LinkedIn’s biggest changes in 2019

LinkedIn saw several updates over 2019 to make the platform more engaging, as well as to improve the ad functionalities on offer. Here, we look at some of the top changes.

Post reactions

As an attempt to raise overall user engagement on LinkedIn, the professional platform added new post reactions in April 2019. The reactions are also being used as a way of users understanding their feedback in posts more efficiently.

Some of the reactions are similar to other social media platforms; however, as a more professional platform it is focused on having various reactions including Celebrate to mark promotions and news jobs, and Curious to express a desire to know more about a subject.

Interest Targeting and Lookalike Audiences

For those using LinkedIn for lead generation, or even just awareness, it was a great year, with several new exciting functionalities being introduced to help reach the right audience.

January 2019 saw LinkedIn announce interest targeting in campaign manager, allowing marketers to target members with relevant ads based on their professional interests, as defined by the content they share and engage with.

So far, there are over 200 different interest categories to choose from, including AI, customer experience and music – each of which falls under a top-level category such as Arts & Entertainment, Business & Management and Technology.

March saw a further expansion, with the launch of lookalike audiences. To create a lookalike audience, you first need to create a ‘matched audience’ in Campaign Manager – this could be people who’ve visited your website, previous customers, or even your CRM list. You’ll then be able to target people who LinkedIn match as similar to this audience.

LinkedIn Live

It wasn’t a surprise that LinkedIn launched a live video tool this year – and even less of a surprise when they revealed it was a requested feature.

The tool allows brands to share from conferences, product launches and events, or perform live Q&As. As with Facebook live videos, viewers can ‘like’ the video, ask questions or make comments (which can be moderated by the company).

Ad Transparency

Like all the other platforms, ad transparency has been a big issue for LinkedIn over the past year. In May, it introduced an ‘ads’ tab to allow users to see what ads a page has run.

Unlike other platforms however, this is easier to access – instead of needing to go to a separate transparency page to find the information, it is simply a tab in the regular LinkedIn page for the company. It also goes back a longer period of time: showing all ads which have run over the past six months.