LinkedIn has launched a news aggregation service that will introduce many professional internet users to the concept of social news for the first time. It promises to deliver a customised online newspaper that will be assembled by algorithms, rather than journalists.
The new service called LinkedIn Today will:
- Allow LinkedIn users to filter news pages by up to 22 sectors
- Display the stories that are being shared most by an individual user’s LinkedIn connections
- Show what industry “peers” are reading and sharing, as well the most popular stories across other sectors
- Be available through an iPhone app, which will allow users to see what their connections are reading and to save articles
LinkedIn says that this new feature differs from others in the market because it “offers three social views of professional news that don’t exist together in one place anywhere else on the web. We can deliver news that matter to your connections, your industry peers, and the wider professional audience.”
LinkedIn Irish users
LinkedIn’s Irish user base has been growing steady, as it convinces more professionals of its value as a B2B social network. The Irish user base is currently recorded by LinkedIn at 429,000 compared with 353,000 just four months ago. Like Facebook numbers, these figures overstate the actual number of active LinkedIn users in Ireland because of duplicates or dormant accounts.
Away from the hype of a significant announcement that goes with any social media site, there is a commercial reality at play. LinkedIn needs to give its users more reasons to visit the site more regularly and monetise this “stickiness” by attracting more online advertising.
Read more about new services on the LinkedIn Blog
