LinkedIn is set to follow in Facebook's footsteps by introducing Instant Articles for its membership, at least if the rumour mill is to be believed.
The news comes from inside sources who spoke to BuzzFeed, claiming that LinkedIn has been in discussions with publishers with a view to implementing the system.
If you're not familiar with the idea of Instant Articles, essentially they allow publishers to put their articles up directly within the social network, so they're hosted right there, and benefit from much quicker loading – and Facebook claims readers are much more likely to share them (apparently they're shared 30% more often than mobile web articles).
The benefit for the social media site, of course, is that users aren't leaving its confines to read the articles. For Facebook, it's all part of its grand plan to effectively become the web for its users, and it certainly won't hurt LinkedIn's engagement figures, and will help establish the network as a more solid source of business news.
Getting it right
BuzzFeed tapped LinkedIn on the shoulder for a comment on the speculation, and actually received a response for a change, with a spokesperson telling them: "Publishers remain a very important part of our content ecosystem and we are in regular conversations with them about new ways to work together. Our goal is to ensure we get the right content in front of the right member at the right time to deliver the best member experience possible."
That certainly sounds like a fairly positive response and one which is far from a denial, so we could well see a similar system to Facebook's Instant Articles popping up on LinkedIn soon.
LinkedIn has over 400 million users globally, and probably considerably more than that now seeing as that figure was announced last autumn.
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