While most social networks are trying to police the type, as well as the credibility of content posted on their platform, LinkedIn is now joining the party with the launch of its own dedicated news section. The 465-million user-strong professional social network is finally diverting its focus towards the delivery of curated content from across a diversity of topics. This feature ‘Trending Storylines’ is being made available across both the mobile and the web platform.
[mks_pullquote align=”left” width=”300″ size=”24″ bg_color=”#dd3333″ txt_color=”#ffffff”]Trending Stories will not replace but complement the existing news feed experience[/mks_pullquote]This additional news feed will be made accessible to LinkedIn users through a new ‘Trending’ tab on the mobile and a similar tab at the top-right in the navigation bar for the desktop. This new feature has been launched to enable users to access developing stories, which are being pulled together from your interests, networks, publishers and human editors at the company.
In the official press release, this addition to the platform has been described as under:
Trending Storylines are daily curated interest-based feeds about the most important developing stories in your industry. They help you discover and discuss news, ideas and diverse perspectives from the largest group of professionals, publishers and editorial voices ever assembled.
Trending Storylines will not spew random stories or content pieces at your face because it is being personalized by a combination of machine learning algorithms and LinkedIn’s in-house 24-member strong editorial team. The content being served to users using the trending section will be highly affected by those in your network, what stories they’re reading, writing, and leaving a comment upon.
[mks_pullquote align=”left” width=”300″ size=”24″ bg_color=”#dd3333″ txt_color=”#ffffff”]Trending Storylines is personalized for you by a combination of algorithms and our editorial team, says LinkedIn[/mks_pullquote]For example, if you work in machine learning, you will be able to follow this topic and discover new ideas and timely developments in this field.
This is expected to provide you access to a diverse range of topics (as well as perspectives) and inciting conversation around the same. The addition of custom hashtags to each Trending Storyline further adds to the user experience and makes it easier for you to join the conversation and propagate your perspective on the topic. That’s the current feature set, but LinkedIn is looking to soon allow you to start following people and topics that you discover within storylines.
LinkedIn plans to continue building upon the existing version of this news product. But, to finally sum up the key features you’re being provided with the launch of Trending Storylines, they are the following:
[mks_accordion] [mks_accordion_item title=”Developing Stories”] Each news piece appearing in the new trending section will be based on what’s currently trending in the industry you’re working in or particularly show interest in.[/mks_accordion_item] [mks_accordion_item title=”Deeper Discussions”] While Trending Stories will give you access to stories based on your interest, it will also push you to explore and learn more about the current story.
[/mks_accordion_item] [mks_accordion_item title=”Diverse Perspectives”] LinkedIn aims to pull in multiple perspectives, ranging from news publishers and influencers to individuals in your network, to grab your attention. This will open you to diverse opinion, thus, helping you explore every facet of the trending storyline.
[/mks_accordion_item] [mks_accordion_item title=”Hashtags”] Each story will also have a unique hashtag associated with it, thus, making it easier for you to join the conversation to propagate your perspective on the topic.
[/mks_accordion_item] [/mks_accordion]
LinkedIn, for those unaware, was acquired by Microsoft for a whopping $26 million earlier last year. Since then, the enterprise social network has been introducing iterations to its platform at an increasingly rapid pace. Firstly, the company debuted a completely new and revamped version of its desktop platform that brought it more closer to its mobile platform. It puts more content front and center and brings information from your connections to the surface.
Today’s feature update, Trending Stories, seems to have been built upon LinkedIn’s 2013 acquisition of news aggregation and sorting app Pulse. Most of the features from the app were subsequently integrated into the platform both on mobile as well as the web, but this seems to be further extending the usage of the same. The app, however, continues to exist as a standalone product from the company. It has also recently introduced updated platforms and features in the form of LinkedIn Salary, LinkedIn Learning, and other services that revolve around making the service more intuitive and accessible.
The Trending news feed is currently being launched within the United States, that too in a singular language — English. Initially, this feed is expected to lay immense focus on stories from a variety of topics, such as technology, finance, and healthcare. LinkedIn states that Trending Storylines will steadily be rolled out to even more regions with more topics, personalization, and language options.
