LinkedIn builds content offering by opening publishing to all users as it extends its crop of influencers
Legrand
Professional networking platform LinkedIn is opening its publishing platform to all users from today in an effort to increase its content offering and drive engagement on the site.
The platform boasting 5m Australian users and 277m worldwide, previously limited content publishing to its crop of thought and business leaders known as influencers, who users can follow to read their blogs and long-form content.
Meanwhile general members were limited to posting links to articles on external websites until today.
Olivier Legrand, LinkedIn’s Asia Pacific director of marketing solutions, said LinkedIn identified an extreme value in opening up its content offering to users in order to build its offering as a business resource tool.
In addition the platform is extending its circle of influencers to include Telstra CEO David Thodey, as well as AirAsia CEO Tony Fernandes, among others, further ramping up its content offering on the site.
“By being a business resource and not just a place to connect and manage your network helps professionals to be better at what they do,” Legrand said.
“So we are becoming a business resource by providing valuable content to professionals, content that’s relevant to their industry, delivered in a timely manner, providing expertise through influencers, followers or people in their circles who share it, altogether driving the engagement.”
LinkedIn currently distributes and disseminates content from 1.6m publishers in a targeted way as it is curated for readers by an editorial team in New York. And it provides brands with a platform for content marketing accessible across a variety of devices, presenting advertisers with a unique proposition, Legrand said.
However he said LinkedIn is not directly competing with Facebook or other publishers as it drives traffic and engagement back to other websites.
“We don’t see ourselves as being a direct competitor from a content creation perspective, we’re really a publishing platform. We’re a place where there is a massive audience, very focused on one particular area – professionals and the business environment – and we have a very unique opportunity to distribute the right content to the right people.
“That’s what we’re leveraging, because that supports our mission, which is helping professionals get better at what they do,” he said.
By extending its publishing capability LinkedIn is continuing a trend of making “strong moves” towards becoming the business publishing platform of record for professionals over the last 12 to 18 months, Legrand said.
A small group of English-language users will be invited to publish content on the site from today with the offering extending across the network over the next few months.
Megan Reynolds
