LinkedIn wants to be the new TikTok

Move over, TikTok and X, LinkedIn is angling to become the social media site du jour.

Why it matters: In a city where the #1 question is "What do you do?" the networking platform is an obvious place to congregate.

🤣 As ChatGPT said in its roast of our town: "People in Washington, D.C., are so obsessed with their jobs, they put their LinkedIn profile on their gravestone."

Driving the news: LinkedIn began experimenting with short, TikTok-style videos this spring, driving a new generation of "LinkedIn-fluencers."

• "LinkedIn has made a concerted effort to provide a platform that is creator friendly," Peter Yang, co-founder and CEO of OverSubscribe, a startup helping fans invest in creators, tells Axios.
• The company has a dedicated creator relations team and programs like the LinkedIn Creator Accelerator to help new accounts grow.

The big picture: There's more emphasis on building a personal brand — and for working professionals, LinkedIn is seen as a safe place to do it. That may be especially true in certain D.C. circles, given that the Biden administration moved to ban Chinese-owned TikTok unless it's sold.

• The ability to connect with deeply engaged audiences has created more opportunities for executives to build their chops as thought leaders and visibly engage with employees, consumers and other industry leaders.
• "We're also seeing CEOs step in as the face of the organization, commenting on everything from a new product launch to welcoming new team members [and] what's happening in Israel and Gaza," says Roberto Munoz, CEO and founder of Munoz Communications and author of "LinkedIn PowerUp Playbook."

Between the lines: Creators on LinkedIn don't have the same scale as TikTokers, according to Brendan Gahan, co-founder and CEO of Creator Authority, a marketing agency that helps brands strike deals with LinkedIn influencers.

• Accounts with over 1 million followers are rarer on LinkedIn, "but they attract narrower, deeper and more trusted connections," he tells Axios.

Zoom in: LinkedIn is also attracting more public relations professionals, toppling X as the most useful social media platform for PR, according to a recent Muck Rack State of PR report.

By the numbers: Muck Rack surveyed 1,116 public relations professionals from April 4 to May 10, 2024, and found that most viewed LinkedIn as the social media platform they valued most — more than X, Instagram, Facebook and TikTok combined.

• 61% planned to increase their LinkedIn use, while only 15% planned to focus more on X and 11% on Facebook.

Reality check: TikTok and Instagram are still hugely popular with younger people. There's a reason Tim Walz and Barack Obama are hopping on TikTok to appeal to youth voters.