a whole lot better, just as long as you take the time to grasp how it works.
How the new publishing platform works
The publishing platform is currently only available for individual profiles, so company profiles will have to wait. It’s also worth noting that only about 25,000 members of LinkedIn have access to this feature initially, but it shouldn’t take long before it’s open to everyone.
Below is a screenshot of my LinkedIn profile that shows how your published posts would look if you visited someone’s page. As you can see, it is really just an extra-added section that doesn’t take up much space. If you are scrolling through your homepage, you’ll see more news than you have in the past.
To create a post, all you need to do is click the small pencil next to your name when you’re looking at your homepage. Once you click the pencil, it will send you to a space where you can copy and paste your article. Below is a screenshot example:
Step #1
Step #2
The benefits of the publishing platform for users
- Recruiters can easily find qualified candidates by looking at some of the content he/she has written. Not only can you see the writing skills of the candidate, but what information and expertise they bring to the table.
- Candidates can show what they know to recruiters.
- It’s easier for you to distribute content to your network, which can help you further promote that content. This might also allow users to make meaningful connections.
- LinkedIn will feature articles that get a lot of attention on the LinkedIn channels, so you have the potential for a very large reach.
- You can see demographic information about who is clicking on your article, so you can make sure you’re putting out the right type of content for your audience.
So is this new feature changing the future and meaning of LinkedIn?
Technically LinkedIn is becoming a publishing platform (obviously), but the question however, is whether or not this publishing platform is going to overtake some of the other LinkedIn features. If anyone can publish content, is the site going to be filled with lots of poor quality content and leave the network with the same cleanup work that so many blogs deal with? It’s tough to say because the idea is so new, but LinkedIn feels confident that the pros will outweigh the cons.
The social network’s motive was to increase the content so that people would spend more time browsing around and reading different articles. Ryan Roslansky, Director of Product Management at LinkedIn, explained:
We’re really excited to actually open up this publishing platform and start to draw some of that experience, knowledge, and insight out of these members and onto the LinkedIn platform to share at more of a massive scale […]. We are making a commitment to our members: By spending just part of your morning on LinkedIn, we will make you better at your job today.
So it seems clear that LinkedIn’s goal is to use its pool of professionals, and therefore keep people coming back to the site for more than just to make connections and check out resumes. It’s now a place for everyone and not just those looking for candidates or looking for jobs.
Whether or not this publishing feature will change the meaning of LinkedIn is tough to say, but for now it seems like a step in the right direction. It isn’t overly bothersome in terms of the design, so if you don’t want to participate or read, it’s easy to avoid.
What do you think about the new publishing platform? Was this a good move by LinkedIn, or do you think it will cause too many changes to audience and the meaning of the network? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
