Fans of superb 1986 film Ferris Bueller’s Day Off will be familiar with the line: “Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.” Even the smartest of American teenagers would be hard-pressed to keep up with the comings and goings of social media, particularly Linkedin’s Stories shenanigans.
In case you haven’t heard, the platform will be suspending the feature from 30th September. If you’ve bought ads that will run between Stories, they will be shown on the Linkedin feed, but in slightly more irritating news, an business owners promoting or sponsoring Stories directly from their page will have to remake them.
Linkedin Stories just about lasted a year, and was launched at the same time as Twitter’s equally ill-fated Fleets, which were kicked to the kerb almost as soon as they were launched.
In a blog post, LinkedIn’s senior director of product Liz Li said: “In developing Stories, we assumed people wouldn’t want informal videos attached to their profile, and that ephemerality would reduce barriers that people feel about posting.
“Turns out, you want to create lasting videos that tell your professional story in a more personal way and that showcase both your personality and expertise.”
Li also revealed users wanted more functionality in Stories, as well as “more creative tools to make engaging videos”, not just stickers and prompts. Who said social media doesn’t listen?
The good news is that Linkedin looks set to follow Instagram and Snapchat in taking inspiration from TikTok, and create its own feed that’s strikingly close (but not too much) to the ByteDance-owned platform.
Given there are growing numbers of users on TikTok posting hints and tips about putting together CVs, interview and career advice, as well as kick-ass dance moves, we can see where Linkedin’s heading and why it would be a smart move for small businesses to stay ahead of the short-form video curve.
Will we see the corporate equivalent of TikTok’s epic editing popping up on Linkedin? If Emma can find some dancing shoes that may well be a yes…
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