LinkedIn launches its own Snapchat Stories: “Student Voices”

The uniqueness of social networks continues with the arrival of Snapchat Stories style presentations on LinkedIn as the application becomes relevant to a younger audience. LinkedIn confirms to TechCrunch that it plans to build Stories for more user groups, but first it is launching "Student Voices" only for university students in the United States. The feature appears at the top of the LinkedIn home screen and allows students to post short videos on their Campus Playlist. The videos (no photos are allowed) disappear from the playlist after a week and remain permanently visible in the user's own profile in the Recent Activity section. Students can access the slide presentation of their own school and see the playlists of the campus of nearby universities.

LinkedIn now confirms that the feature is in the tests, while product manager Isha Patel tells TechCrunch: "The campus playlists are a new video feature that we are currently shooting to college students in The United States As we know, students love using video to capture moments, so we have created this new product to help them connect with each other through shared experiences on campus to help create a sense of community " Student Voices was first discovered by social consultant Carlos Gil, and cited by Cathy Wassell from from Socially Contented Matt Navarra

A LinkedIn spokesperson tells us that The reason behind this feature is to have students share their academic experiences such as internships, career fairs and class projects that they would like to brag to recruiters as part of their personal brand. "It's a great way for students to develop their profile and have this authentic content that shows who they are and what their academic and professional experiences have been, having these videos live on their profile can help students grow their network, prepare for life after graduation and help prospective employers learn more about them, "says Patel.

But unfortunately that ignores the fact that the Stories were originally invented for offline dissemination. The cuff moments disappear so you do NOT have to worry about the impact they have on your reputation. That dissonance could confuse users, discourage them from publishing to Student Voices or have them assume that their clips will also disappear from their profile, which could leave the content embarrassing to users. "Authenticity" may not necessarily paint users in the best possible way for recruiters, so it seems more likely that students post polished clips promoting their achievements … if they use it.

LinkedIn seems to be Desperate to appeal to the next generation. TechCrunch social application researcher and favorite informant, Jane Manchun Wong, discovered 10 new minor features. LinkedIn is a prototype that includes youth-centric options such as GIF comments, share message placement and Facebook Reactions style buttons beyond "Like", such as "Clap," "Insightful," "Hmm," and " Support ".

When users post on Student Stories, they will have their university logo superimposed as a sticker they can move. LinkedIn will generate this plus a set of suggested hashtags like #OnCampus based on a user's profile, including the school they say they attend, although users can also overlay their own text titles. Normally, users in the trial phase shared videos of around 30 to 45 seconds. "The students take us to the hackathons of their schools, show us their group projects, share their group activities and teach us the causes that interest them," explains Patel. You can see an example video here and see a spark reel on the function below.

At the moment, LinkedIn tells me that it has no plans to insert ads between clips in Student Voices. But if Stories content helps uncover and examine job candidates, it could make LinkedIn more unique and indispensable to recruiters who pay for premium access. And if these Stories get a ton of views simply by being adorned with the LinkedIn source, users can return to the application more often to share them. As we have seen with the steady increase in the popularity of Facebook Stories, if you give people a scenario for narcissism, they will fill it.

The start of LinkedIn as a dry web tool to find a job has made the transition difficult. It tries to become a daily habit for users. Some tactical advice at its source may be useful, but much of LinkedIn's content feels blatantly self-promotional, boring or transactional. Meanwhile, it is facing new competition as Facebook integrates career listings and job applications for blue collar work in its social network that already receives more than a billion people who visit each day. It is understandable why LinkedIn would try to cling to the visual communication trend, since Facebook estimates that the story exchange will exceed the distribution of feeds in all applications by 2019. However, Student Voices feels shamelessly "how do you feel, companions?"

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