Linkedin lets users follow ‘thought leaders’
Social networking site creates group of well-known users
Want to see what the big thinkers are thinking?
LinkedIn is trying to extend its reach to users by featuring 150 of what it calls the “most influential thought leaders” on the professional social networking site.
Among the business insights posted include writings by Virgin Group founder Richard Branson, Arianna Huffington, creator of the Huffington Post, billionaire T. Boone Pickens, HootSuite CEO Ryan Holmes, the Atlantic Monthly’s James Fallows and celebrity chef Marcus Samuelson.
“For some time, you’ve been able to follow news by industry and sources, companies, and groups,” writes LinkedIn’s head of content products, Ryan Roslansky, on the company’s blog Tuesday. “Now, you can follow other professionals on LinkedIn.”
Roslansky encouraged LinkedIn’s 175 million users to “read what they are saying, like and comment directly on their posts, and share with your network.”
This is a significant change in its policy because LinkedIn has always been a closed system, where only those who are connected can reach other’s posts or updates.
But because of those privacy parameters, the site has essentially become used as a giant job board, and not for social conversation, said Sidneyeve Matrix, a media professor at Queen’s University.
“It’s going to change the way we network,” she said. “We don’t have to have close affinity. We can have loose digital ties.”
Matrix sees LinkedIn’s change in response to the success of Twitter and Facebook.
Twitter has celebrities, which draws fans who love to get short updates from their idols. LinkedIn hasn’t been able to attract that sort of response because of its closed network model.
Matrix praised the velvet rope kickoff, where only 150 people are among the influencers, but others can apply to be part of the elite group.
“The celebrity-endorsed stunt, that’s going to make LinkedIn seem somewhat sexy,” Matrix said.
It is also a clear push to get more people to spend more time on the site.
LinkedIn’s U.S. users spent an average of 20.6 minutes on its website in August, com- pared with an average of 402.9 minutes for Facebook users, according to data analytics firm comScore. And LinkedIn users made an average of 5.4 visits to its website in August, compared with 35.6 visits by users on Facebook.
Both U.S. President Barack Obama and Governor Mitt Romney are among the initial 150 group, though media reports say it took a bit of coaxing, but after one signed on, the other said yes.
LinkedIn Canada’s spokeswoman Danielle Restivo said: “Anecdotally we got positive feedback across the board from those we reached out to. All our influencers immediately understood the value of reaching a professional audience on LinkedIn.”
This new feature means that celebrities and ordinary LinkedIn users alike will be able to post messages, share photos and links to news articles that can be read by a broad group of people.
Eventually, any user on LinkedIn will be able to have others follow them, the company said.
The move also comes at a time when LinkedIn is facing competition from rivals that offer similar professional networking and job-searching services directly on Facebook’s social network, such as BranchOut, which said in April that its Facebook app had 25 million users.
LinkedIn, which had revenue of $522 million last year, makes money from selling ads and premium subscriptions, as well as from offering specialized services to recruiters.