LinkedIn announced the launch of a new program that allows following a particular company. This is analogous to the following on Twitter, or the like button on Facebook. After clicking on the "inFollow" button, users will receive updates about the company in their newsfeed on their LinkedIn account.
The button can be placed on any website of the company. If you activate it and you are logged on LinkedIn, you will automatically receive the company's updates. If you are not logged on, the system opens the login window and asks you to log on to LinkedIn.
It is expected that users will primarily use the "inFollow" button to receive updates about the industry, but also to obtain information about companies.
LinkedIn already has 150 million members and recently started offering several social media plug-ins. In 2010, the company introduced the "share" button to let users share what they read. Later that year they introduced the "recommend" button that can be placed directly on a website and it works in a similar way like the new follow feature.
LinkedIn has a long-term strategy to become a marketing platform for brands. The company expects that the function inFollow will help in their efforts. Preliminary research has confirmed that users are likely to accept and use the new feature.
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