Today more than 50 million businesses utilize LinkedIn pages as a means of connecting with potential employees, customers, and prospects.
In support of this trend, the platform is building on prior features — including Employee Notification, Kudos and Team Moments, and Community Hashtags — to help businesses forge a deeper sense of community and shared experiences.
Here’s a breakdown of the updates to note and how to use them:
Invite to follow: incorporating first-degree connections
“You’ve shared that one of the biggest pain points of building a brand is increasing your number of engaged and relevant followers,” said Rishi Jobanputra, Senior Director for Product Management.
To address this, first-degree connection can be seamlessly invited to your follow your company’s Page with a few simple steps. Simply go to your admin tools, and select ’Invite connections’ form the dropdown list. Once you’ve identified the people you wish to send invites to, tap on the checkbox next to their name and photo and hit submit. They’ll instantly receive an invitation notification.
This may seem like a subtle update, but one that makes the process of bridging offline and online connections much more seamless. For instance, if you’re at a conference or other networking event you can easily keep the conversations going with this tool.
Bear in mind there are a few qualifiers such as page admins with fewer than 500 connections will be provided with a ‘Select all’ option while those with less than 100,000 can use the ‘Grow your page’ audience module to invite members. Members can opt-out of receiving invites, and admins are limited to sending 50 invites per day.
LinkedIn Live: stream in real-time
LinkedIn Live originally underwent beta testing last February, and now is officially rolled out on all Pages. The feature gives the option for companies to carry out two-way conversations on-screen meanwhile fueling real-time participation through a dedicated comments section. Those with enabled push notifications and who already engage with video on the platform will also get alerted when a Page goes live.
Over the coming weeks, LinkedIn says it will work towards releasing a ‘stream targeting’ feature that brings in third-party tools like Restream, Wirecast, and Socialive to connect with those in different regions across the globe.
LinkedIn is also introducing private testing capabilities for Live Stream giving brands admins the chance to test and rehearse prior to going live.
According to LinkedIn, brands using Live Stream have seen 7X more reactions and 24X more comments compared to standard video posts.
LinkedIn’s dedicated Live Stream website shares a few actionable ideas for how to build your content including using it to help launch new products, showcase the people behind your brand, or demonstrate your thought leadership. “Whatever you choose, the magic is in making it interactive.”
Share updates directly: post via the homepage
In order to simplify the process for sharing content with your audience, LinkedIn has unveiled a new feature that “allows you to post from the same place you already post on LinkedIn so that you can promote your organization’s brand in the way that works for you.” You can also opt to share as an individual depending on the nature of the content. With this simple update, conversations can be sustained void of friction and hassle-free.
As we looked ahead and encountered new technology and platform updates, an important question that should drive decision-making is: how can these be leveraged creatively and as an innovation to deliver impactful experiences and expand our communities in positive and profound ways?
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