LinkedIn Archives - MARKETECH APAC

Singapore – B2B campaigns that make a clear customer promise are three times more likely to boost market share and two-and-a-half times more likely to enhance brand health compared to those that don’t, according to research by WARC Advisory, The B2B Institute at LinkedIn, and strategy expert Roger Martin.

The report found that B2B campaigns with a clear customer promise are nearly three times more likely to drive market share growth than those without. These campaigns also showed higher increases in market penetration (44% vs. 36%) and revenue (30% vs. 20%).

Additionally, nearly half (47%) of the analysed B2B customer promise campaigns achieved significant improvements in key brand health metrics, including consideration, preference, purchase intent, and perceived quality. In contrast, only 19% of non-customer promise campaigns delivered similar results, making customer promises in B2B almost three times more likely to create a meaningful impact.

However, the research also revealed that less than one in five (18%) B2B campaigns made a customer promise, whether the goal was brand building or activation. This is notably lower than the 40% of B2C campaigns that included a customer promise.

This is a key area of focus, as the report suggests that making a customer promise presents a significant competitive opportunity for B2B brands. Given that B2B purchases are typically high-consideration and high-risk, often leading to long-term buyer-vendor relationships, the low adoption rate of customer promises is something worth looking into.

Moreover, customer promises in B2B offer significant benefits for scaling brands or those with limited marketing budgets. The research found that B2B customer promise campaigns are particularly effective even with lower creative commitment—such as smaller budgets, shorter campaign durations, and fewer channels—providing valuable insights for organisations with constrained resources.

Paul Stringer, managing editor for research and advisory at WARC, said, “Customer promises can make brands familiar by being memorable, valuable, and deliverable. They can cut through the noise and messiness of decision-making by offering a clear and simple articulation of the value delivered by a brand to its customers. It sounds simple, but of course, there is a huge amount of work involved in designing and projecting a clear promise to the customer. We hope that after reading this paper, more B2B marketers will see the value of going on that journey.”

Jann Martin Schwarz, founder of The B2B Institute at LinkedIn, also shared, “Brand is not just a “nice-to-have,” it is an essential full-funnel deal-closing advantage. And, while there are many definitions of ‘brand,’ making a clear promise of value to your customers is the most effective

way to build your brand. Our research conclusively finds that across every category, a customer promise is far more effective than any other kind of brand promise. Our findings reveal that B2B campaigns that make a customer promise are 3x more likely to deliver increases in market share and 2.5x more likely to deliver increases in brand health.”

Mimi Turner, head of EMEA and Latin America at the B2B Institute at LinkedIn, added, “The great problem for marketers is not that they don’t know what to do. It is that often they don’t have the money to do it. The huge advantage of putting a clear promise of value at the heart of a campaign is that marketers are virtually guaranteed to get better results without spending any extra money. Marketing is expensive. Customer promises are free.”

“The findings show that lower-budget B2B Customer Promise campaigns are 1.7x more likely to increase brand health and 2.7x more likely to increase market share than higher-budget ones. For the first time, we are able to offer an effectiveness strategy that is budget-neutral and enhances meaningful marketing metrics,” Turner explained.

Meanwhile, Roger Martin, CEO, Advisor, Strategist, and Author of Playing to Win, said, “Making a customer promise in a B2B campaign is much more important and impactful than in a B2C campaign across all important dimensions of performance. Yet the vast majority of B2B advertising campaigns are designed to be ineffective. And that creates a doom loop.”

Singapore – B2B marketing leaders in the APAC region are displaying renewed optimism, with nine in 10 bullish in their teams’ ability to drive revenue in the upcoming year, according to a new research report from LinkedIn.

The LinkedIn report further reveals that approximately three-quarters of B2B marketers in APAC (74%) anticipate budget increases.

According to the report, despite 74% of B2B CMOs in APAC finding it challenging to prioritise reaching buyers amidst numerous demands, the majority (91%) affirm that success hinges on relationship building. Hence, fostering “collective confidence” among purchasing decision-makers is deemed crucial for the forthcoming year.

To establish strong connections with the buyer group and maintain a top-of-mind presence, creativity is crucial. The report found that nearly three-quarters (74%) of B2B marketing leaders in APAC are prioritising bolder creative strategies, with 62% noting that these efforts significantly enhance brand engagement and drive conversions.

Marketing professionals globally are also leading the charge on AI adoption and building AI proficiency as they look to improve ROI.

The LinkedIn report showed that in APAC, two-thirds (67%) of B2B marketing leaders are leveraging generative AI applications in their marketing efforts, reporting significant improvements in productivity (41%), faster content creation (37%), and cost efficiencies (33%).

LinkedIn data also found a 142x increase in LinkedIn members globally adding AI literacy skills to their profiles, with marketers topping this list. ‘Artificial Intelligence’ is the fastest-growing digital skill for CMOs globally, based on the skills CMOs have added to their LinkedIn profiles in the past year.

To help B2B marketers reach and engage all members of the buying group and build collective confidence, LinkedIn also introduced new products, including ‘The Wire Programme’ and expanded AI capabilities in ‘Accelerate’.

With video uploads on LinkedIn rising by 45% year-over-year, LinkedIn is piloting the ‘Wire Program’—a new initiative enabling brands to run in-stream video ads alongside content from trusted publishers. The programme is currently being tested with select publishers, including Barron’s, Bloomberg, Business Insider, Forbes, LinkedIn News, MarketWatch, NBCUniversal, Reuters, The Wall Street Journal, and Yahoo! Finance, to help marketers reach the growing audience of digital video consumers.

The Wire Programme will be available in all languages for global advertisers seeking to sponsor content with these publishers, although EU member targeting will not be available at launch.

LinkedIn is also enhancing its AI-driven campaign creation and optimisation tool, ‘Accelerate’. Marketers can now craft engaging creatives using Microsoft Designer and fine-tune their targeting by excluding specific companies and third-party lists. Additionally, they can receive expert guidance from the new AI marketing assistant. Advertisers using Accelerate are achieving 15% greater campaign efficiency and reducing cost per action by 52% compared to traditional campaigns.

Accelerate’s new features include the integration of Microsoft Designer, enabling marketers to easily build and customise creatives. Additionally, AI will be used to merge brand data, such as customer lists and conversion data, with LinkedIn’s platform data to identify individuals most likely to engage with ad campaigns. The AI marketing assistant further enhances campaign building by offering recommendations, such as adding data sources for better targeting, and assisting with tasks like budget adjustments.

Matt Tindale, head of enterprise for APAC at LinkedIn Marketing Solutions, said, “Cultivating meaningful relationships is key to influencing the buying behaviour of B2B decision-makers. This is especially true for APAC, where decisions involve lengthy consideration and are driven by emotion. To develop this “collective confidence” amongst those involved in B2B purchasing, brand building through bolder creative campaigns will drive success in the year ahead.”

“Under the pressure of budget cuts and the constant need to prove ROI over the past year, APAC B2B marketing leaders are turning to generative AI and displaying renewed energy in boosting content creation and productivity to push brand building. In addition to improving memorability, this will enable them to uncover new audiences and boost campaign performance,” he added.

Meanwhile, John Rudaizky, global chief brand and marketing officer at EY, shared, “In a rapidly changing market, brand building, creativity, and confidence are key to influencing buying groups. B2B marketing is no different from consumer marketing in the sense that engaging emotionally and with creativity are essential, with LinkedIn providing the perfect environment to talk directly to clients and talent alike.”

Sean Johnston, VP for advertising at Closed Loop, also commented, “Accelerate campaigns far surpassed the lead conversion performance we saw from even our best-performing manual audiences for Calendly. The lead form completion rate increased over 3X and delivered a 66% cheaper cost per lead (CPL). The higher conversion rates and more efficient CPLs really convinced me this works.”

Accelerate campaigns are gradually ramping up for customers globally and will be available to all customers in the coming months. Accelerate is available in all languages in Campaign Manager, but AI-generated creatives are currently available in English only.

Philippines – A staggering 89% of leaders in the Philippines believe their company needs to adopt AI to stay competitive, according to a report from Microsoft Corp. and LinkedIn.

The report showed that AI holds value for many Filipinos at the leadership level, with 89% believing it will give them a competitive edge. This puts the Philippines ahead of its global and regional counterparts at 79% and 84%, respectively.

Meanwhile, 55% of Filipino leaders are concerned that their organisation lacks a clear plan and vision for implementing AI. Although this figure is lower than the global and regional averages of 78% and 61%, respectively, it highlights potential consequences when local companies cannot meet the growing demand for AI resources.

Microsoft and LinkedIn’s data further shows that employees want AI at work, and they are making the move to use it themselves without waiting for their companies to catch up.

In the Philippines, 86% of Filipino knowledge workers use AI at work, higher than the global average of 75% and the regional average of 83%.

Additionally, 83% of Filipino AI users bring their own AI tools to work, practicing what is called ‘Bring Your Own AI’ (BYOAI), which introduces privacy, security, and legal risks for companies. This trend is also observed globally, with 78% of employees participating in BYOAI, and regionally at 79%.

For employees, having skills in AI will not only benefit the company but also them as individual workers. It ‘raises the bar and breaks the career ceiling’, as the report stated.

In the data, it was revealed that 70% of Filipino leaders now will only hire someone with AI skills, a preference that is seen in 66% and 70% of global and regional leaders, respectively.

Interestingly, a smaller percentage of Filipino leaders (68%) are willing to hire a less experienced employee with AI skills over a more experienced candidate, compared to the global and regional averages of 71% and 76%, respectively.

Furthermore, because of the growing demand for AI in the hiring market, mentions in LinkedIn job posts grew by 17%, and 142x more users globally added AI skills to their profiles as of last year.

Considering all this data, Microsoft and LinkedIn suggest that for Philippine workplaces to stay ahead, they must take advantage of demand and start investing in AI to equip their employees with tools and skills to remain competitive.

As part of the report, Microsoft and LinkedIn also discussed the rise of AI power users. An ‘AI power user’ is someone who uses technology several times a week, saving 30 minutes of work daily.

In the Philippines, the data shows that 86% of power users frequently start their day with AI, while another 86% use it to plan for the next. Demand is high among AI power users in the Philippines. They are 52% more likely to ask coworkers about useful prompts compared to 40% of global users, and 65% more likely to experiment with different ways of using AI compared to 68% of global users.

Filipino AI power users are significantly more likely to hear from their leadership about the importance of generative AI—57% more likely from their CEO, 41% more likely from their department head, and 107% more likely from their manager’s manager, compared to 61%, 40%, and 42% for global AI power users, respectively.

However, while Filipino power users are increasingly interested in learning about technology, the report reveals that they aren’t being trained enough.

Only 30% are more likely to get training, especially on prompts (23% more likely) and using AI for their specific role or function (37% more likely). Globally, the percentage of AI power users likely to get training is 42%, and regionally, it is 36%.

Atul Harkisanka, Philippines country lead at LinkedIn, said, “As the Philippines witnesses a transformative shift in the workplace due to AI, companies are realising the need for a new talent playbook. With how rapidly the talent ecosystem evolves, leaders who prioritise agility and invest in skills development to build an AI-ready workforce gain a competitive edge.”

“68% of Filipino business leaders will hire a less experienced candidate with AI skills, emphasising the urgency and importance for professionals to focus on advancing their AI aptitude through upskilling. Meanwhile, our data shows a 65% increase in learning hours for the top 100 AI/GAI courses from 2022 to 2023 on LinkedIn Learning. A record number of learners took the top AI courses on LinkedIn since January 2023 across Southeast Asia, Australia, and India.”

Meanwhile, Peter Maquera, CEO of Microsoft Philippines, shared, “2023 will be remembered as the year of AI, but this year we will start to see real impact as we move from potential applications to living innovations. The current state of AI adoption in the Philippines is very promising. We’re seeing innovation at scale across industries through our customers, who are unlocking efficiency, personalisation, security, and sustainability by applying AI solutions to their challenges and priorities.”

“In terms of the workforce, our 2024 Work Trend Index shows Filipino employees are leading not just Asia but the world in leveraging AI to help boost productivity, efficiency, and creativity. More and more, the AI business imperative is becoming clearer, but there are still opportunities to explore and imperatives to take. Microsoft is committed to empowering this broad transformation as we bring more advanced AI technologies and platforms to the world, as well as insights to guide our customers and partners.”

Singapore – LinkedIn has announced the expansion of its Thought Leader Ads’ capabilities so advertisers can sponsor content from any member, to enable brands to amplify a diverse range of influential, trusted, and expert voices and member posts on the platform.

With this expanded capability, brands can showcase voices beyond employees, for any page or showcase page they manage, and reach new audiences on LinkedIn.

The expansion of LinkedIn’s Thought Leader Ads also gives brands a new way to reach their target audience with relevant information, like customer testimonials.

To access this feature, a brand will login to the campaign manager to set up their Thought Leader Ad. Once logged in, they will have the option to search for the person or post the content that they want to sponsor.

The search will yield a list of posts from that member that the brand can sponsor. To help prevent content from being misused or promoted without consent, when a company selects a post to sponsor, the creator will receive a notification asking them to “approve” or “deny” the request.

Speaking on this new ad format, Matt Tindale, head of enterprise solutions, APAC, at LinkedIn, said, “B2B influence has taken off in the past year as brands recognise that it is critical to building audience trust. People are at the heart of thought leadership, and when trusted voices – employees, executives, and experts – authentically promote a company’s insights – it is a powerful way for brands to reach new audiences, build credibility, and support community-building.

“With this expanded capability, brands can promote member posts that align with their purpose and collaborate with trusted expert voices to build larger influencer marketing campaigns and reach new audiences. We’re excited to see how companies creatively leverage this ad format as part of their marketing mix in the coming months,” he added.

In the past year, businesses have navigated through a landscape marked by rapid technological evolution and economic flux. This journey, challenging yet transformative, witnessed B2B Chief Marketing Officers rise to the occasion and redefine their roles by honing their financial acumen, forging stronger alliances with C-Suite executives, and placing an amplified focus on brand development and creative strategies to gain a competitive advantage.

While this progress sets a strong foundation for marketing leaders in 2024, we spotlight three marketing trends poised to shape the future world of work, blending technological innovation with a human touch.

Embracing AI for enhanced marketing impact

Marketing in 2024 will be underpinned by the potential of AI, and how it promises to free up time to allow professionals to focus on work that matters – investing in creativity and nurturing customer relationships to unlock new opportunities. Chief Marketing Officers (CMOs) are optimistic about how the technology will power their strategy with one in three marketing leaders in APAC planning to integrate Gen AI into their marketing mix as per LinkedIn’s B2B Marketing Benchmark report.

Gradual integration of AI into their existing workflow will not only help marketers smoothly transition to the new era of work but also help maximize return on tech investments.

CMOs will prioritise improving the measurement framework

In the past year, the role of CMOs has transformed significantly, becoming more central in driving revenue and business growth. Marketers are focusing on demonstrating how their efforts contribute to revenue generation and return on ad-spend. This focus is important not only for securing budgets but also for improving stakeholder understanding about the value of brand building. While data-driven tools can help marketers reach and engage with their audiences effectively, experimenting with new measurement tools can help them build the financial fluency that’s needed to showcase their ROI.

Authenticity and human-centric approach will be key to building trust

In an AI-driven marketing landscape, maintaining authenticity will be crucial to driving growth. While AI offers powerful capabilities, it’s important to remember it’s a tool to augment human creativity. Marketers are recognising the importance of investing in new ways to connect with their audiences authentically by leveraging creativity, emotion, and humour in their campaigns.

As we navigate the AI era, cultivating a learning culture – not just enhancing AI literacy but building human skills like leadership, problem-solving and creativity will help create agile marketing teams for the future.

This article is written by Matt Tindale, Head of Enterprise APAC, LinkedIn Marketing Solutions, LinkedIn.

The insight is published as part of MARKETECH APAC’s thought leadership series under What’s NEXT 2023-2024. What’s NEXT 2023-2024 is a multi-platform industry initiative which features marketing and industry leaders in APAC sharing their marketing insights and predictions for the upcoming year.

Singapore – Marketers in APAC are ready to embrace AI with a majority of them feeling confident about using the technology, according to new research from global business and employment-focused social media platform LinkedIn.

LinkedIn’s study with over 700 respondents in APAC revealed that 76% of marketers in the region believe that AI will change the way they work in the next year, with 46% hoping it will improve their efficiency.

The research also found that 87% of respondents also believe AI will support their work and help create space for teams to think innovatively, freeing up time for marketers to build impactful creative campaigns.

Notably, 6 in 10 marketers in APAC are using the technology today, with 1 in 2 in the region experimenting with tools such as ChatGPT. The report also finds that nearly 82% of B2B marketing leaders in Singapore plan to increase their use of generative AI in the next year.

Furthermore, marketers in APAC plan to use AI for day-to-day tasks, such as summarising lengthy articles and videos (82%), creating first drafts of written content and presentations (78%), and helping them problem solve (77%).

Talking about the results, Matt Tindale, head of enterprise, LinkedIn Marketing Solutions, Asia Pacific, said, “AI is permeating all aspects of work, including marketing. It is now more crucial than ever to create campaigns that enhance brand value. However, many B2B CMOs say they’re pressured to drive results with limited resources, which often leads marketers to favour short-term business needs over long-term strategic efforts.”

“As the landscape of B2B marketing continues to evolve, AI tools will enable marketers to dedicate more time to crafting creative campaigns that drive engagement, establish connections with customers, and yield positive results,” he added.

Singapore – Eight start-up companies in fintech or fintech-related businesses occupied the spot in the latest ‘2023 LinkedIn Top 10 Singapore Startups List’, showing the rising trend of fintech firms in the country.

The list is based on the data analysed by Linkedin, covering the areas of employee growth, jobseeker interest, member agreement, and start-ups’ ability to attract talent from top company lists.

In this year’s list, a total of 8 fintech or fintech-related company start-ups, 4 of which provide business-to-business (B2B) fintech services, dominated the spot. This is a record number for fintechs on the list since their debut in 2020.

Among the list, financial services firm Aspire has retained its top spot since last year. Following behind it is the debut of fintech startup YouTrip, which offers a financial mobile platform for overseas payments.

Also on the list are telehealth provider Doctor Anywhere, which is focused on improving healthcare accessibility; car-sharing service GetGo Carsharing; AI tech start-up Advance Intelligence Group; digital corporate service provider Sleek; fintech company Endowus; digital securities trading platform ADDX; digital wealth manager Syfe; and cross-border payments platform Thunes.

The list reflects Singapore’s thriving ecosystem of innovative businesses. It highlights fintech’s enduring appeal as an engine of opportunity in Singapore that provides growth opportunities for professionals.

Furthermore, the presence of B2B start-ups suggests the growing relevance of B2B solutions in the country, especially in the small city-state where the business-to-consumer (B2C) market remains relatively small compared to other countries.

LinkedIn also revealed that the top companies on the list were those who were able to recognise and leverage the power of AI to grow in a fast-evolving environment.

For Pooja Chhabria, career expert and head of editorial in Asia Pacific at LinkedIn, the list is a great basis for career growth opportunities for professionals. And to be able to enter these top start-up companies, one must know what skills are needed to snag the job.

According to Pooja, one must think like a founder, as top start-ups are now looking for candidates with entrepreneurial spirit to seize opportunities for the business. It is also important to be a diverse team player and possess a growth mindset that is eager to learn, face challenges, and bounce back from setbacks.

Pooja said, “Fintech has a strong showing in Singapore’s Top Startups 2023 list, with 8 out of 10 startups in fintech or fintech-related businesses.This may be attributed to Singapore’s vibrant start-up ecosystem that nurtures and develops technology-based startups. The city-state is known as one of the world’s leading innovative and smart cities and is also looked upon as a model by other nations.”

“This year’s list of Singapore’s most thriving startups serves as a unique and actionable resource for professionals who are eager to work in companies that are revolutionising the industry they are in and driving exciting new innovations. Professionals can acquire hard and soft skills such as market research, agility, and entrepreneurial acumen,” she added.

Speaking on the list, Lim Wai Mun, founder and CEO at Doctor Anywhere, said, “We have been using AI in the form of machine learning and data analytics, reducing patient consultation time through smart form filling of common prescriptions, as well as understanding and matching users with various health and wellness products after they recover. With the advent of generative AI, this will enable us to deliver more personalised, efficient, and patient-centric care and also alleviate some of the most pressing challenges. This includes the talent shortage that the healthcare industry is facing globally.”

Meanwhile, Adrien Barthel, co-founder and chief growth officer at Sleek, also added: “The integration of AI is non-negotiable for businesses today. We started our AI journey a few years ago, and we continue to actively work on incorporating artificial intelligence to deliver more data automation that results in increased accuracy and better predictive outcomes.”

Singapore – One of the challenges of marketing teams is defending a budget’s suitability to proposed marketing plans. A recent study by professional networking platform LinkedIn revealed that in order to weather this perennial predicament, B2B CMOs, particularly those from the Singapore market, are aiming to become more ‘financially fluent’ in order to prove the value of brand marketing to their CEO and CFO. Such is true for almost all of the chief marketing leaders, 83%, that were surveyed in the market.

The study showed that around two-thirds (64%) of senior B2B marketing leaders in Singapore expect marketing budgets to grow over the next year. Things have been looking up thus far for said leaders, where research shows they have the support of the business, with 7 in 10 CFOs from B2B organisations in the market feeling optimistic about marketing’s ability to drive revenue in the year ahead.

More notably, local B2B marketing leaders shared that one of the top priorities for this year is to champion bolder creativity in their campaigns with the aim to improve mental availability amongst consumers (48%).

“B2B marketers in Singapore have been navigating the current climate with agility. They have demonstrated the importance of winning mindshare through brand building to business leaders, and they are also now making strides to explore leveraging Generative AI to increase efficiency and boost creativity,” said Matt Tindale, head of enterprise of LinkedIn Marketing Solutions for Asia Pacific.

“As the business landscape continues to evolve, B2B marketers will lead the way in creating memorable, best-in-class brands, and contribute to their company’s growth in the months and years ahead,” added Tindale.

LinkedIn’s ‘The B2B Marketing Benchmark’ is a study of nearly 2,000 senior B2B marketing and finance leaders from organisations across the globe, which was conducted ahead of the 2023 Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity.

Simultaneously with the release of the report, LinkedIn has also recently launched new B2B marketing solutions, which amongst others, will be leveraging the adoption of generative AI. The fresh roster of tools includes ‘AI-generated Copy Suggestions’ and advertising solutions such as In-stream video ads, thought leader ads, and conversation ads.

Said launch also introduced the ‘CMO Scorecard’, which is a new measurement program through its consultancy, B2B Edge. This aims to help B2B marketers on the platform benchmark their creative impact and media performance against competitors.

Singapore – Global business and employment-focused social media platform LinkedIn has announced a new suite of tools to help its users measure their brand marketing effectiveness on the platform.

One of the tools it has announced included the ‘AI-generated Copy Suggestions’. Said feature uses generative AI to create high-performing intro text and headlines for ad creatives by leveraging data from an advertiser’s LinkedIn Page. LinkedIn is rolling out this feature in a pilot in North America, and plans to increase functionality, languages, and availability in the coming months.

The platform has also announced several tools related to advertising in the platform:

In-stream video ads: To support a full-funnel experience, customers can tap into In-Stream Video ads to scale their campaign reach and connect with professional audiences across LinkedIn’s network of publishers. These ads, which will appear on mobile or desktop apps and sites, will play at the beginning (pre-roll) and middle (mid-roll) of long-form video content on trusted publisher sites across the LinkedIn Audience Network.
Thought Leader Ads: Thought Leader Ads allow brands to sponsor their thought leaders’ posts, helping them authentically communicate through a trusted voice to build brand equity and stay top-of-mind. Early performance indicators show that customers who participated in the Thought Leader Ad beta saw a 1.7x higher clickthrough rate (CTR) and 1.6x higher engagement rate compared to other single-image ads.
Conversation Ads: This allows advertisers to drive higher intent conversations with members in the Focused tab, helping them to increase their reach and maximise budgets with lower frequency caps and cost per click pricing.

Moreover, LinkedIn is introducing the ‘CMO Scorecard’, a new measurement program through its consultancy, B2B Edge. This will help B2B marketers on the platform benchmark their creative impact and media performance against competitors, and demonstrate how current brand advertising investments improve recruiter, marketer and seller efficiency.

It is also introducing the ability for members to organically connect with organisations through ‘Pages Messaging’. This functionality will enable members and pages on LinkedIn to directly communicate with each other about the topics that matter most to them, like products and services, job listings, and other business inquiries.

Lastly, LinkedIn’s ‘Audience Insights API’ will help enable agencies and marketing technology companies to build solutions that help marketers discover and understand their target audiences to create more effective, relevant campaigns.

The platform recently launched a global campaign, which focuses how the industry is built for B2C marketers and why LinkedIn is ‘the place to B2B’.

United States – Earlier this year, multinational technology corporation Microsoft has announced that it will reduce its overall workforce by 10,000 jobs due to its restructuring plan, which represents less than 5 per cent of its total employee base. With this, it appears that the Microsoft-owned and leading online professional network LinkedIn is currently affected by the said cutoff as it lays off employees from its recruitment department, with an unconfirmed number of staff.

The global job and career portal directly confirmed the news to media website The Information on Monday.

One of the LinkedIn employees from the recruitment team confirmed their departure from the company, including Nicole Zawacki who worked as lead of diversity, inclusion and belonging sourcing, on a personal note right on the LinkedIn platform.

“It’s with the heaviest heart that I say that I have been affected by the LinkedIn layoff this morning. I absolutely adored my role at LinkedIn as well as the brilliant people I had the privilege of working with, many who were also let go today,” said Zawacki.

In a statement posted on Microsoft’s official blog, Satya Nadella, chairman and chief executive officer of Microsoft, said that the reduction of the parent org is due to their plan to align the cost structure with revenue and customer demands.

Nadella added, “It’s important to note that while we are eliminating roles in some areas, we will continue to hire in key strategic areas. We know this is a challenging time for each person impacted. The senior leadership team and I are committed that as we go through this process, we will do so in the most thoughtful and transparent way possible.”

Earlier this month, another Microsoft-owned company GitHub also reportedly let go of 300 employees to go for a fully remote working set-up.

As of this writing, LinkedIn is not yet releasing an official statement about the said layoff.