‘Mac Potpourri’ Story On Apple And Folding Smartphones Featured As Editor’s Pick By LinkedIn News

FEATURE: 09.16.21 – A certain writer has been seemingly thrust into the limelight thanks to an article published last month on MacPrices.

The article — a commentary on how Apple must “‘flip’ the script” (so to speak) on folding smartphones — was my take on what the Cupertino, California-based company needs to do in order to innovate should it ever decide to release an iPhone that folds. To my surprise, and sheer delight, the story was picked up as part of a news roundup on LinkedIn with regard to Samsung’s latest product launch (a.k.a., the “Galaxy Unpacked” event).

In addition to regularly posting the stories published in this column to my personal page on Facebook, I also post links to articles that I’ve written to my LinkedIn profile on a regular bases, however, this was the very first time that one of them was featured as an “editor’s pick” by the editors of LinkedIn News.

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‘Insights’ (a.k.a., Member Posts)

For the uninitiated — other than allowing you to maintain a LinkedIn profile with personal information such as current and past job positions you’ve held — the professional networking tool lets its members share posts, or “insights” as they are called by the company, which, much like Facebook, can either be seen by your connections (only) or publicly viewed by anyone (all) who use the service.

These insights can be anything from sharing information related to your trade or industry to a job opening at your company. Should you choose to do so, one can even share personal thoughts in a post although, while not necessarily discouraged by LinkedIn, in general, those types of posts are better left to other platforms like social media (e.g., Facebook).

Others, like myself, tend to share posts with links to articles they’ve written that have been published on the web to showcase one’s work or, in some cases, to illustrate someone’s expertise in their profession (usually, though not in my case, done to attract potential employers).

This Just In

One particular feature that members of the service have at their disposal is called the “Daily Rundown” which provides a roundup of the top news stories each day.

According to the company, its platform is constantly updated with trending topics and the latest news. These stories, which also include insights from members, are curated by a team of international editors from LinkedIn News.

Designed to help users of the service make informed decisions in their professional life, all stories are accompanied by a short overview followed by a collection of member posts which editors have picked to provide further perspectives and opinions on the story.

In LinkedIn’s Sights

According to the company, editors’ picks are posts — or comments — from members that the editors from LinkedIn News label as, “the most relevant” and have interesting viewpoints on a specific story. If you (like me) regularly share insights or commentary on news in your industry, an editor may choose you for the next Editor’s pick (which is exactly what transpired in my case).

Sonal Gupta, an editor at LinkedIn News, was the one in particular who appears to have chosen my commentary on folding smartphones as an editor’s pick to accompany a short overview titled, “Will Samsung’s New Bet Pay Off?” While my story’s angle was on Apple and how it can innovate its own foldable iPhone, most of it revolved around the new Galaxy Z Fold3 and Flip3, hence, as far as I can tell, why it was featured by Gupta. Four other members’ posts were also included, notably, an article by a journalist who writes for the Indian Express.

It’s not every day that the script gets flipped, if you will, where someone who covers news stories becomes themselves the story being covered (much less, being the one to cover it myself!).

A Note from the Author: a request for comment from the specific editor involved from LinkedIn News (as well as multiple requests for additional information and clarification from the company itself) went unanswered.