LinkedIn Adds Network Feed, Digital Business Cards, and Advice Sessions

Published · 11 min read

Reviewed by Alex Makarov, CEO & Founder, IN-STORE

LinkedIn Advice Sessions add paid 1:1 consults with specific rules on availability, refunds, payouts, and U.S. access, plus new relationship tools.

LinkedIn Adds Network Feed, Digital Business Cards, and Advice Sessions

LinkedIn Is Building Tools For Follow Up, Context, And Paid Expertise In One Place

For many service businesses, LinkedIn has been a visibility channel: post, comment, hope the right person notices, then try to move the relationship somewhere else. LinkedIn’s latest changes point to a different operating model, one where staying in touch, tracking context, and selling expertise can happen inside the platform.

On Oct, 2026, LinkedIn published “New Ways to Build Meaningful Connections, Grow Your Side Hustle, and Earn on LinkedIn,” positioning a shift from connecting and posting toward maintaining relationships and “turn[ing] your expertise into opportunity and income.” For founders, consultants, and small teams that rely on trust based selling, the practical question becomes: how do you set this up responsibly, and what trade offs come with running relationship management and revenue inside one platform.

What LinkedIn Says Is Changing

In its announcement, LinkedIn frames the update around a simple claim: “building relationships doesn’t stop when you hit ‘Connect.’” The release groups new capabilities into two buckets: tools to stay close with people you know, and tools that let creators earn on-platform through content and expertise.

Relationship Maintenance Features LinkedIn Is Rolling Out

LinkedIn lists four relationship oriented updates.

  • A new Network feed to stay close with people you know, described as “testing a dedicated Network feed” that brings posts from your connections and people you follow. LinkedIn says it is “rolling out in select markets, starting with the U.S., India, U.K., and Australia.” The FAQ also describes it as being tested in select markets, including the U.S., India and Australia.
  • A digital business card that’s uniquely yours, letting members “design and personalize your LinkedIn business card” and “add it to your digital wallet.” LinkedIn says this is “rolling out globally over the coming months.”
  • profile notes, where “Premium subscribers can now add private notes to profiles.” LinkedIn states this is “available globally.”
  • Pin the comments that add to the conversation, where “Authors can now pin helpful comments.”

For a lean team, these features collectively point toward a workflow where LinkedIn holds more of the memory of a relationship: what you learned, how you met, and what you want to follow up on.

Monetization Features LinkedIn Is Adding

LinkedIn also ties the update to earning, including both an operational layer and specific programs:

  • A new Dashboard with everything creators need in one place. LinkedIn says creators can “understand what’s working, manage their content, and discover new ways to grow and earn.” It says the dashboard “will roll out globally in the coming weeks” and can be found on mobile by tapping your profile picture in the top left of the app.
  • In-Stream Ads. LinkedIn says eligible creators can join the program from the dashboard and “earn revenue when pre-roll video ads run alongside their eligible video content.” LinkedIn says it is “being tested among select U.S. creators and advertisers, with broader access planned over time.”
  • Advice Sessions. LinkedIn describes this as letting you “offer 1:1 consultations directly from your LinkedIn profile,” where you can “manage bookings, secure payments, and host video consultations all in one place.” 

The Trust And Confidence Problem LinkedIn Is Targeting

LinkedIn’s own research post (published Sep 2, 2026) adds useful context for why these features exist. In that research, LinkedIn reports that 72% of Gen Z professionals “feel disconnected from people that could help them in their careers.” It also lists key confidence barriers: fear of bothering people (37%), being judged (37%) and sounding inauthentic (34%).

The same research points to an execution gap: more than half (53%*) “aren’t sure how to get started” and 52%* “don’t know how to turn contacts into real connections.” Read in that light, a dedicated Network feed, private profile notes, and a systemized follow up flow look like product answers to a behaviour problem: people connect, then stall.

For service businesses, this matters because many buyers, especially for complex or high trust services, are influenced by credibility signals that show up before a sales call. LinkedIn’s research also states that “Short-form immersive videos (49%) and content from expert voices (42%) are the top two ways to engage Gen Z buyers.” That aligns with a platform that is investing in video adjacency (In-Stream Ads) and paid expertise (Advice Sessions), with relationship maintenance layered underneath.

LinkedIn Advice Sessions, The Exact Mechanics That Affect Delivery

Advice Sessions is the most operationally specific part of the update, because LinkedIn has published Help Center guidance that spells out eligibility, setup steps, and several time based rules that will change how you run paid 1:1 work.

Who Is Eligible To Host And Book

LinkedIn states that hosting is restricted: “Hosting an advice session is currently limited to invited LinkedIn Premium Business subscribers in the United States.”

LinkedIn also states constraints on the buyer side: “Bookers don’t need Premium, but they must have a verified profile and be in the United States to book.” The FAQ repeats that it is “being rolled out to a limited number of members in the United States” and that bookers must be U.S.-based and verified.

The Setup Steps LinkedIn Lists (Desktop)

LinkedIn’s Help Center provides a specific desktop flow for hosts. The steps below follow LinkedIn’s wording and sequence:

  1. Click the Me icon at the top of your LinkedIn homepage.
  2. Click View Profile.
  3. Click Add custom button in your introduction section.
  4. In the Add custom button pop-up, select Offer advice and earn money.
  5. Click Get started.
  6. In the Create your advice session pop-up, enter: Meeting name, Meeting rate (USD), Meeting description, About you.
  7. Set your availability: Click Setup. Set your general weekly availability by selecting Day, Starting and Ending time, and Time Zone (for example: Mondays, Tuesdays, Fridays, 2–4 PM).
  8. Click Save and continue.
  9. Connect your Google Calendar: Click Connect. Choose the account you want to connect, then follow the prompts to complete setup.
  10. Add payout details: Complete Stripe onboarding including identity verification and bank details.
  11. Click Done.

Two implementation details in that list shape how “easy” this is in practice. First, LinkedIn states that Stripe onboarding is required, including identity verification (KYC) and bank setup, before the button goes live. Second, LinkedIn states that you connect your Google Calendar so booked meetings can be scheduled and invites sent.

Rules That Change How You Deliver (And How You Explain It To Clients)

LinkedIn’s Help Center lists several constraints and windows that affect scheduling, cash flow timing, and issue handling:

  • Booking window: hosts can “Allow bookers to book time within a 30-day window.”
  • Availability constraint: “Hosts must set general recurring availability… Single-day or one-off times cannot be set.”
  • Payout delay: “Payouts are delayed by 30 days to support issue resolution.”
  • Fees: “Stripe charges a processing fee on every transaction.”
  • Refund timing rule: refunds are issued “if the host cancels at any point or if the booker cancels at least 24 hours before the session start time.”
  • Beta limitation affecting refunds: “There’s no automatic refund triggered by a cancellation or a no-show during the beta period.”
  • Issue reporting deadline: “A booker or a host can report an issue up to 5 days after the date of the meeting.”
  • Stripe fee refund nuance: “Stripe processing fees will be refunded if the Advice Session is cancelled by Host. If the Advice Session is cancelled by the Booker at least 24 hours before the Advice Session start time, a refund can be granted but the Booker will still need to pay the Stripe processing fees.”

A practical implication for founders and consultants is that Advice Sessions changes the shape of your service delivery. Recurring availability pushes you toward productized time blocks, the 30 day booking window encourages shorter lead time, and the 30 day payout delay affects cash timing relative to delivery. If your business relies on deposits, tight cash conversion cycles, or one off scheduling flexibility, those constraints become part of the decision to use the feature.

In-Stream Ads And What They Signal About LinkedIn’s Direction

LinkedIn’s announcement positions In-Stream Ads as part of creator earning. LinkedIn’s marketing publication adds the advertiser view, describing In-Stream Ads as “a new video ad format” that lets brands “scale their video campaigns alongside relevant creator and publisher content.” It also states: “In-Stream Ads allow brands to run contextually relevant pre-roll ads across eligible creator and publisher content without requiring individual partnerships.”

The Setup Steps LinkedIn Gives Advertisers

LinkedIn for Marketing lists a concrete workflow for advertisers in Campaign Manager:

  • Create a campaign in Campaign Manager and select “Video” as the ad format. Toggle on “In-Stream Ads.”
  • Set the campaign target audience and budget. Depending on the campaign objective, select “Brand Awareness” or “Video Views.”
  • Choose a content category, or choose “All” to run across categories. Current categories include: Finance, Tech & AI, Health & Wellness, Lifestyle & Entertainment, Leadership, and Business.
  • Upload the pre-roll video ads.
  • Ads are eligible to appear before qualifying creator and publisher videos, and “LinkedIn automatically determines placements and optimizes delivery.”

LinkedIn also states In-Stream Ads are “currently available to a select group of advertisers and creators.” The same LinkedIn for Marketing post says “Creator Marketplace is available to advertisers and creators by invitation only. Both are available in North America.”

Even if your business never runs video ads, the second order effect matters: when a platform builds pre-roll inventory next to creator and publisher video, it tends to reward formats that hold attention, sustain a viewing session, and keep people inside the feed. For expertise based sellers, that creates pressure to make content that performs as media, while still reading as credible and human. The reward is reach; the trade off is sameness and performative content that can weaken trust if it feels engineered.

How To Operationalize The Shift Without Turning LinkedIn Into Your Entire Business

LinkedIn’s direction is clear in its language: relationship maintenance plus earning. For small teams, the operating question is where LinkedIn is a delivery channel, where it is a marketing channel, and where it is a risk concentration.

Build A Relationship Memory System Inside LinkedIn

If you already use LinkedIn to start conversations, the new relationship features reward follow through. A dedicated Network feed (where available), a digital business card rolling out globally, and profile notes for Premium subscribers create a practical routine: notice, record, follow up.

A small but meaningful discipline is to treat profile notes as your institutional memory. When staff changes, the context stays with the account. When you meet someone at an event, the “why they matter” detail does not depend on one person’s inbox. That can tighten handoffs between marketing and sales, especially for service businesses that sell through relationships.

Decide What You Are Selling Before You Turn On Advice Sessions

Advice Sessions is positioned as 1:1 consultations “directly from your LinkedIn profile,” with bookings, payments, and video consults handled in one place. That makes it tempting to sell time quickly. The risk is ending up with a calendar full of low leverage calls that do not connect to your core offer.

A cleaner approach is to define the Advice Session as a specific outcome you can deliver within the constraints LinkedIn sets: recurring availability, a 30 day booking window, and payout timing delayed by 30 days. If the session is meant to qualify a larger engagement, be explicit about what the buyer gets during the call and what happens after, so you protect both your capacity and your positioning.

Plan For Disputes, Cancellations, And The Beta Reality

LinkedIn’s FAQ states that issues can be reported “up to 5 days after the date of the meeting.” It also states a refund timing rule, and separately notes that “There’s no automatic refund triggered by a cancellation or a no-show during the beta period.” Those details belong in your own internal operating checklist, because they affect how quickly you need to respond when something goes wrong.

For teams that sell trust, the brand risk is rarely the fee itself. The brand risk is a messy experience: confusion about refunds, no shows, or a delayed resolution. If you use Advice Sessions, set expectations in your meeting description and your confirmation messages, and make sure someone owns issue follow up inside that 5 day window.

Where IN-STORE Fits For Lean Teams

LinkedIn is building more end to end paths, from relationship maintenance to paid expertise and video adjacency. For organizations without an in-house marketing team, the challenge is keeping that motion consistent: content that supports credibility, a follow up system that does not drop leads, and measurement that ties activity to sales conversations. IN-STORE typically supports this through human-guided automation, planning, and execution across marketing and sales workflows, so LinkedIn activity connects to a real pipeline rather than isolated posting.

LinkedIn’s Oct 15, 2026 update signals a platform that wants to hold more of your relationship workflow and more of your monetization workflow in one place. Advice Sessions adds real operational rules around availability, booking windows, payouts, and issue handling, so it should be treated as a service design choice, not a switch you flip.

If you want help turning LinkedIn visibility into a repeatable system, IN-STORE can help you plan content, lead capture, and sales follow up as one managed program. Start with the Marketing and Sales services intake.

Start with IN-STORE to plan LinkedIn content, lead capture, and sales follow up.

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