LinkedIn integrates Pulse, looks to content and mobile for future growth
LinkedIn tweaked its news offering Wednesday by integrating Pulse, the mobile news aggregator it purchased for $90 million earlier this year.
When consumers sign in to LinkedIn, they now see news suggestions from Pulse rather than LinkedIn Today, its previous content hub. Though the integration is a small change to the service, it’s a major signal of where the company is headed.
As Marketing reported in July, LinkedIn has undergone a transformation from CV depository into a publisher. By integrating Pulse, which creates personalized, interactive interfaces out of consumers’ favourite news sites, the company is moving one step closer to realizing its vision of being a personalized trade publication serving content based on its users’ industry, job and level of seniority.
Content is helping every aspect of LinkedIn’s business, from time spent to new ad dollars from marketers spending on content marketing, according to Ryan Rolansky, head of content products at LinkedIn.
“We’ve seen how much our members interact with content and we strongly believe that having access to the right information at the right time ultimately helps inform and inspire,” Rolansky told Marketing. “We feel we are only just getting warmed up and have much more planned ahead to bring the next generation of content consumption experiences.”
The integration of the app will also help LinkedIn continue to grow its mobile audience, which CEO Jeff Weiner has stated as a priority for the company. Half of the company’s unique visitors currently come from a mobile device.
Randi Zuckerberg talks privacy with Marketing
Ahead of an appearance in Toronto, Randi Zuckerberg spoke with Marketing about her time at Facebook, the role of privacy in social media and her two new books—Dot.Complicated, a look at the intersection of social life and social media; and Dot, a children’s book about screen time.
Addressing concerns about privacy in the U.S. in light of the NSA scandal and recent user uproars about the privacy policies of Facebook, Google and the like, Zuckerberg said, “No one is forcing you to use any of these social media sites. The number of people on Facebook, on Twitter, on YouTube is growing and growing. Even if people have those concerns, their concerns are obviously not great enough to stop them from going to these social media sites in droves.”
Home Depot apologizes for an offensive tweet
Late last week, Home Depot issued an apology for a tweet that featured two men in gorilla masks playing the drums and a third, an African American man, with the question, “Which drummer is not like the others?” The company said it fired the agency that handled its social media and sent the tweet and is “closely” reviewing its social media procedures.
The Numbers:
Netflix and YouTube are the leading sources of downstream web traffic (traffic that goes directly from a source to a computer) in North America, according to a new report by the Canadian firm Sandvine. Here’s a look at the breakdown of web traffic and where social media sites fit in.
Downstream traffic sources during peak times
31.6%
Netflix
18.7%
YouTube
1.3%
3.8%
iTunes
