Seemingly inspired by Snapchat, LinkedIn has launched a new feature called Student Voices, which has a few similarities to Stories.
In fairness, every other social platform including Twitter and WhatsApp, has their version of Stories so it was only a matter of time before LinkedIn found a reason to do the same.
As the name suggests, LinkedIn is aiming this feature squarely at students, a youth demographic which probably makes sense for the platform. If LinkedIn can corner the market on young business minded individuals that are likely to become top earners, then that could be very appealing to advertisers. What brand wouldn’t want to reach and build brand awareness with future CEOs?
The major difference between the classic Stories and LinkedIn’s version is that these videos are not ephemeral, they’ll remain on your school’s Student Voices for a period of time and then appear on your profile.
So before you or the student in your life tests this feature out they may want to consider scripting, storyboards, lighting, because this could be something that a future employer takes into consideration as part of your job application.
The roll out of this feature will start in the US and only to college students. A move from the original Facebook playbook. This is a dated manoeuvre and while it worked when social networking was still in its infancy, times have changed a great deal. Putting aside the practicalities of working on new features with a local market, a company owned by Microsoft should be able to trial and cement the adoption of feature in places like India, Australia or Italy. These markets might more readily appreciate having access to new career networking capabilities.
For marketers, consistently reaching this potentially high-yield demographic is an interesting proposition. Let’s hope LinkedIn can make it work.
