In April 2020, LinkedIn has announced its initial launches of LinkedIn Stories in Brazil and the company has tried it out in the Netherlands, the UAE, and Australia over the past seven months. Since October, this future is also available in Romania. As we see, the stories look much the same as they do on Facebook and Instagram, with a Stories bar along the top of the screen, and various stickers and tools available to decorate your Stories frames.
I honestly tell you that I felt a little overwhelmed by another feature and I tried to find its utility. So why do we need LinkedIn stories?
Tom Pepper, Senior Director – Head of Marketing Solutions UK, Ireland & Israel at LinkedIn explains the role of LinkedIn Stories:
“At a time when many of us are physically distanced from one another, it’s more important than ever for brands to stay connected to their audiences. LinkedIn Stories offers an authentic and visual way for them to do so. The great thing about Stories is that they don’t have to be slick or overproduced – as long as they are authentic and match your brand and audience”, added Pepper.
Stories help us to:
- stay more connected and authentic to our audiences.
- communicate targeted to a professional audience.
- share images and short videos of everyday professional moments. Now you have a dedicated platform for showing people what’s happening behind the scenes, as Neil Patel says :).
- share the little professional joys. We’re so focused on making everything perfect, but our office life isn’t always perfect. Revealing your ups and downs makes you more authentical. Maybe you have just closed on a huge contract with a big client. A LinkedIn story is so appropriate for explaining how it went and what you think you did well.
- build meaningful relationships with your professional community
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increase Engagement on LinkedIn. On Instagram, as much as 25% of users swipe up on branded stories. Now we’re taking this same thought process but moving it to a platform entirely dedicated to business networking, says Neil Patel.
Some useful notes to consider about LinkedIn Stories via LinkedIn Help:
- The Stories are only available on mobile; you can post a Story from the LinkedIn mobile app;
- The recommended specs for uploading a Story from the camera roll:
- Specs for Images:
Resolution: 1080 (w) x 1920 (h) px,
Supported file type: PNG, JPG
Aspect Ratio: 9:16 - Specs for Videos:
Resolution: 1080 (w) x 1920 (h) px
Frame: 30 FPS, square pixels
Supported file types: H264, MP4
Aspect Ratio: 9:16 - The maximum length of a video in a Story is 20 seconds.
- You can’t edit a Story after you’ve posted it. You have the only option to delete an individual post and then post again.
- Stories will last for 24 hours, but users will be able to save individual Stories frames.
- It can be seen by your connections and followers, and they can share it with anyone they’re connected with on LinkedIn.
- The story can be shared with any of your 1st-degree connections via LinkedIn Messaging.
- You are able to control what profile information you display in a Stories viewer list via their settings.
- If you don’t want someone else to see the Stories that you post, you can block a connection or follower.
- You can save your story within 24 hours of posting. After 24 hours, you can access the rich media you uploaded for seeing your Story.
- The metrics are also available. See insights for each of your Story’s posts for the 24 hours that LinkedIn shares your Story.
- What I like the most isThe Question of the Day feature – a daily question for members (individual profiles and Page Admins) to answer on their Stories. The feature is available from the Stickers dropdown within LinkedIn Stories. You can also answer and share a Question of the Day from another member’s Story.
Some advices before creating LinkedIn stories:
When I follow a brand on social media, the most important aspect for me is the consistency in communication. Whatever you promote, the brand is very important and all the messages must be declined from the values of the brand. Your followers should get hit immediately with something that makes your brand stand out so they’ll remember it. So, before creating a story on LinkedIn think about how it impacts your performance at your business.
It’s very important to have a posting plan like the content calendar you create for the other social media channels. The Stories are casual, but they need an objective and consistency. Provide value and unicity with every LinkedIn Story you post. Fans easily notice the brand “deviations” and they might just swipe by you because they think your information isn’t useful to them.
You can add value if you provide free information, a short how-to, or show your fans how to solve a critical problem.
How to integrate LinkedIn stories in your marketing strategy:
Before creating a LinkedIn Story it’s worth considering who you’re talking to and why you want to capture their attention. Understanding the audience you’re talking to, what they are interested in, you can shape your content strategy. So, we are supposing that you are the social media manager for a company.
You can add value if you use LinkedIn Stories to:
- Encourage Thought Leaders to Give Professional Tips
- Share Real-Time Event Updates, like company announcements, awards ceremonies, clips from live events.
- Host a Corporate Q&A and show a more human and authentic side to your brand on social. It’s a good opportunity to show people behind your brand and build brand affinity.
- Share Brand Announcements and Product News
(*source: later.com/blog/)
I hope you have liked this article and that you have now a much clearer image of Linkedin Stories. This post will also be my first LinkedIn Story and I’m looking forward to finding out your impressions :).