LinkedIn is trying to entice influencers and creators to use its platform, to mixed success. On Wednesday, the platform is introducing a slew of new tools aimed at helping creators track engagement and boost their metrics.
The new tools are designed for users who have turned on Creator Mode, which helps people build more of an audience by changing the “connect” button to “follow.” More than 5.5 million people have turned on Creator Mode since it launched a year ago, LinkedIn said. The platform saw a nearly 50% jump in the number of people following creators, and an almost 30% rise in the engagement of content created by people with this feature activated, according to LinkedIn.
The features aren’t for making money, at least directly, but they are designed to help creators see how their posts are performing. The platform will let creators view a summary page that includes their posts' performance, like impression numbers and overall engagement, as well as data including impressions and re-shares. The summary page mimics Instagram’s professional dashboard, which shares insights such as how many users a post has reached and how people engaged with someone’s account.
LinkedIn is also following Instagram in rolling out content alerts, which let a creator’s audience choose to get notified when they share a new post on the platform. Followers can tap the subscribe bell at the top of the creator’s profile to get those alerts, similar to how Instagram users can choose to get notified when someone posts.
Creators can also now add their newsletter to the featured section of their profile to help people more easily find it. Think of the feature like pinned posts on Twitter or TikTok, which let users stick certain posts at the top of their profile feed, even if they’re relatively old.
The new tools are a sign that LinkedIn is getting the hang of this whole creator thing, albeit slowly. Creator Mode has only been around for a year, and the platform launched a paid program that mentors a select number of people less than a year ago. The new features are a nice touch, but other creator-focused platforms have been incentivizing users with cash for some time now, so if LinkedIn wants to compete, it’ll need to help influencers make money in addition to tracking engagement.
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