LinkedIn For Business Creating Stories[updated]

LinkedIn rolled out stories in 2020. If you are an Instagram user, you are familiar with the idea of sharing a story to your network. Effective September 15 2021 they are discontinuing stories.

LinkedIn wants in on the popularity of sharing stories. Their twist to this popular social media post is to “share what’s happening in your professional life.” Apparently this feature did not go over as they had hope and LinkedIn has stated they are coming out with new video features.

How does stories work?

First thing to know is that to initiate a story you can only do that from the LinkedIn mobile app. As on Instagram, your story is active for a 24-hour period and then disappear.

To post a Story on your profile, open your LinkedIn app and touch the circle with your photo and a plus sign in the upper left corner to open the camera. You can:

• Record the video or take the photo directly through the app
• Upload video (up to 20s) or image
• Add a sticker and/or text
• Mention users with @

To create a new Story after posting your first Story, tap the plus icon on the top left or bottom right corner once you go into your previously published Story.

You can engage with LinkedIn Stories on your mobile app by:

1. 1. Creating a Story – An individual profile or LinkedIn Page Admin can create and post a Story using images and videos.
   2. Viewing a Story – LinkedIn members can view Stories created by connections and people and Pages they follow.

How to post a story

If you’re a LinkedIn member and/or a Page Admin, you can post a Story from the LinkedIn mobile app. You can either use the Stories camera to capture images or videos in real-time or upload saved content from your mobile photo file.

Unlike Facebook & Instagram stories, you won’t see a preview at the top of the screen, this could make a quick engagement more difficult. Your LinkedIn profile picture needs will grab the attention, so be sure your headshot is a good one.

Tip: Start out the video/post strong or with your best stuff because the average person watches Instagram stories 40-60% before moving on to the next story.

LinkedIn shares your Story for 24 hours after you’ve posted it. It can be seen by your connections and followers, and they can share it with anyone they’re connected with on LinkedIn.

It’s important to know that you can’t edit a Story after you’ve posted it. However, you can delete an individual post and then post again.

It’s interesting to note, if you specifically don’t want someone to see the Stories that you post, you can block a connection or follower. Once you’ve blocked a profile, LinkedIn won’t share your Stories with the blocked member, and their Stories won’t be shared with you.

How to Share a LinkedIn Story

As mentioned previously, when you post a story it can be seen by your connections and followers, and they can share it with anyone they’re connected with on LinkedIn. This is totally subjective to the LinkedIn algorithm as to who and how many connections actually see the post, so don’t assume many will. Although, when LinkedIn rolls out a new feature, it is usually favored for a time which means you will get more exposure after a new release.
Typically LinkedIn favors those members who are consistently active and their content is being engaged with.

You can also share your Story with any of your 1st-degree connections via LinkedIn Messaging.
Note: You can only share it during the 24 hours that it’s shared on LinkedIn (it will automatically expire after).

Why Create LinkedIn Stories?

I think a LinkedIn stories strategy should be more than inspirational quotes, leave that to Instagram. Pull back the curtain on how you run your business, show off your people and create a more personal connection to your brand.

When you share interesting stories, you will find more profile views so you want to be sure your LinkedIn profile is well written from a client-centric perspective.

Create Graphics in Canva

Canva is the best program around for creating social media graphics. They have created some new pre-designed graphics to get you started. You might want to know that the dimensions for LinkedIn stories is the same as Instagram stories at 1080 x 1920 pixels.
If you prefer not to do a live video story, creating your story in images is the next best thing.

Conclusion

LinkedIn stories offers another medium for telling your brand story. So how will you use LinkedIn stories in your LinkedIn content strategy?  Please share your ideas in the comments below or if you are following a brand who is doing an impressive job with stories already, please share their name below.  We can always learn from brands who tell compelling stories.

I can work with you to incorporate stories into a content strategy to build your brand awareness. Schedule a call, let’s discuss.