The professional's choice of social network, LinkedIn, has launched a new product: LinkedIn Today. It works out the main news within sectors interesting to us i.e. marketing and online media and then based on what's most popular and shared within Linked In prioritises the stories. It's like Google News really, but more relevant to the interests of marketers. The example below shows how it identified the new Google Analytics launch as the "biggest news". So it looks a great time-saver!
So, it's a social news product specifically aimed at professionals, leveraging their 90 million strong network of users it delivers the top stories you need to know from your network and industry. LinkedIn wants to be considered the ‘profile of record for professionals’ and it wants LinkedIn Today to be the first place business professionals go to get insights into their jobs and industry.
Displaying stories based on an algorithm makes it powerful, the algorithm weighs what your connections are looking at, what other industry professionals are interested in, against the news stories have been recommended, Tweeted, or posted on Facebook. And, let's be clear, LinkedIn Today isn't a news aggregator; it's attempting to combat information overload by picking out the most relevant stories.
There are only a limited number of industries at the moment, but the intention is to open this up to more of LinkedIn's 115. This is limited by some industries use of social media and sharing, "The agriculture industry is not sharing enough content to build a compelling product, but we hope over time it will," Liz Walker, LinkedIn Today's Product Manager. The idea is that you'll be able to view different cuts of the data, i.e what tech leaders or marketing leaders are reading in London, New York or the Bay Area.
According to LinkedIn's CEO, this is just one part of LinkedIn's attempt at delivering unique insights about users' business connections, we'll see LinkedIn open up further as it pursues its objective to be the professional social network, so we should see LinkedIn increasingly operate much more like Facebook - which makes sense?
Keep an eye out for seeing how LinkedIn develop Skills and InMaps - these seems a huge and powerful value add in understanding the power within your network, and also how and where you might look to grow it.
What do you think of Linked In today so far?
By Danyl Bosomworth
Dan helped to co-found Smart Insights in 2010 and acted as Marketing Director until leaving in November 2014 to focus on his other role as Managing Director of First 10 Digital. His experience spans brand development and digital marketing, with roles both agency and client side for nearly 20 years. Creative, passionate and focussed, his goal is on commercial success whilst increasing brand equity through effective integration and remembering that marketing is about real people. Dan's interests and recent experience span digital strategy, social media, and eCRM. You can learn more about Dan's background here Linked In.
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