LinkedIn today announced an expansion of their Influencer program that will now allow members to create longer form posts that exceed the standard 700 characters allotted regular members. This expanded feature now lets members to treat LinkedIn as a type of professional blog to showcase their technical knowledge. Posts become a part of their LinkedIn profile.
Presently LinkedIn has a number of limitations for those who want to share longer form content including limited characters (max 700) and limited images. Additionally the content members share under the present system is only viewable by those you are connected to. The new publishing platform will apparently allow for followers so that others will be able to read your posts without having to become a connection.
Starting today, LinkedIn is opening up our publishing platform to our members, giving them a powerful new way to build their professional brand. When a member publishes a post on LinkedIn, their original content becomes part of their professional profile, is shared with their trusted network and has the ability to reach the largest group of professionals ever assembled. Now members have the ability to follow other members that are not in their network and build their own group of followers. Members can continue to share their expertise by posting photos, images, videos and their original presentations on SlideShare.
LinkedIn mentions adding 25,000 additional members to the program with more to be added later.
Read the LinkedIn blog post announcing this here.
Read some additional question and answer about the new feature here.