You can now follow 'thought leaders' on LinkedIn

After allowing people to follow companies, groups and news by industries and sources, the popular, professional-oriented, social network LinkedIn announced today that a limited number of professionals can be followed as well.

What does "limited" entail? The number of professionals that can be followed is limited to 150 of the most influential thought leaders on LinkedIn, from the likes of Richard Branson, United States President Barack Obama, Governor Mitt Romney, Arianna Huffington, Jim Kim and many more. What's the advantage?

According to the blog post, by following any of the 150 LinkedIn members one will get easy access to status updates, original and longer form posts with photos, Slideshare presentations and videos. But 150 is a small number and it barely touches the surface, so the number of "influencers" that can be followed will be increased over the next few months to industry-specific and universally-recognized thought leaders.

Basically LinkedIn did not reinvent the wheel, but has allowed its users to connect and have access to insights from the social network's most influential leaders which is a needed feature considering fellow social networks such as Facebook and Google+ already provide the ability to subscribe or follow thought leaders.

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