THE LINKEDIN LAUGH REACTION IS MORE THAN JUST A NEW FEATURE
In June 2022, LinkedIn released the ‘laugh’ reaction. Being one of seven other reactions the social media platform offers, the laugh reaction is specifically meant to, “expresses that the post made you laugh, felt humorous, or offered light-hearted fun in a professional context.”
Back in 2019, LinkedIn released its first version of reactions to expand upon the ‘like’ button. The platform added celebrate, love, insightful, and curious for its users to choose from when engaging with a post. LinkedIn developed its reactions in response to two years of requests made by its community. “One of the things we regularly hear from all of you,” LinkedIn said, “ is that you want more expressive ways than a “Like” to respond to the variety posts you see in your feed.” Shortly after that comment, LinkedIn released its first version of reactions.
While the LinkedIn community felt heard after the platform released reactions, they quickly felt one thing was missing: a laughing icon. Again, LinkedIn members took to publicly posting about wanting this feature as well as sending requests. LinkedIn heard these requests and its Chief Product Officer, Tomer Cohen, responded in February 2022 by saying, “One of the top requests we got was for a laughing emoji reaction. We hear you loud and clear and we agree. Humor is indeed a serious business.”
However, this feature is nothing new. Apple first released the ‘Face with Tears’ Emoji in 2010 in the US and went worldwide in 2011. Facebook first rolled out its laugh icons at the end of 2015 followed by Instagram introducing ‘quick reactions’ to stories in 2017, and Pinterest in 2019 with its video and idea Pins. Other platforms such as TikTok and Snapchat also have reaction icons, but only limited to direct messages, not in the main feed.
While it took five years for the laugh reaction to catch on as a societal form of communication before making its debut on social media, the reaction still only found its place on platforms that weren’t positioned as ‘professional social media platforms,’ the primary two being LinkedIn and Twitter.
By releasing the laugh icon, LinkedIn signals that it listens to its community and will help evolve what it means to be a professional.
Listening to its community has proven to be strategic for LinkedIn. Over the past few years, LinkedIn has been one of the fastest-growing social media platforms growing 55% year-over-year from March 2019 to March 2020, third to TikTok and Reddit, respectively.
LinkedIn’s continued growth comes from listening to and supporting its users that are already a part of the platform such as through its Creator Accelerator Program, LinkedIn Influencer Program, and LinkedIn for Creators page. In addition, by releasing highly-demanded features such as its first version of reactions in 2019 and the addition of the laughing icon, LinkedIn continues to show it cares and values its current users’ input. This is one of the many reasons that LinkedIn has continued to grow in users and engagements year-over-year.
With more content comes more conversations. Many of these conversations stretched into the humorous category such as individuals sharing funny messages sent in company Slack channels, industry-related jokes, or witty commentary on work-life balance. However, LinkedIn did not have a reaction to reflect a humorous response.
The introduction of the laugh icon signals that there is a space for humorous conversation on LinkedIn. While LinkedIn is a professional social media platform, the company has launched several campaigns to rebrand the platform to align with the values of modern-day professionals. For example, LinkedIn launched its ‘Redefining What it Means to be a Professional’ campaign which aims to amplify the voices of professionals that show up as their authentic selves on- and offline such as stay-at-home parents, professionals with tattoos or dyed hair, LGBTQIA+ professionals, retirees, and GenZ students and professionals. This rebrand was the significant change LinkedIn needed to make to create meaningful, interesting, and engaging content on its platform versus the social media version of a job board or Rolodex it once was. The laugh reaction is just a part of its larger rebranding campaign.
“Laughter is the shortest distance between two people.” - Victor Bouge, comedian
It’s true. Humor connects us. It is also why funny content is often some of the most shared content on social media. Here are three ideas on how you can implement more humor into your personal brand on LinkedIn:
Share a funny conversation that happened on the company’s Slack channel. This gives insight into your company’s culture, gets your company on the radar of job seekers, and brings attention to your company from potential new customers and venture capital firms.
Share an industry-related joke. This will gather the attention of others in your industry which can help build your network of others in the industry, leading to new job offerings at other companies you can take or leverage within your own company.
Share a funny story or perspective. Maybe you completely botched an interview, accidentally called your boss “mom,” or had an embarrassing first meeting with a colleague. Share it. People connect with others through stories. If you can look back and laugh now, the odds are others can laugh and connect with you.
