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LinkedIn Today Launches

Author's avatar By Danyl Bosomworth 17 Mar, 2011
Essential Essential topic

LinkedIn Today - the features and implications

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.

Key features

  • It's news orientated - one of the most sought after categories on the net
  • The platform aggregates the most shared, the 'must see' news that's trending from professionals in your network and in your industry. You can also pull in news by company, location and more. And, it doesn't matter how big your network is to get that insight
  • Members will also have the option to “follow” specific news sources and will have the option to choose from a wide range of outlets
  • It's extremely easy to share from within LInkedIn Today to within LInkedIn (groups and members) and via Twitter (but no Facebook!?), there is a customised Stumbleupon button though
  • It's insightful - LinkedIn will show you who shared in your network, how many shared, and the comments a story has received
  • LinkedIn Today is also a mobile feature and will be part of the company’s iPhone app - LinkedIn are taking mobile seriously

A big future?

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.

LinkedIn will open up even further

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?

Author's avatar

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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