As LinkedIn first rolled out Stories format and then expanded its tools for creators early this year, one notable aspect was that the Microsoft-owned network for professionals hadn't built any obvious form of monetization into the programme-noticeable, given that creators earn a living on other platforms like Instagram, YouTube and TikTok, and those apps had lured creators, their content, and their audiences in part by paying out.

As we continue to listen to feedback from our members as we consider future opportunities, we'll also continue to evolve how we create more value for our creators," is how LinkedIn explained its holding pattern on payouts to me at the time. But that approach may have blown up in the company's face—or at least may have contributed to what happened next: last month, LinkedIn decided it would kill the Stories format and start anew to work on other forms of short-form video content for the platform.

Now comes the latest in that effort. To bring more creators to the platform, the company today announced it would launch a new $25 million creator fund that initially will be focused on a new Creator Accelerator Program.

LinkedIn is scrapping its Stories feature to work on short-form video

This follows on the heels of LinkedIn also expanding another one of its newer content formats: a Clubhouse-style live conversation platform. As we reported earlier, LinkedIn first started building this feature back in March of this year. Now, we're hearing that the feature is going to appear soon as part of a much broader events strategy for the company.

"We'll start small, with a pilot group testing audio in the coming weeks," said Chris Szeto, senior director of product at LinkedIn, who heads its audio efforts. "Given the trends in virtual, hybrid events we are also working on making audio part of our overall event strategy rather than just a standalone offering, so we can give people more choice about how they want to run and engage with their audiences.".

In the same blog post announcing the creator fund, LinkedIn also listed a number of upcoming creator events. Will the Clubhouse-style feature appear there? Watch this space. Or maybe… listen up.

In any case, the creator accelerator that LinkedIn is announcing today forms part of a much bigger effort it has been making to build out a platform for content creation. What has actually been through is the building of new tools and acquisitions, such as Jumprope-that platform invented to create "how-to" videos, early this year. Besides the accelerator, the idea is that LinkedIn wants to encourage a more dynamic and lively set of voices to get more people talking and spending time on LinkedIn.

The accelerator/incubator will be positioned on the different ways that one can engage on LinkedIn, writes Andrei Santalo, global head of community at LinkedIn, in the blog post .
"Creating content on LinkedIn is about creating opportunity, for yourselves and others," he writes. "How can your words, videos and conversations make 774+ million professionals better at what they do or help them see the world in new ways?

The incubator will last 10 weeks and accept 100 creators in the United States to coach on building content for LinkedIn. It will also afford them chances to network with like-minded folks (naturally…it is LinkedIn), and a $15,000 grant to do their work. Apply by October 12.

The notion of creating a fund that would incentivize producers to create video for one specific platform is hardly anything but old hat-and just because of that, it was somewhat overdue for LinkedIn to take a shot in the dark.

All of the leading social media companies have made public announcements that they are committing hundreds of millions of dollars in payouts in the form of creator funds to bring more original content to their platforms. TikTok, Snapchat, Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube.
Mass-market social media sites should pay because competition among creators is so intense for consumer attention, some may argue.

But on the other hand, that is precisely what makes those platforms attractive to creators: the potential audience size is just so massive. LinkedIn, with 774 million users isn't particularly small, but the type of content that survives there is so dramatically different, and perhaps drier-it focuses so much on professional development, work, and "serious" topics-that perhaps it would take the greatest financial incentive of all to get creators to buy into it.

To date, the bread-and-butter offerings that LinkedIn has embraced are around professional development - use it to find work, find a better job, hire people, or connect with someone who might help you get ahead in your professional life.

But it's done in a very rigid framework that doesn't leave much for "authenticity" — not in the sense of "authentic self", not in the older meaning of just letting your hair down and being yourself. Even rather more recent efforts, such as focusing on education, play right into this larger framework.

With authenticity being increasingly important to people — maybe even more so now than ever since we began blurring the lines between work and home due to COVID-19 and all the change that it initiated for us — I couldn't help but wonder whether this presents an opportunity for LinkedIn to at least expand what it's been thinking about in terms of what it means to spend time on its platform.