LinkedIn discontinues Stories feature in favor of 'short-form video format'
What's the story
Microsoft-owned networking platform LinkedIn recently announced that it is shutting down its Stories feature that allowed users to post content that disappears after 24 hours, just like Instagram and Snapchat stories. The company Tuesday said that it is replacing the outgoing feature with a "reimagined video experience" across LinkedIn that aspires to be "richer and more conversational." Here are the details.
Why copy Stories?
LinkedIn introduced stories in 2020, years after Big Tech
In a blog post about the discontinuation of Stories, LinkedIn's Senior Director of Product, Liz Li, said that Stories were introduced last year as a way to share quick, casual video-format updates. LinkedIn was rather late to the party since Snapchat conceptualized the Stories concept in 2013 and it has since been shamelessly replicated by Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, YouTube, Skype, and TikTok, among others.
Pulling the plug
Advertiser campaigns for Stories will be discontinued after September-end
Li claimed that in the year that Stories were available on LinkedIn, the platform "learned a lot." In a bid to "embrace mixed media... and integrate it more tightly with your professional identity," LinkedIn has decided to discontinue stories at the end of September. Additionally, any advertising campaigns that inserted ads between users' stories scheduled to continue beyond September will be discontinued.
Shifting focus
The replacement: Videos to share your expertise, professional story
With stories gone, LinkedIn will be pivoting towards a "short-form, rich, interactive video format" with relative permanence. Li noted that people want to create lasting videos that tell their professional stories in a personal way that showcases the person's personality and expertise. It will be interesting to see how LinkedIn adds such videos to user profiles.
After you, Twitter
LinkedIn is also working on a Clubhouse clone
That said, LinkedIn followed in the footsteps of Twitter that also recently discontinued its ephemeral tweets feature called Twitter Fleets. The microblogging platform has since replaced Fleets with its Clubhouse clone called Twitter Spaces that promises to be more engaging with monetization opportunities opening up in the coming months. In case you're curious, LinkedIn is also developing its variation of Clubhouse's audio-based discussion platform.