The New LinkedIn Reaction Is Funny…

The Funny LinkedIn Reaction

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When you read an insightful or an amusing post on LinkedIn, do you use the LinkedIn reactions as part of your response?

First of all, if you read this and you realized that you don’t leave any kind of response on these posts, I’d highly recommend that you start leaving comments ASAP. This is because engaging with the posts that you find insightful to help build your own LinkedIn presence and network. You can read more about the benefits of responding to LinkedIn posts here.

Using LinkedIn reactions to posts is an easy and expressive way to start engaging with others on the platform. Up until June, there were five LinkedIn reactions to use on articles or posts:

  • Like
  • Love
  • Celebrate
  • Insightful
  • Curious

Now LinkedIn has released their newest reaction: the “Funny” reaction.

Yes, LinkedIn is a platform dedicated to business, leadership, industry updates and networking and those sound like serious matters rather than funny ones. Not to mention, immigration and global mobility are serious topics with real-world consequences for our colleagues and clients.

However, no matter what industry you work in, we all know that having fun at work, laughing with colleagues, and genuinely enjoying what we do on a daily basis is crucial to productivity, retention, and professional longevity. A 2021 Friendship and Happiness Survey by Wildgoose found that 57% of people said that having a best friend made work more enjoyable, and that 22% of people feel more productive working with friends, and 21% said that friendships at their workplace made them more creative.

While “funny” reaction may not fit our initial image of a social network designed for professional connections, LinkedIn and its users see the importance of funny content on their platform. LinkedIn’s Chief Product Officer, Tomer Cohen, acknowledged back in February that the laughing emoji has been one of their top requests, saying, “We hear you loud & clear and we agree. Humor is indeed a serious business ;)”

I welcome more funny content on LinkedIn and as an avid LinkedIn user of many years, I think it’s important to acknowledge that there has always been funny and silly content on the platform. I love being able to see my colleagues show off their personality, their hobbies, and the silly moments in their lives or at work. On top of that, posting unique content that showcases your personality and sense of humor will help you stand out on LinkedIn and get more engagement— even if you feel like that runs contrary to your image as a serious immigration professional.

People love candid or behind the scenes moments when it comes to our jobs and our lives. It also needs to be said that there’s always a post that is interesting, insightful and also funny on LinkedIn, both within our industry and beyond. It doesn’t have to be either/or when it comes to creating LinkedIn content!

My Takeaways from the new “Funny” LinkedIn Reaction

I appreciate the new reaction and bringing lightheartedness to LinkedIn where there are absolutely posts that are equally insight and funny and should be celebrated as such! But there are some possible negatives that could come later that I’d like to discuss. Below are my takeaways from the new “Funny” reaction.

The Pros of the Funny LinkedIn Reaction

  • It gives LinkedIn users a more appropriate response to a lot of funny content that’s already on LinkedIn. Without this LinkedIn reaction, it felt like LinkedIn as a platform was forcing us to not be funny, but of course that didn’t work. I’m glad they recognized this and gave an appropriate reaction.
  • It will hopefully encourage more content that evokes positive emotion and subsequently, positive engagement and interaction. There’s a lot of offensive, depressing and otherwise terrible content on social media. LinkedIn has less of that, in my opinion, than other platforms, and hopefully this will help continue that trend.

The Cons of the Funny LinkedIn Reaction

  • Will this lead to LinkedIn adding an “Angry” button, like what Facebook did years ago? Because if it does, I think that will then motivate a LOT of people to start creating content that evokes negative emotions, which tend to draw more attention and engagement but then devolve social media into offensive and hateful content. I hope that this “Funny” reaction isn’t a slippery slope.
  • A lot of people share vulnerable stories on LinkedIn, and right now there’s no reaction that can be truly offensive in the face of such a story. With a “Funny” reaction, however, if someone shares a story about being discriminated against at work or getting fired from a job, having someone react with “Funny” has the potential to, counterintuitively, create anger and offense and devolving otherwise important discussions into Twitter- or Facebook-like arguments.

While it may take awhile to see the “funny” reaction as the rollout happens over the next several months, I am excited to see LinkedIn continue to drive interaction and engagement between users while also showing that LinkedIn users can have some fun while they create content.

BY ROMAN ZELICHENKO

BY ROMAN ZELICHENKO

Roman is an immigration lawyer, the founder of an immigration tech startup called LaborLess, a LinkedIn coach, writer and speaker.

I help immigration businesses around the world level up their brands, enhance their LinkedIn and YouTube presence and grow through original written content, LinkedIn coaching, YouTube coaching and other strategic consulting.

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