By Princess Jones
In the battle for social media dominance, LinkedIn would never be considered a top contender. That’s something the Facebooks, Instagrams and Twitters of the world need to fight for. Instead, LinkedIn is a much more niche platform, specialized in connecting people who do business together. It remains the place to network with people from your industry and with the people you want to collaborate with.
Recently, LinkedIn introduced a new voice notes feature to its messaging service. Users can send each other short audio messages. The goal is to keep users engaged and encourage more communication on the platform.
Advantages
LinkedIn hopes that users will experience several benefits with the new voicemail feature. First, it’s easier to leave voice messages on the go. Instead of having to type messages on a small keyboard, you can simply speak your message into the phone. Most people speak much faster than they type, especially on a cell phone keyboard.
Also, writing messages requires selective word choice to convey tone. It is very easy for someone to misunderstand your tone over text. But with a spoken message you can indicate much more clearly what you mean by your words.
And because so many people are having so many phone issues these days, a voice note could be the way to get that voice-to-voice contact without actually having to make a phone call.
How to use
Start by opening the LinkedIn app on your mobile device. Tap the message icon at the top of the screen. Tap the pencil and paper icon to start a message or select an already pending message. Now you want to tap the microphone icon on your keyboard.
Another microphone icon will appear on the screen. You use this to record and operate your voice message. Tap and hold the icon to record your message. (As you record, you’ll see the time countdown on the right side of the screen.) Release your finger when you’re ready to send the message. If you’ve finished recording and don’t want to send the voice message, slide your finger away from the icon but keep it pressed. If you receive a LinkedIn voice message, tap (or click) the play icon to hear it.
Things to remember
Currently you can only send voice messages via the mobile app, but you can receive them via the app or on the website. LinkedIn could add the ability to send them over the web in future updates, but there is no expected timeline.
Plus, once you send them, you can’t take them back. So be careful what you put in your voicemail message. LinkedIn is a platform for professional networking. Your spoken message can be informal in nature, but it should still be representative of your brand and your intentions.