LinkedIn wants a bigger slice of the creator economy
LinkedIn on Thursday said it's launching a new slate of five original shows from business-focused creators, including the entrepreneur and "The Diary of a CEO" podcast host Steven Bartlett, the fashion designer "Real Housewives of New York" star Rebecca Minkoff, and Candace Nelson, who founded Sprinkles Cupcakes and the Pizzana pizzeria chain.
LinkedIn's new video push comes as tech companies, from Spotify to YouTube, scramble to lock down top creator talent.
Davang Shah, LinkedIn's VP of marketing, told Business Insider that the effort is also part of the platform's increased focus on video. Total video viewership is up 36% this year versus last, and video creation is growing at twice the rate of other post formats, he said.
The new LinkedIn shows will focus on topics such as female entrepreneurship, the CEO playbook, and artificial intelligence. The other creators taking part are Shelley Zalis, founder of The Female Quotient; Guy Raz, host of the "How I Built This" podcast; and the author Bernard Marr.
LinkedIn said more shows from additional content creators are in the works, though the company plans to keep the selection highly curated for now.
The new shows mark an expansion of LinkedIn's Wire Program, which has been renamed BrandLink. The initial 2023 to 2024 launch partners were professional news publishers like The Wall Street Journal, Reuters, and Business Insider. LinkedIn said it's also bringing on new publishers this year, including The Washington Post, Front Office Sports, and Adweek.
The expansion to creators, however, shows how influencers are becoming an increasingly important part of social media, especially when it comes to news topics. While LinkedIn was once seen as a largely self-promotional tool for job seekers, more corners of the business community — from venture capitalists, to CEOs, and marketers — are regularly coming to the platform to riff on the latest news and other trending topics in their industries.
The BrandLink program lets the publishers and creators monetize their videos through pre-roll ads on their shows, which appear in the feed as users scroll the app. Like YouTube, users can skip the full ad after watching for a few seconds. Advertisers can choose which shows they want to appear in and use LinkedIn's data to target specific cohorts of users, with pricing determined by an ad auction.
LinkedIn has typically kept a 50% cut of the ad revenue through the BrandLink program, a publisher exec told BI. A LinkedIn spokesperson said the company couldn't share specifics about the revenue share model. Creators own the intellectual property of the content they create for LinkedIn, and they are free to distribute the content on other platforms — but they must post it to LinkedIn first, the spokesperson said.
LinkedIn's professional, affluent audience is attractive to advertisers
LinkedIn has long courted creators. In 2012, it launched its Influencers program, encouraging famed businesspeople like Bill Gates, Richard Branson, and Arianna Huffington to post to the platform. But its efforts have ramped up in recent years, as it's rolled out tools for famous and everyday creators alike, designed to help them showcase their expertise and boost their followings. Creators told BI last year that they had seen early success by posting videos to its TikTok-style vertical video feed.
Shah said advertisers are drawn to content on the platform that has credibility and authenticity.
"When you produce authentic and trusted content, it leads to connections, it leads to conversations, and ultimately, it leads to closed deals, and that's what marketers care about the most," Shah said.
For LinkedIn, any uptick in user numbers and engagement boosts its advertising business. Research firm EMARKETER, a sister company of BI, forecasts that LinkedIn will generate $8.06 billion in ad revenue in 2025, up 12.4% year-on-year.
LinkedIn's video ambitions face stiff competition from YouTube and TikTok, which already host oodles of business and finance-focused content. YouTube, in particular, has become a top destination for podcasts, including the aforementioned "Diary of a CEO."
Brendan Gahan, the CEO of Creator Authority, an influencer marketing agency focused on LinkedIn, said the platform has its advantages, however. It ticks off attributes that many marketers want: A large audience (more than 1 billion users, per LinkedIn), strong ad tools, and a largely brand-safe environment. Gahan said what sets the platform apart is its professional, affluent niche.
"This is where decision-makers and executives actually spend time," Gahan said. "Probably more time than any other platform."
As LinkedIn goes all in on video, Nick Cicero, founder of Mondo Metrics, an analytics platform and data consultancy, said the platform should avoid chasing volume over value.
"LinkedIn must curate high-signal content that matches the platform's professional intent, not just push engagement bait," Cicero said. "The goal isn't scale, it's signal. You don't need a million views. You need the right 10 decision-makers."
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