The evolution of LinkedIn and its opportunity for brands in Singapore

Those of you who have been following LinkedIn’s recent developments closely would have started to observe that the site is undergoing an image overhaul. From previously what was a social networking site, it’s now trying to evolve into a content platform for work purposes.

Of course, this comes as no surprise as that’s where the advertising money lies and will help LinkedIn sustain its phenomenal growth as a social networking platform.

So, can LinkedIn become the platform for brands to engage B2B audiences? Right now, there are some brands who have used LinkedIn to certain degrees of success. I’ve also seen brands on Twitter and Facebook trying to reach out to their B2B audiences. Can the new LinkedIn successfully help marketers and brands?

I’d say, it’s possible, but it will take some time. There still needs to be a mindset change amongst LinkedIn’s end users that it’s not a job-hunting or networking site but rather a content site for work purposes. That change is being driven by LinkedIn through all these tweaks, but it will take some time before they successfully (we hope) change people’s perception of how to use the site.

At the same time, LinkedIn is still seen as a very person-to-person communication social network, vis-à-vis Twitter and Facebook where the presence of brands have become more accepted. I think it’s due to the original way this social network was set-up, in that it was a way to keep in touch with your business contacts.

Users will need to accept brands’ presence on the site and this will happen as LinkedIn evolves into a content platform. Right now I still see people mainly engaging with each other rather than with brands.

But already, some of these new tweaks are giving brands ample opportunities to engage with people. For starters, the thought leadership part, where LinkedIn has opinion and business leaders writing opinion pieces on their site, is a great opportunity for brands to pitch their top-tier spokespersons for the purpose of profile building as well as increasing brand exposure.

And now, LinkedIn is also pilot testing a ‘sponsored updates’ feature, which causes ads to appear in users’ news feeds, much like how it’s being done on Facebook and Twitter.

While it remains to be seen what other changes are in store for LinkedIn, it’s certainly a space that’s worth watching closely for brands which are keen to reach out to their customers in a work context.