LinkedIn has a new feature that will now allow you to record a 10-second audio clip to help other users pronounce your name.
The professional networking platform has designed the 10-second audio clips to appear as an icon on the right-hand side of profile names.
You can only add the audio clips using Android and iOS although anyone can play it back on desktop and mobile. To add a recording, open the platform on your mobile phone and log into your profile, click on ‘view profile’, then ‘edit’ and then ‘record name pronunciation.’
It is a simple feature, first offered on Facebook for many years, that could be crucial for a professional networking platform. The feature will help to minimize unprofessional and awkward mistakes that could happen when speaking to contacts for the first time.
“Everyone, including myself, makes mistakes when pronouncing other people’s names,” Joseph Akoni, a product manager at LinkedIn who helped develop the feature, told The Wall Street Journal. “I’ve encountered this personally with my Nigerian middle name — there’s a 99% chance someone won’t pronounce it correctly on the first try.”
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The feature has been on beta for a couple of weeks now, but LinkedIn said that they would be rolling it out to its 690 million users this month.
For some users, the introduction of the feature is a relief.
“If you don’t have an unusual name, you’ll never really know the daily effort involved with having one,” said Emma Nabridnyj, a freelance editorial director in London.
The feature has raised questions as to whether some crafty users will take the chance to upload 10-second recordings of their CVs, being that LinkedIn users can be quite zealous in fronting their professional virtues.
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