LinkedIn risks alienating top publishers in the world of business news, some of whom used to rely on the social network for a chunk of their traffic.
In its bid to become a content platform in its own right, LinkedIn seems to have cut out some of the big publishers that rely on it for referral traffic. Referral traffic from LinkedIn began to lessen back in January and then plunged steeply in March according to a LinkedIn employee and is supported by data.
LinkedIn has spent the past few years attempting to become the definitive professional publishing platform for business content. The changes seem to have started in November when LinkedIn began to implement features of Pulse, a newsreader company it purchased in spring 2013.
These changes that LinkedIn are implementing risk alienating top publishers in the world of business news, some of whom used to rely on the social network for a healthy chunk of their traffic. LinkedIn wants to be an everyday destination for its users, not just a place they come to check out resumes. The true test won’t be whether it can get people to read its content, it is if the content is strong enough to keep users coming back for more.
