This could be a big one for LinkedIn marketers – according to a new discovery in the back-end code of the app, LinkedIn is developing its own poll option for posts, which would give users the capacity to query their LinkedIn followers on anything and everything.

As you can see in this example, shared by reverse engineering expert Jane Manchun Wong, the new poll option would be made available within your post composer options. When selected, users would be able to add a question, then include up to four possible answers to choose from. You’d then be able to set the poll duration and post it, as you would a regular LinkedIn update.

And while the option is not widely available as yet (if at all), LinkedIn does have a range of LinkedIn Help pages covering polls, if you want to get a better idea of how the option will work.

Of particular note, polls will be available by desktop and mobile apps, and polls will also be available within groups – though there are some limitations on which group admins can view the poll results.

The latter is likely of interest to long-time LinkedIn group admins, because polls actually used to be available within groups, before LinkedIn tool it away back in 2014. 

So, now you’ll have polls back, which could be another way to gather relevant feedback from group members – while also providing a means for brands to query their audiences on the platform, and for individuals to post their questions about ‘hustling’, or whatever else they’ll no doubt come to use it for.

There’s no official word from LinkedIn as to if/when polls will be made available to all users, but it does look fairly well-advanced. We’ve asked LinkedIn for comment, and we’ll keep you updated as more info comes to hand.

In addition to this, Wong has also discovered that LinkedIn is testing a new hashtag ‘presentation mode‘, which would showcase the broader conversation attached to a specific hashtag on the platform in full-screen format.

The new option would be made available from the specific hashtag feed on desktop – as you can see here, there’s a new option to ‘Enter fullscreen presentation mode’ at the bottom of the options list.

When selected, you would then be presented with a full-screen feed of posts using that tag, which kind of looks like TweetDeck.

It could be a handy tool for personal tracking of relevant conversations – maybe if you have a second or third monitor, it could be a good way to stay on top of relevant conversations, and potential opportunities, if LinkedIn is a key platform for you.

But the real purpose would appear to be as a presentation tool at an event or similar, where you would be able to encourage people to engage with a certain hashtag on LinkedIn in order to be a part of the broader conversation. That could be particularly beneficial for professional meet-ups or conferences – if you create an event-specific tag, then present this feed on a large screen, that could be an easy way for LinkedIn to make itself a more central platform for such, while also benefiting from the increased engagement such conversation would bring. 

Of course, in-person events are currently off the table, but LinkedIn has recently made its Events tools available to all, and this could be part of a bigger push to make events more of a focus for the platform. It could also be useful within offices and teams to help keep track of trending discussions.

And lastly, Wong has also discovered that LinkedIn’s testing a new image cropping tool on desktop, giving you more control when posting visuals on the web.

Right now, your image options on desktop are fairly limited – you can add alt-text but that’s about it.

LinkedIn added a range of image editing and tagging option in the mobile app last year, and now it looks to be bringing the same to desktop, providing more ways to customize your post presentation. 

There’s a lot of potential here, and while none of these features is ‘game-changing’ or a massive shift from what’s available on other platforms, there are still many ways in which they could be used, and they’ll no doubt be beneficial for many marketers.

Again, we have asked LinkedIn for comment on these updates, but there’s nothing official as yet, so we don’t know if/when they’ll be released. But they look pretty well developed – it seems likely that we’ll get access to all of these options fairly soon.