LinkedIn Aims to Increase Newsletter Discovery by Displaying User Subscriptions

LinkedIn has been helping both professionals and employers in many ways since it started in 2003. It has been a bridge between the two, allowing employers and agencies to broadcast job opportunities easily, providing resources that help build networks and offering tools to help members share insights and showcase skills. This February 11th, a new feature will let users’ profile visitors see your LinkedIn newsletter subscriptions.

In LinkedIn’s message to Matt Navarra, a prominent social media expert, they wrote:

It is possible for individuals to assume that LinkedIn’s goal is for its members to become more engaged with everything that is going on in their particular field or niche by making it easier for them to find fresh content and keep up with the latest developments in the business.

How will newsletter subscription visibility work?

Although LinkedIn is yet to provide more details, members can expect that the base is still the Creator Mode. Looking back at how it all started on 1 April 2021, Senior Product Manager Margaret Rose Taormina introduced the Creator Mode. She wrote, “Creator mode is a new setting we’re introducing as part of our recent Profile updates, which you’ll find in your Profile dashboard. Turning on creator mode more prominently displays your content and encourages others to follow you.” This feature was designed to increase the users’ following, provide them the opportunity to establish their voice, and make them more discoverable.

On 30 November 2021, LinkedIn posted another update regarding the Creator Mode. They offered access to live videos and newsletters. However, until now, they only grant newsletter access to those who meet their criteria which are:

Members and Pages with over 150 followers and/or connections.
Members and Pages who have already created original content (posts with text, images or videos, blogs, etc.)
Members, Pages, and Admins who have a proven track record of being in good standing

Since many LinkedIn members have already met these criteria, there also comes a significant number of newsletters. Based on the message for Navarra, some members voiced out about wanting to reach and discover more people and resources that also fall under their niche. Therefore, the upcoming feature will, according to LinkedIn, provide users with new opportunities to “get inspired, collaborate, and gain knowledge to advance their careers.”

Can members opt out of the new feature?

The company emphasised: “This change will apply to any of your current and future subscriptions, unless you unsubscribe. If you’d rather opt out of showing other members your newsletter subscriptions, you can review your full list of newsletters by visiting the My Network page at the bottom of this email. Simply unsubscribe from the newsletters you do not want to be made public.”

In other words, it is not possible for LinkedIn users to opt out of this change, even if they would like to have their subscriptions private. It was made mandatory. Unsubscribing from the newsletter is the only way to prevent a subscription from being displayed in one’s public visibility on LinkedIn.

Why LinkedIn still believes in the power of newsletters

On 4 October 2022, Meta announced that they would shut down their newsletter platform, “Bulletin.” And last December, Twitter also declared there would no longer be access to Revue, their newsletter platform. They shut it down last January 18th. Meanwhile, LinkedIn is still striving to assist creators in expanding their network of connections through the distribution of newsletters. While it is evident that this kind of opportunity can help talents grow and learn more, some are not happy about how newsletter subscriptions are used as spam.

Andrew Hutchinson, content and social media manager on Social Media Today, wrote: “…if the content is good, and people subscribe to your newsletter as a result, that may not be a bad thing, but you might also see more companies pushing employees to sign-up to their own updates, for example, in order to boost exposure for their outreach.”

Some tweets in the past year can support this:

Despite these negative opinions, members, especially those who want to publish newsletters successfully, can always refer to LinkedIn’s suggested best practices, which are: being direct by determining a clear theme, being unique by uploading a logo with the right quality, being interesting by choosing a clear headline, and being consistent by maintaining a voice. Of course, it takes more than these. It also takes respect for others who wish to refrain from subscribing.

The benefits of the newsletter subscription visibility

The new feature still has its advantages. As many aspire to be heard, speak out, learn, and share insights, LinkedIn newsletters are undeniably one of their ladders to success. With the upcoming feature, members can see these benefits:

Finding out which newsletters their connections subscribe to can be an effective method for getting a sense of the most pertinent content to their area of expertise.
If someone is looking for work, discovering and subscribing to popular newsletters can keep them up-to-date on the latest developments in their field as well as job prospects.
It can be beneficial for companies and content creators to establish new marketing strategies to target specific groups of individuals if they are aware of the newsletters that those specific groups of people enjoy.

The bottom line

The new feature will surely gain different reactions from LinkedIn members. One good way to enjoy it is to adapt and think of ways to maximise the feature since they cannot opt-out. As the update arrives on February 11th, members can expect more details from LinkedIn, like how it will look on the interface, how to use the feature, how valuable the feature is, and more.