New Photo Stickers and Photo-Tagging from LinkedIn

In recent months, LinkedIn has been steadily rolling out new tools and options which can be used for your imaging creativity, thereby generating more engagement with your content and increasing your creative capacity. Chief among these is the new addition of photo tagging, which is already being rolled out as of mid-April 2019, to both desktop users and mobile app users. This new option allows you to tag individuals through their LinkedIn profile, right from within images that you've posted. During March 2019, LinkedIn began rolling out this new feature to users, and it is expected that by the end of April, all users will have access to photo tagging.

How to do photo tagging

This is a fairly straightforward process, assuming that you're able to tag people in your images. When you are creating a LinkedIn update, and you have already added in your photo, you will then be able to tap on the tag icon which is situated right at the top of the screen, or alternatively you can tap on the image itself, so as to invoke the profile search option.

Once you've gotten to this point, you'll be able to search by entering in a name, and then adding whatever tag you deem to be relevant. You don't have to be specifically connected to a certain user, in order to add them using this photo tag. Altogether, you have the capability of tagging as many as 30 people for any given post that you create. Any individual whom you have tagged in an image, or anyone who has created an actual post, will have the capability of removing those tags after they've been posted.When you do tag an individual and then complete your post, that person would automatically receive a notification along with an email, informing them that they have been tagged. The one exception to this would be when users have their tag notifications turned off, so that they can't be delivered to the person's account. When this option is used effectively, it can be a very interesting alternative for securing the attention of other individuals, as well as enhancing connections and boosting engagement with your content.One word of warning however, is that there is a high potential for spamming with this option, especially by marketers who become overly enthusiastic with its usage. This represents the latest in a long line of LinkedIn visual tools which have been made available in recent months and years, and it is expected that it will be welcomed enthusiastically by users of the platform.

Other new options

LinkedIn has also recently rolled out stickers which can be used for image posts on LinkedIn, and the stickers offer a wide range of work-themed options which appear animated or cartoonish in their display. Another recent addition to the LinkedIn arsenal of tools is the image alt text, which has only been rolled out to desktop users to this point. This offers an option to assist users who have visual impairments, and instead of visualizing an actual image, the alt text would convey some understanding of what is being represented by the image. The alt text describes the contents of whatever the image is, thus making it more accessible for those who are visually impaired.In line with all the other social media platforms, LinkedIn is focusing much more these days on visual content, and it's taking its cues from some of the other networks in an attempt to increase its own platform activity. Another major offering in this area is the LinkedIn version of Reactions, which the platform borrowed from Facebook, and which it began testing last year. Reactions on LinkedIn look very similar to Reactions on Facebook, and in fact, it would be hard to tell the two apart.Other visually related features that LinkedIn is experimenting with include coupling Stories with live streaming, which will incorporate image overlays very similar to Snapchat, and will allow a person to include GIF's within messaging streams. The live streaming option, which is known as LinkedIn Live, will offer yet another option for video content on the platform, and all such innovations in this area have been well received by users.Ever since LinkedIn launched its native tools for video development in August 2017, video content has become by far the most engaging content alternative which has been made available to users of the platform. LinkedIn Live will offer businesses and individual members immediate capacity to provide provide product announcements, conduct Q&A sessions, and even share from conferences with followers.

Non-traditional LinkedIn features

While these may not sound like features one would typically expect to see on LinkedIn, especially in light of the fact that it's considered to be the most business-like of the platforms, you have to keep in mind that more and more LinkedIn is being used for the purpose of selling and reaching potential customers. The bottom line is, a great many users are actually using these new features and enjoying them, so that would seem to justify their being offered and developed by the platform.Usage is always the true measure of any feature offered on one of the social media platforms, and these new visual features from LinkedIn all seem to have welcome audiences. It now seems likely that these new visual features being offered by LinkedIn will definitely increase on-platform engagement, and that means they'll end up being big winners for the platform.If you have any doubt about this at all, you should take note of the fact that Microsoft, which is the parent company of LinkedIn, has declared that engagement on that platform is now at an all-time high, as is platform usage. So even though a lot of visual tools may seem out of place on LinkedIn, the proof is in the pudding, and statistics say that these are all welcome additions to LinkedIn, which means it's very likely we'll see a continued stream of such tools in the future.