Will 'Influencer blogs' make anyone care about LinkedIn again?

LinkedIn is great for creating a basic online CV and connecting with pushy recruiters. That’s what we all know and love (OK tolerate) it for. But when the company starts telling us to celebrate work anniversaries (guys, that’s really not a thing), recommend people for the most random of skills and now blog about our business lives the purpose of the site seems a bit scattered and it becomes, I hate to say it, just plain annoying.

According to Reuters, LinkedIn’s decision to add in blogging functionality is because it wants to become more like Facebook (when was the last time anyone blogged on Facebook? 2007?) and intends to encourage people to create and share content on the platform instead of just drop in to stalk ex-colleagues. The company hopes this will increase engagement given recent stats that its page views have dropped again for the second quarter.

Well-known business minds have been able to write blog posts on LinkedIn for some time, but it seems all the boring, normal people can join LinkedIn’s elite blogging club, which will be called its “Publisher Platform” now too. LinkedIn will allow people to write what they want and will then be using algorithms to serve up the most relevant, shared blog posts to its users.

If LinkedIn was planning on taking a leaf from Medium’s book – with a minimal yet beautiful design and intuitive interface – then the additional blogging feature may work, but we worry it’s just going to be a stuffy place for recruiters and social media “gurus” to share lame tips about their respective bubbles.