It started with Snapchat, then copied by Instagram/Facebook followed by YouTube (currently only for major channels) and Pinterest (done in a different way). Where’s LinkedIn’s touch for the Stories format? Well, you’ll get to use it very soon.
Straight from LinkedIn’s official blog, Stories has been officially released in the initial set of countries (Netherlands, Brazil, UAE, Australia, France, and Italy). It’s also being rolled out in phases worldwide to 700M+ users (and growing) as of the date of publishign this blogpost.
Testing LinkedIn Stories back in June 2020
I wasn’t even based in any of the initial set of countries (I’m in Qatar!) when they had it available on a limited basis since the start of 2020. However, I was given access to it which you can read on my brief hands-on time. I just opened up the app on 13 June 2020, and it showed up on the top right below the search bar.
I think having been featured multiple times by the LinkedIn News team in the past probably flagged me as someone important. Maybe it was just the nature of activity on the platform. Whatever the reasons, I was able to use it.
Seeing that I felt a bit privileged, I used the opportunity to give my network a chance to see what I do at work in the past months. Whether it was on iOS/iPadOS or Android, the feature was there.
Now you’re wondering how do I know that they’ve officially released the feature in the Middle East? I just so happen to have seen the Stories prompt next to mine and even the option to add for company pages. Tapping on that prompt plays an explainer video for people to learn about the feature.
My only tip is that you don’t approach this feature in the same way you use it on Snapchat, Instargam, YouTube and Facebook. Given the nature of LinkedIn users, consider this as an additional resource for your personal brand and a bigger extension for those managing company pages.
They still have to add a few other useful features like “Swipe up for links” (I hope they don’t restrict it like Instagram does), and maybe even geographic-specific stickers.
For digital marketers, they may be thinking about advertising on this new feature. Well, that should be rolled out in phases starting from January 2021.
