LinkedIn announced the long awaited arrival of their own set of post Reactions this month, adding celebrate, love, insightful and curious to the already available thumbs-up.
The platform said in a blog post that the Reactions started rolling out in early April and will be available globally in the coming months.
In the post, LinkedIn product manger Chrissy Chen suggested that celebrate can be used to praise a connection’s accomplishment or milestone, such as a new job or a speaker’s role at an event. Love is a way for members to express “deep resonance and support,” such as for a conversation on work-life balance or mentorship. Insightful helps people highlight great points or interesting ideas. And curious helps express the desire to learn more about thought-provoking topics.
Product designer Ricardo Rivera wrote a separate post to explain the process LinkedIn used to develops Reactions: “This process included looking at what people are already talking about to better understand what feedback they wanted to express and receive. For example, we analyzed the top one- and two-word comments being used and what types of posts people are sharing most. We also conducted global research with LinkedIn members to get feedback on the specific reactions to ensure that they were universally understood and helpful.”
This is a nice update for anyone that navigates the LinkedIn newsfeed for either their personal profiles or their Business Page. It gives users tools to quickly and easily engage with content and enables them to deliver more feedback to the author than just a thumbs-up allows for.
But it’s also going to end up being a big win for marketers. The new reactions should significantly increase the amount of interaction that users engage in when using the platform, with a short-term spike as people notice the new Reactions and a long-term increase in overall time spent with the platform. More time being spent on the platform means more of an opportunity for business-focused eyeballs on the content of brands who know how to tell great stories.
