Dive Brief:

• LinkedIn announced it's introducing native video to its platform in a blog post yesterday. The feature will roll out globally to all users over the next several weeks, LinkedIn said. 
• The iOS version of LinkedIn's app will now have a share box at the top of the feed and the Android app has a post button which will include a video icon to tap. From there, users can record video within the app or upload something previously recorded to share. Once the video has been added to LinkedIn, users can track audience insights like top companies, titles and locations of viewers, along with likes, comments and views. The analytics are found in the dashboard section of the LinkedIn profile on its mobile and desktop versions.
• Callum McCahon, strategy director for Born Social, told Campaign that LinkedIn introducing native video is long overdue, as brands and advertisers have desired the option for years, and predicted the platform will include advertising in the feature before long.

Dive Insight:

McCahon's comments to Campaign underscore an interesting point: Video has been a major component of B2B marketing for years, and is only growing in value to match a higher demand for video content on mobile and desktop devices. This makes LinkedIn look a little late to the party, and introducing native video now might reflect a pivot to a greater video focus from less business-oriented platforms like Facebook and Twitter.  

The potential to extend the new native video feature to advertising would fit into other recent LinkedIn news that shows the site looking to better accommodate marketers. Earlier this month, it expanded its Marketing Partner program to include three new categories: marketing analytics, audience management and media buying. At the same time, the company announced 19 new tech partners including Hootsuite, Marketo, Acxiom and LiveRamp.

The expanded categories appear to address targeting and measurement, both areas in high demand for marketers at the moment. In April, LinkedIn also introduced a feature called Matched Audiences which lets marketers combine their first-party data with its own for website retargeting, account targeting and contact targeting.