LinkedIn stories are going the way of Twitter’s Fleets, as the company announces the feature will be removed at the end of September.
It turns out stories isn’t a one-size-fits-all feature that will be a runaway success on all social media platforms.
LinkedIn discovered users love the idea of more video content on their profiles, but stories wasn’t the right approach to it.
Here’s more about why stories failed on LinkedIn, what it means for users and advertisers, and what the company has planned for the future.
What Went Wrong?
In an announcement, LinkedIn admits it made incorrect assumptions with regard to what users want out of an informal video product such as stories.
“In developing Stories, we assumed people wouldn’t want informal videos attached to their profile, and that ephemerality would reduce barriers that people feel about posting.
Turns out, you want to create lasting videos that tell your professional story in a more personal way and that showcase both your personality and expertise.”
In other words, users liked stories but didn’t like the fact that they disappear.
Perhaps users felt as though it wasn’t worth the effort to create stories for LinkedIn knowing they’re not permanent.
Instead of simply making stories last forever, LinkedIn is removing the feature and working on something entirely new.
What Happens on September 30?
Starting on September 30, 2021, LinkedIn is removing the current stories experience.
For users, this means they will no longer be able to create stories for pages.
For advertisers that planned to run ads in between stories, the ads will instead be shared to the main LinkedIn feed.
Any stories that were promoted directly from a page in Campaign Manager will not appear in the LinkedIn feed. They will need to be recreated as an image or video ad.
What’s Next For LinkedIn?
LinkedIn plans to take what it learned from the launch of stories to evolve the product into a reimagined video experience.
The new experience is said to be richer and more conversational than stories:
“We want to embrace mixed media and creative tools of Stories in a consistent way across our platform, while working to integrate it more tightly with your professional identity.”
LinkedIn notes that users enjoyed the creative tools integrated with the stories editor.
Features like stickers and “Question of the Day” prompts helped users make videos that were more creative and engaging.
However, users would prefer if they could enhance videos in a more professional context. They also want the ability to edit videos across all of LinkedIn, not just within a specific feature like stories.
LinkedIn didn’t reveal any further details about the video experience it’s working on, or when it will launch, but you should now have a general ideal of where the feature is headed.
Source: LinkedIn
Featured Image: Diego Thomazini/Shutterstock
