Commentary
- LinkedIn published posts desperately need a 'read it later' feature. We all lead busy lives so the chances of having the time to read a long form post when we see it are limited. Perhaps a feature similar to Twitter's 'favorite' link would be the easiest option. At the moment I suspect we are kidding ourselves if we believe the 'read' numbers as people who have actually read the post. What do you think? Drop me a line at mark@linkedinformed.com.
Question.
This week's question comes from Carl, it's more of a point/commentary than a question but a really interesting one;
- Hiya Mark,
I was just thinking about LI buying Lynda, and the imminent arrival of
Facebook at Work.
If LI wanted to go mega they'd be tackling this by looking at systems
like Slack https://slack.com. This would really get them into companies
by becoming an actual part of the employees daily workflow, which is
what I'm betting the FB at work thing will aim for. Right now, LI is
still broadly seen as the thing you use when changing jobs (rightly or
wrongly).
We all know how big mobile is now, and how it's just getting bigger each
day.
Slack has massive take up and is really well respected. The need for LI
to get a better collaboration tool will come soon anyway, 4G is here now
with rich services growing daily. We're about to be hit by the wave of
"realtime videoisation" - all apps will be able to use it (its in the
next Android SDK) - think Twitters Periscope, which I know you love, but
for any app. And obviously phone/video calls. Right now, how can a LI
user call another LI user? Use their phone number. That's 3G and earlier
- old style GSM. This next IP-only system allows username to username
calls within a closed system, such as LI, FB etc - and its much more
than a traditional phone call.
- ANS = I totally agree with this. LinkedIn challenge is to combine moving with the times and giving users a really valuable tool with protecting members from spam - unwanted messages and calls. To be honest though I suspect this is way beyond their capabilities at the moment. I have unofficially heard that they are already really struggling with mobile as it is so this seems a bit of a stretch for them! Perhaps this is inevitable outcome of rejecting partnerships with 3rd party developers? Opening up the API provides so much opportunity for innovation but LinkedIn are closing down their API and trying to do everything themselves.
