LinkedIn launches ‘Stories’ in India

LinkedIn Influencers Vani Kola, Kiran Bedi, Rahul Subramanian, and Anny Diva share work moments in their first LinkedIn Stories.

LinkedIn, has launched ‘Stories’ in India to help members share everyday professional moments and experiences with their communities. This new feature allows members to publish photos and videos up to 20 seconds long, which will be visible on their profiles for 24 hours.

With the growing importance of a virtually connected world, LinkedIn has launched Stories in India to help members share everyday, casual updates and experiences from their professional lives, start lightweight conversations, and offer a new way to stay connected with their network.

Members can share their everyday professional moments such as work-from-home setups, daily routines, work motivations, events, team calls, industry news, and insights quickly and with ease as it does not stay on a member’s permanent profile.

”In a virtually connected world, ‘Stories’ are the virtual water coolers, where members can share their everyday professional moments in a creative and authentic way, and find a new way to stay connected with their networks. The new look and feel of LinkedIn showcases our commitment to creating an engaging, supportive, diverse, and respectful community, which is at the heart of everything we do at LinkedIn,” says Ashutosh Gupta, India Country Manager, LinkedIn

Over email, a LinkedIn spokesperson mentions that the Stories feature is a great way for members to share their everyday professional moments in a less intimidating way, while businesses can use the new feature to demonstrate what they have to offer more creatively, authentically, and regularly.

"All professionals can use LinkedIn Stories to connect over daily work-life moments such as work-from-home setups, daily routines, work motivations, events, team calls, industry news, and insights quickly and with ease as it does not stay on a member’s permanent profile. And businesses can use the feature to share real-time company updates and workplace culture moments, and respond to “issues of the hour”," says the spokesperson.

The email mentioned that on the day of the launch, LinkedIn saw brands like Tata Consulting Services, Bajaj Allianz, and Mad Over Marketing share their very first LinkedIn Stories to engage with their professional networks and audiences.

The spokesperson mentioned in that in the WFH scenario, staying connected has never been more important than right now. "In the COVID world, LinkedIn Stories are letting people replace those essential water cooler moments. With Stories, our aim is to help coworkers feel connected at a time when many people are still working from home and may otherwise feel disconnected from colleagues. This form of communication helps to build and maintain professional connections, and increase interactions with colleagues and industry professionals," says the spokesperson.

Localised ‘India’ stickers add visual excitement; LinkedIn Influencers and Top Voices share their first LinkedIn Stories

For India, LinkedIn has launched six localized stickers that serve as quirky depictions of the work-life unique to the country. These stickers feature ‘Auto Rickshaw’ the common choice of commute across cities and states; ‘Jugaad’, the colloquial term for innovations or makeshift hacks; ‘Chai-Time’ to signify the quintessential Indian break at work with a masala chai and a biscuit; ‘Cricket’ to show the nation’s love for their favorite sport; ‘Yoga’ meditation sticker to turn distress into de-stress; and ‘India’ written in kitsch design that can double up as a way to highlight your ‘location’.

Stories allow members to send messages to connections and followers, and “mention” / tag connections in a Story. They can also see who has viewed their Story, increasing engagement and giving insight on activity for your posts.

Additionally, features such as ‘Question of the Day’, asks members what they’re working on or how they recharge on their day off, and their Story responses help members start new conversations, acting as ice-breakers.

The India launch of LinkedIn Stories saw business leaders, stand-up comedians, and other influential voices such as Vani Kola, Kiran Bedi, Rahul Subramanian, and Anny Divya, use the new feature to show their work setup, share productivity tips, celebrate return to work, and revisit happy memories. Their posts demonstrate how the new feature makes it easier to stay connected to communities, inform audiences, and share professional moments.

LinkedIn introduces redesign; offers an improved search and messaging experience

Extending its commitment to help members build meaningful relationships and be more productive in their professional lives, LinkedIn announced its first major visual redesign in 5 years to better embody the platform’s diverse, inclusive, and trusted community of professionals. Sporting a warm color palette, the new visual identity is warmer, simpler, more modern and more intuitive, allowing for easier navigation and discovery.

The platform also introduced a new, streamlined search experience, which will for the first time introduce a blended search results page with defined recommendations organized by people, jobs, groups, companies, schools, content, LinkedIn Learning courses, and online events. This makes it much easier for members to surface the people, events, groups, and content they want, while helping them reach beyond their immediate network.

To help keep conversations going, the platform has also introduced a variety of new features that allow for richer ways to communicate while also giving members more control over messages and conversations. The new messaging experience also offers video meeting integration, making it easy for members to switch the conversation from chat to face-to-face using Microsoft Teams, Bluejeans by Verizon, or Zoom directly in their LinkedIn message threads.