LinkedIn wants to generate more interactions with new reactions

LinkedIn wants to generate more interactions on its platform, by adding new responses. It is a function that extends the ordinary ‘like’ with four new options. Users can now also respond to messages with icons that stand for ‘celebrate’, ‘love’, ‘insightful’ and ‘curious’.

Reactions are being rolled out to the company’s nearly 600 million users worldwide, both on the desktop and in the mobile apps, writes TechCrunch. The company follows with the update several other social media that have also expanded their ‘like’ with multiple options. Facebook is the best known of these, which expanded its response buttons three years ago.

According to product manager Cissy Chen, the reactions of LinkedIn are based on the types of conversations that people already have on the platform, and on what people mainly write when they give written reactions of one or two words.

According to her, reports are typically divided into two groups. They are messages from people who announce new professional roles or milestones, and from people who share things they’ve learned elsewhere. As a result, the reactions go both ways: one group that encourages and one that is more contemplative.

Live videos

Earlier this year it also became clear that LinkedIn is experimenting with live videos. The tool should make it possible to broadcast real-time videos for a select group of people or for users from all over the world. The intention is to broadcast conferences, important press conferences, news interviews and expert advice, for example.

For the tool, the social medium collaborates with Telestream Wirecast, Switcher Studio, Wowza, Socialive and Brandlive, among others. This gives content creators multiple ways to go live, including via the desktop and mobile app. Microsoft takes care of the technical side of the story via Azure Media Services.