Twitter and Linkedin Launching Story Like Features | Pros and Cons

Linkedin and Twitter have announced their own story-like features. What are these changes and how might this affect a business’s social media?

The Purpose:

Linkedin’s new story-like feature was created to generate more interest within the younger generations. They say that they will eventually release more versions for other demographics, however, are first launching “Student Voices”. Student Voices allows for students of universities to post videos to their Campus Playlist. Linkedin says that they added this feature “to build out their profile and have this authentic content that shows who they are and what their academic and professional experiences have been”. However, this feature does not align with other platforms' reasoning for stories. Stories were first made for broadcasting moments that disappear so you do not have to worry about their impact on your reputation. This attribute will draw an appeal towards the younger population but fails to match their current mindset of what a story is.

Twitter's Plan of Attack:

Twitter’s version of stories is called “Fleets”. On other platforms, people are the most visually active in their stories. Therefore, Twitter following the bandwagon should not be too surprising. The Fleets have the same intent as the other platforms, however, have two major defining factors. It allows users to share in a way that is not overtly public. While people can retweet Fleets, they are still only public for 24 hours. This allows users to have more control over who can view their content. Another defining factor is that fleets can only be commented on in direct messages. This gives the power to the person posting the content, whereas, normal tweets share the power between the person posting and the viewers.

Linkedin's Plan of Attack:

These new factors can be helpful for businesses. Linkedin’s new feature allows students to post more about their professional activities, allowing recruiters to have a better understanding of a person’s experience and activities. However, this function is only made for students and does not allow recruiters to advertise their own professional achievements. This one-way engagement may not be very effective for company use. Fleets can affect businesses' social media marketing strategy as well. Twitter is expected to have more business engagement after installing this factor. However, this factor makes Twitter a more visual form of social media. This will require businesses to greatly adjust their Twitter marketing strategy. These story-like features will have an effect on businesses, so be sure to get your business ready for these changes!

Do you need a plan to incorporate these new features into your digital marketing strategy? Give our team a call!