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LinkedIn Moves Into Video, Starting With Quora-Style Q&A From Influencers (techcrunch.com)

LinkedIn has become the latest major technology company to get into video content. On Tuesday, the social network for professionals announced a new app that its hand-selected group of influencers can create and share short videos directly to the app's news feed. It's the first time LinkedIn has ever let users upload video directly to the service, something that's been standard on other social sites for years. TechCrunch adds: LinkedIn will start first with videos created by LinkedIn 'Influencers' -- an invitation-only group of 500 LinkedIn users who have significant numbers of followers and who regularly post content to the site -- who will be making videos that are short, 30-seconds-or-less responses to questions put to them specifically or to the community at large. Influencers will be creating their videos using a special iOS and Android app called "Record" that LinkedIn has created for this purpose -- which for now will only be accessible by these Influencers, LinkedIn tells me.

22 of 35 comments (clear)

  1. Missing something... by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 2

    I got 800+ connections with recruiters. Where's my invitation to be an influencer?

    1. Re:Missing something... by shadowrat · · Score: 2

      You're almost there! Just take the time to fill out a little more personal info and give us access to all your data.

  2. Only for special people by vvaduva · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The rest of us peasants don't get to participate. LinkedIn is about following the important, big name C level folks using the platform to further promote their names and businesses. It's not about the rest of us. I won't participate in their scheme...if I wanted to watch videos of narcissists doing their thing, there is YouTube and Facebook.

    1. Re:Only for special people by TheGratefulNet · · Score: 1

      its ALL about advertising for those who have BOOK DEALS and who do speaking arrangements for fees.

      every damned 'article' is a teaser for a book by that poster.

      clickbaity as can be, too. knowingly bullshit just to get comment.

      hey, web2.0 is great, isn't it? such a great use of machines, bandwidth and our time.

      (sheesh)

      btw, have you seen the UI for 'messaging' in linked in? a few months ago they redid it and its now nearly unusable. great job, morans. you broke the main thing about LI that made it useful (being able to talk to hiring managers and recruiters without having to go thru email, first. its now slow and laggy and there is lots of slowness when you type; gee wonder what DATA MINING they are doing as I am typing. dammit. jumped the shark, they did.)

      --

      --
      "It is now safe to switch off your computer."
    2. Re:Only for special people by vvaduva · · Score: 1

      nailed it

    3. Re:Only for special people by Bender+Unit+22 · · Score: 1

      LinkedIn are bloody annoying. I uninstalled their app after they started showing that I had unread items, which where just paid commercials and not somone wanting to talk to me, of course it is a trick they had learned from facebook and twitter.

      Sort of same thing happened to Twitter which I rarely used. They started to ping me with an alert everyday that someone had tweeted something when I hadn't been using their app for 24 hours. So Twitter got uninstalled, didn't care for it anyway.

      And again it happened on facebook before I deleted my account. When I hadn't been on facebook for a few days, they pinged me with an update that someone had said something. When I checked it out, it did not even have anything to do with me, it wasn't directed at me or tagged etc.
      So I uninstalled their app. Then they started sending me emails instead about "someone did something"(really, that was about the wording of it).
      When I disabled emails, their clever tatics ment that I would not get notifications if someone was contacting me.
      So the only way I could use their platform as a message system was to constantly use time on it.
      I deleted my Facebook account, it has been a slight annoyance because family members assumed that I had been updated on different family related news, but mostly it has been great to do without all the mindless jibber jabber. :D

    4. Re:Only for special people by Big+Hairy+Ian · · Score: 1

      if I wanted to watch videos of narcissists doing their thing, there is YouTube and Facebook.

      Just watch the news!

      --

      Build a Man a Fire, and He'll Be Warm for a Day. Set a Man on Fire, and He'll Be Warm for the Rest of His Life.

  3. How exciting! by 110010001000 · · Score: 1

    This is really exciting news. Hopefully they add audio next. Keep us updated, manishs!

  4. LinkedIn is strictly business by sinij · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I don't think LinkedIn users are at all interested in any kind of media. LinkedIn is modern equivalent of self-updating Rolodex.

    1. Re:LinkedIn is strictly business by TechyImmigrant · · Score: 2

      I don't think LinkedIn users are at all interested in any kind of media. LinkedIn is modern equivalent of self-updating Rolodex.

      Yes and yes.

      --
      I should use this sig to advertise my book ISBN-13 : 978-1501515132.
    2. Re:LinkedIn is strictly business by RobotRunAmok · · Score: 1

      >>I don't think LinkedIn users are at all interested in any kind of media

      No, but the narcissist C-suite "influencers" are, and that's who LinkedIn is interested in. (They're not interested in you and me, as I am certain you are aware.) Who needs data mining? This gets the wealthiest 1% demographic among their user base knocking on *their* door. Brilliant, but in a pathetic kind of way...

  5. The history of LinkedIn. by geekmux · · Score: 3, Insightful

    LinkedIn used to be a place where professionals could post an electronic resume, where one would keep a nicely trimmed list of well-known associates that would validate claimed experience with at least some level of authenticity.

    Today it's a place where people attempt to connect up with anyone and everyone they've never worked with, all for the express purpose of creating an online resume that would make God himself look woefully inept by comparison.

    Video? Sure, why the hell not. It's not like you're going to risk data integrity...

  6. Shit spam site. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Today it's a place where people attempt to connect up with anyone and everyone they've never worked with, all for the express purpose of creating an online resume that would make God himself look woefully inept by comparison.

    LinkedIN does that. When you sign up now, they demand access to your contact list. And then they spam everyone on it with a false invite from those people. I know this for a fact because I contacted those people when it happened to me. I asked, "Why are you, a dietician, trying to link with me, a software developer?"

    "It wasn't me. LinkedIN just does that."

    I got the same answer from everyone but the one person I actually worked with.

    LinkedIN has become spammers and a home for recruiters of questionable ethics.

    I deleted my account. I never -EVER - got a job via LinkedIN anyway.

  7. You know, it's funny... by DoofusOfDeath · · Score: 2

    After Windows 10, I thought MS would need to rest up before damaging yet another once-useful product.

  8. Re:Facebook for hipsters by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 1

    Why do people use LinkedIn?

    Looking for a tech job? I got 800+ connections to recruiters from the last 20 years that I've talked, interviewed or submitted resumes to during my IT career. If I post online that I'm looking for a job, I'll immediately get 50+ responses. Sometimes LinkedIn is the only way to find jobs that aren't being listed on the job search boards.

  9. Re:Facebook for hipsters by TechyImmigrant · · Score: 2

    Why do people use LinkedIn?

    Looking for a tech job? I got 800+ connections to recruiters from the last 20 years that I've talked, interviewed or submitted resumes to during my IT career. If I post online that I'm looking for a job, I'll immediately get 50+ responses. Sometimes LinkedIn is the only way to find jobs that aren't being listed on the job search boards.

    Head hunters find me on linked in every few weeks. One day I might need them.

    --
    I should use this sig to advertise my book ISBN-13 : 978-1501515132.
  10. Sweet! by argStyopa · · Score: 3, Funny

    So that means I can get spammed with more craptastic "invites" from people I've never heard of but now with VIDEO?

    Where do I sign up?

    Oh wait, Linkedin already automagically signed me up and I can laboriously unsubscribe only to be 'mysteriously' resubbed over and over again!

    --
    -Styopa
  11. Re:Facebook for hipsters by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 1

    Head hunters find me on linked in every few weeks.

    I prefer dealing with recruiters, as they don't want to shrink my head.

  12. Oh great, more talking head videos... by ErichTheRed · · Score: 2

    Given the audience of LinkedIn, I imagine the short list of "influencers" includes...
    - Anyone from Gartner or Forrester -- hello Magic Quadrants! [1]
    - A random smattering of Web 2.0 startup CEOs talking about "disruption"
    - HR consulting snake oil salesmen touting the latest fad

    LinkedIn is becoming as much of a dumping ground as Facebook these days. I use it as a public resume, recruiter-collector and contact list. Lots of people are using it as a thinly veiled extension of their personal Facebook profile - adding video is just going to hasten this. There's plenty of narcissists on YouTube, no need to pollute LinkedIn.

    [1] Part of being a senior level technology guy in big companies leads me to interact with various people who do nothing beyond looking at where Vendor X is in the Gartner Magic Quadrant before dropping millions on products/projects. What is it about Gartner that conveys Pope-level infallibility? Seriously people, these reports are written by 26 year old MBAs with a tiny bit of tech background...

    1. Re:Oh great, more talking head videos... by Bender+Unit+22 · · Score: 1

      Conan O'Brien. :D

    2. Re:Oh great, more talking head videos... by Bob+the+Super+Hamste · · Score: 1

      What is it about Gartner that conveys Pope-level infallibility? Seriously people, these reports are written by 26 year old MBAs with a tiny bit of tech background...

      I believe that you answered your own question for MBAs by MBAs.

      --
      Time to offend someone
  13. You can tell they are a MS company ... by quax · · Score: 1

    ... by the inspired application name.

    Record

    How long did it take them, and how much did they pay, to come up with this?