LinkedIn expands its news banner to strengthen user engagement and position itself as a leading professional news source. Learn how this feature improves your experience on the platform.
LinkedIn continues to expand its news banner, a strategic tool designed to highlight the most relevant information of the moment. After a test phase in October 2024, the platform is gradually rolling out this feature to a greater number of users, mainly in the United States, Canada and India.
This initiative aims to increase user engagement by providing them with quick and relevant access to professional news. But why is LinkedIn investing so much in this feature and what impact could it have on the way professionals consume information?
LinkedIn's News Banner: A Digest of Key Information
Visit LinkedIn news banner now appears at the top of the news feed on the mobile app. It highlights the most relevant topics of the day, selected by the platform's editorial team.
LinkedIn explains:
“The LinkedIn News banner makes it easy to discover and stay up-to-date with real-time news and career insights. You can access it at the top of your mobile news feed. Clicking on a news story will show you relevant LinkedIn articles and posts, curated by our editors, including content from leading news outlets and journalists.”
The goal is simple: to provide a quick and structured access to today's trends, while integrating publications from influential players in the professional world. This initiative marks a major development for LinkedIn, which wants to position itself as a reference platform for professional news.
A feature designed to maximize engagement
One of the main objectives of this news banner is to encourage discussions around current topics. By highlighting verified and relevant information, LinkedIn hopes to generate more interactions between members of the community.
How does it work?
- Editorial selection : The information displayed in the banner is selected by LinkedIn editors, who rely on reliable sources and current trends.
- Highlighting discussions : By clicking on a news item, users access a set of publications and articles related to the subject, thus encouraging exchanges and the sharing of opinions.
- Personalization : LinkedIn allows users to hide a news story at any time by clicking the icon in the top right of the banner. This action will remove the story from the news feed for 24 hours.
A response to Twitter's loss of influence (X)
The expansion of this functionality is not insignificant. It occurs in a context where Twitter, now X, sees its influence as a real-time news platform diminish. Some groups of users are looking for new alternatives to get informed about the topics that matter.
LinkedIn could fill this void by providing a trusted and verified news source., focused on the professional world. The platform thus relies on the credibility and expertise of its members to encourage quality discussions.
Why a test limited to the United States, Canada and India?
While the expansion of the news banner is a significant step forward, it does not yet affect all users. For now, only USA, Canada and India benefit from this update.
This choice may come as a surprise, particularly given the presence of India in this shortlist. However, this decision is based on strategic considerations:
- India is LinkedIn's fastest growing market. With more than 100 million users, the country represents a key opportunity for the development of the platform.
- United States and Canada are mature markets, where LinkedIn is already well established and can test the adoption of this new functionality before a wider deployment.
A potential impact on information consumption
The introduction of this news banner marks a turning point in the way professionals consume information on LinkedIn. With this format, the platform seeks to:
- Making trends easier to access and key discussions of the moment.
- Strengthen commitment by encouraging users to interact with the news offered.
- Offer a credible alternative to other news social networks, including Twitter (X).
Towards a global deployment?
Although this feature is still in the expanded testing phase, it is likely that it will gradually be rolled out to other regions.LinkedIn goal is clear: to become a major player in the dissemination of professional news and to encourage enriching discussions between its members.
We will closely monitor the evolution of this feature and its impact on user engagement. LinkedIn could well become the next big player in online information, and this news banner is a first strategic step.
What do you think about this new feature? Would you like to have it on your LinkedIn feed?