Following on from the success of stories on Snapchat, Instagram and Facebook, it’s no wonder that LinkedIn has become the latest social media platform to roll out the feature worldwide, providing a new way for users to enhance their audience engagement by sharing daily updates with their network.
But what does this mean for media outlets and young journalists on the site looking to expand their audience outreach and engagement?
Here are the all-important details and some useful content ideas on how to make the most of the site’s latest update:
What are LinkedIn stories?
LinkedIn stories will allow users to share photos and 20-second videos that will be viewable on their profile for up to 24 hours.
Stories are not yet accessible on PC, so can only be used by downloading the most recent version of the LinkedIn mobile app on the App Store and Google Play. However, contacts and followers will still be able to interact with stories through DMs, which can be viewed on the desktop version of the site.
This latest update comes after its initial testing period in the US and Canada earlier in the year, which has been met with positive feedback so far.
How to post a LinkedIn story on your profile:
To post a Story on your profile, open your LinkedIn mobile app and click on the circle with your display picture and a plus sign in the upper left corner to open the camera.
Here you can choose to take a photo or video of up to 20 seconds directly from the app or select one from your media gallery. You can even add stickers and text before publishing your story.
The important bits of LinkedIn stories to use as a journalist:
- Mention people and places by their @
If you’re at a networking event, zoom call or industry conference, make sure to tag the relevant speakers or organisations to your story. It’s a great way to establish your presence and even make new connections through searching other attendees who might have tagged the same location onto their stories.
- Download your own story and find out which users viewed your story:
This will come in handy when analysing your engagement rate. Find out what posts worked and what didn’t and try to restructure your audience strategy based on what your network engaged with the most.
- Answer the Question of The Day prompts:
Out of all the Stories features on social media right now, this one can only be found on LinkedIn, so definitely a good one to make the most of. QOTD is a fun and informal way to interact with your peers as you answer a different question each day by posting your response onto your story – don’t be afraid to let your personality shine through!
Ideas for how media outlets and journalists can use LinkedIn stories to increase audience engagement:
- Show what happens behind-the-scenes
Authenticity is arguably the most powerful currency online as we are all naturally attracted to originality and honesty in the age of technology and information. Giving your network a glimpse into the day-to-day work life – be it at home or at the office – is a good way to build a rapport and show an honest but informative look into what life as a journalist is like.
- Follow the conversation
Social listening is an important component in any good social media strategy as lets you in on what people are searching, discussing and analysing in the industry. Knowing what conversations and trends are happening at the moment is a great starting point to use for your LinkedIn story as you understand what type of content your network is most interested in engaging with right now.
- Mention personal achievements and learning curves
The power of storytelling is at the heart of all good social media accounts – and the more unique it is to your personal brand, the better. Strong and original storytelling can inspire, educate and spark conversations so it’s a key quality to develop in your social media strategy. Be sure to not only post what’s been going well for you, but also tips and advice through what you’ve recently learnt about when faced with challenges.
Future of the feature:
The jury is still out on whether the feature will end up a fad or actually stick around on the site.
Tom Pepper, head of marketing solutions UK, Ireland & Israel at LinkedIn certainly believes they’re here to stay.
According to Pepper, the best part about Stories is that “they don’t have to be slick or overproduced – as long as they are authentic and match your brand and audience.”
Although it’s unlikely that stories will end up the most-used feature of LinkedIn or ever reach the glamour of Instagram’s or familiarity of Snapchat’s, it still looks to be a promising new feature for young journalists to get to grips with.