Is LinkedIn the Next Big Gaming Platform?
Have you noticed that you now have games popping up in your LinkedIn feed? Mike and Anthony have a little fun weighing in and how LinkedIn should be using the data from gaming activity to enhance the LinkedIn experience.
Did you see on LinkedIn, a little thing that was popping up,
is to stay in touch through daily games.
Prep your mind for the work day and compare your results.
And there's a whole scrolling thing of games,
pinpoint, cross climb, queens.
Have you seen this?
- We've waited months and years for LinkedIn
to launch a new feature.
Product teams, hard at work, feature less long,
and they come back with a wordle.
Unbelievable.
- I haven't played one yet.
- I've not played one, not yet.
- I do understand why.
- Well, they're trying to just keep people on the site
as long as they possibly can.
- I think that's the name of the game with these things, right?
With these social networks.
- The reason I haven't played one yet,
because it probably takes like 10 seconds to play.
So I'm like, "Oh, maybe I'll click one and see what happens."
Is I know for a fact, if I click that on pinpoint
and I start guessing the categories,
it's going to publish my results to my LinkedIn feed
without me asking it to.
I just know that's what's gonna happen.
And I don't wanna be like the boomer on LinkedIn
who's like, "Check out my pinpoint score."
I guess the category. - It's 3PM on a Tuesday.
The world knows Mike's playing pinpoint.
- Yeah, it can't be me.
So I'm just like, I don't trust LinkedIn
to even like, they're already doing like a growth hack
with this to keep me on the fricking page.
I know they're gonna monetize my content without me asking
and just go throw it on there and try to get other people
to go play the game.
Like, no way, no way.
I'd have to check all my privacy settings
before I was gonna click on cross climb.
Not doing it. - You have like a,
you create like a burner account just so you can play.
- Yeah, that's a good point.
- That was just my LinkedIn game, my game persona.
- Yeah.
- I didn't read much into this, but I can only assume
this is their way again of keeping engagement on the platform,
serving you more ads as a result,
monetizing on the back end.
It just feels like I have not seen like a legitimate new feature
come out of such, this is like in a way
if LinkedIn had more of a consumer appeal,
there would be the same noise in the public square
as the Twitter kind of issues that have all happened.
Like, again, say what you will about Elon,
say what you will about all of them,
but, or that whole thing.
But the amount of net new capabilities
that have come out on X with a much smaller team
is profound, LinkedIn is the same.
I haven't, LinkedIn, the UI looks the same as 2002, I think.
I haven't seen a new feature,
and yet there is a clamoring from at least the marketers
that we follow and talk to for new capabilities.
And they give us games.
And they give us games.
You know, if they were gonna,
if they, what they should do is they should like,
add some teeth to this.
Like, when you're doing the categorization of things,
it should be like companies and their job postings,
and you can like give feedback to them
by like ranking the companies against each other,
or something that like ties in to,
oh, this is a good one.
You should make people play a game
to like demonstrate their competency
before they click like the one,
the button LinkedIn to apply button for your job.
So then what goes to your ATS, the resume comes,
it also comes with their cross-climbed score.
(laughing)
Then you know, then you know how they scored
in like the sports trivia category,
or whatever the hell you choose.
I just don't, I don't see what the tie in it
to the reason that people are on LinkedIn to the games, right?
Like, like there are certainly places on the internet
where people go to waste time,
and to just entertain themselves,
and to mindlessly scroll,
and just, you know, tune out for a second.
- Yeah.
- That exists.
I don't think that that's why people go to LinkedIn.
I think people go to LinkedIn to find work
to professionally network.
I think they go there to promote business-related content,
they go there to sell.
But I don't think that people are going to,
like that's not the job they're hiring LinkedIn to do.
So pushing games out just feels like they're trying to get people
to hire them for a job that isn't what anyone wants.
It's like, that doesn't feel very aligned to like the service
that they actually provide to the professional community.
So for me, it feels like a gimmick,
like a growth hack type thing.
But I don't know.
I'll never say never.
Maybe you'll see me at the top of the pinpoint leaderboard,
sometimes who knows?
- Who knows?
- I can't wait.
- I don't know.
- I don't know.
- That'll be in a little circle thing,
the band that we put out in your face.
- Mine'll be like--
- That's what they're going to do.
- Number one pinpoint champion of the Western region.
- That's what they're going to do.
You're going to need a badge for every, like, you know,
they're going to gamify your cross-climbed skills.
You know, the other thing that I see a lot of people doing,
or the contra example, is this,
like the rise of the LinkedIn creator a little bit.
- Yeah, yeah.
- Where, you know, if LinkedIn games is to like
the New York Times, Wertle, like, whatever,
then there's also this copycat thing happening
with LinkedIn video.
I'm not sure if your mobile app has this,
but there's a new, like, basically reels,
or TikTok-like experience where you're actually--
- Oh, really?
- Yeah, I think it's in beta.
I think they're still rolling it out.
Feature number two in the last 20 years.
But it's basically, I think, indicative of their strategy
to try, I think, to keep you on platform,
and make it that space, that tab that's always open.
And we, you know, I'm skeptical of some of the stuff.
But I will say, we see a direct correlation
between how often I post from my personal account
with our demo request form on our website.
And like, we're doing the "How did you hear about us?"
And we're a small company, so I think, like,
in general, the, you know, law of small numbers,
type of a thing.
But we repeatedly hear, and the "How did you hear
"about a section that I found you on LinkedIn?"
So that became like a drug, in a way,
I'm like, I gotta post every day.
And some days, you're like,
I got something meaningful to say.
Other days, you're like, I have to post.
I have to say something here.
And so it's really interesting just to see
how the creator trend in the B2B context
is happening on LinkedIn,
and how that other job that they're being hired for,
or LinkedIn's being hired for,
is almost pulling them in the TikTok direction
a little bit as well.
- Yeah, I totally agree with that,
but one thing that they haven't gotten right,
in my opinion, is like, the TikTok algorithm is like so good.
It does the perfect balance of like,
what you care about, plus discovery.
And what I can say, LinkedIn isn't doing good.
And I'm sure everyone is listening
and probably attest to this.
Like, once you get into like a couple of the create,
people who are posting a lot, the creators on LinkedIn,
once you get into a couple of their funnels,
it's like, the feed is just like,
those people over and over and over and over again.
And it starts to kind of feel like,
even more monotonous than it was before that even existed,
right?
Like they're not, I don't think they're doing
a really great job.
If they want me to like, use my LinkedIn feed
the same way I use like, my Instagram feed,
or my TikTok feed,
they're gonna need to do a way better job of discovery.
And right now it's like, you know,
I feel like, you know, it's like, you know,
and no offense to these folks, they're great,
but it's like, you know, see like, Dave and Morgan,
and you know, like, it's like the same ones over
and over and over again, they have great things to say,
but I'm like, every time I go,
it's like, Chris is in there, like, you know,
just like the same people.
And maybe that's just a matter of like,
who I'm connected with.
But I feel like they're missing a huge opportunity
to help me discover new people.
Maybe I don't know, or new creators
to have something to say on the feed.
So they have some work to do in my opinion
on the algorithm.
- I think the reason for it is it's a social graph
where TikTok is an interest graph.
And that I think can be the real unlock.
Like if you were really, if you were at LinkedIn
and really want to take this seriously,
I think you would solve the problem that you just referenced.
- Maybe that's the reason for the games.
They're like, who wants pinpoint?
Who's interested in cross-climme?
That's what they're gonna start their interest graph on.
We solve it. - On the on, yeah.
I think so.
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