LinkedIn announced its LinkedIn Stories feature available to all U.S. and Canadian users. For those new to the concept of Stories, they disappear after 24 hours and are 10-second video or photo clips where you can add text, filters, GIFs, emojis, music, and much more. Stories first gained popularity on Snapchat and now live on Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp, and Pinterest.
LinkedIn Stories Feature Highlight Your Authentic Personal Brand LINKEDINWith over 706 million global users, LinkedIn is the number one social media platform for B2B marketers and is known as the go-to social network for professionals.
As the workplace culture shifts to daily Zoom meetings from your dining room or children distance learning in the background — showing your whole self in the professional world is the new normal. For users who want to embrace their authentic personal brand using LinkedIn Stories, here are five ways to do so.
Highlight Personal Achievements
On LinkedIn, you’re encouraged to showcase career updates and accolades. You can highlight a promotion, an award, published article, or a high-profile partnership — bring those big wins to life with LinkedIn Stories. Use a selfie video to talk to your audience and explain your achievement. Your audience will see your enthusiasm and excitement and engage with your content. You can also add fun emojis or filters in the background that align with your achievement. For example, if you got a promotion, you could add the fire emoji to make the LinkedIn Story pop. Make sure to have a strong call-to-action to learn more either online or off, so your audience can view your wins.
Inspire Others
Emotional storytelling has an incredible impact on bringing you closer to your community. You can do this on LinkedIn Stories by telling a professional story and a lesson you learned from it. That might include how you dealt with a toxic work environment or overcoming a challenge and were able to succeed. Many will have similar experiences, and in doing so, will enjoy hearing camaraderie within the business world. With the ephemeral and authentic nature, LinkedIn Stories allows for a deepened vulnerability that inspires and helps others.
Educate Your Audience
You now have a more authentic way to educate your audience and gather customer insights on your products or services. For a product-based company, you can show in-real-time product development and garner feedback from your audience. You could ask questions for them to answer that help guide the product from zero to launch. Make your audience feel part of the product development, so when you’re ready to launch, they’ll already have an affinity towards it and will most likely purchase the product.
For a service-based company, you will need to promote how you work with clients and better serve their needs. An innovative way to do so is to launch an AMA (ask me anything). There is even an AMA sticker you can include on your content. Have your audience send you questions, and then you answer them in the LinkedIn Stories to better describe your services and how you help others succeed. This will build trust with your audience, leading to increased sales, partnerships, etc.
Go Behind The Scenes
Peeling back the layers of your career allows you to show off all sides of yourself. LinkedIn is tailored to professional content. Showing behind-the-scenes content is a great way to show a less curated side of yourself. You can show off your home workspace, which apps you use to boost productivity, create a “day in the life,” or introduce a family member or roommate you’re living with to really give the full view into how you’re creating your work environment. By being relatable, you connect more and ultimately build more clients and community.
Give A Shoutout
Now more than ever, people are craving giving and receiving accolades. While there’s no in-person feedback, you can give a digital shoutout on LinkedIn Stories. Let a co-worker know that you’re appreciative of all their hard work or thank a partner for doing an excellent webinar together. You can use an older photo or a screenshot from a Zoom and post it into the LinkedIn Stories with a bold emoji or GIF to add some fun to the content. Then, do a selfie video where you explain how they add value in your workplace. The more you cheer on others, you’ll bring positive vibes to your content, and your audience will want to watch.
Moving Foward
As the adage goes, we no longer are in a B2B or B2C world, it’s human-to-human, and that is now brought to life through LinkedIn Stories. Show off your true self to build your personal brand. In doing so, it can lead to many opportunities in the business world that wouldn’t have been available otherwise such as speaking opportunities, new partnerships, increased sales, and much more.
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