😎 LinkedIn got cool

Good morning, Sunday!

🎂 Happy birthday to our Axios D.C. member Svyat Nakonechny!

Today's newsletter is 744 words — a 3-minute read.

Move over, TikTok and X, LinkedIn is angling to become the social media site du jour.

Why it matters: In a city where the #1 question is "What do you do?" the networking platform is an obvious place to congregate.

🤣 As ChatGPT said in its roast of our town: "People in Washington, D.C., are so obsessed with their jobs, they put their LinkedIn profile on their gravestone."

Driving the news: LinkedIn began experimenting with short, TikTok-style videos this spring, driving a new generation of "LinkedIn-fluencers."

• "LinkedIn has made a concerted effort to provide a platform that is creator friendly," Peter Yang, co-founder and CEO of OverSubscribe, a startup helping fans invest in creators, tells Axios.
• The company has a dedicated creator relations team and programs like the LinkedIn Creator Accelerator to help new accounts grow.

The big picture: There's more emphasis on building a personal brand — and for working professionals, LinkedIn is seen as a safe place to do it. That may be especially true in certain D.C. circles, given that the Biden administration moved to ban Chinese-owned TikTok unless it's sold.

• The ability to connect with deeply engaged audiences has created more opportunities for executives to build their chops as thought leaders and visibly engage with employees, consumers and other industry leaders.
• "We're also seeing CEOs step in as the face of the organization, commenting on everything from a new product launch to welcoming new team members [and] what's happening in Israel and Gaza," says Roberto Munoz, CEO and founder of Munoz Communications and author of "LinkedIn PowerUp Playbook."

Between the lines: Creators on LinkedIn don't have the same scale as TikTokers, according to Brendan Gahan, co-founder and CEO of Creator Authority, a marketing agency that helps brands strike deals with LinkedIn influencers.

• Accounts with over 1 million followers are rarer on LinkedIn, "but they attract narrower, deeper and more trusted connections," he tells Axios.

Zoom in: LinkedIn is also attracting more public relations professionals, toppling X as the most useful social media platform for PR, according to a recent Muck Rack State of PR report.

By the numbers: Muck Rack surveyed 1,116 public relations professionals from April 4 to May 10, 2024, and found that most viewed LinkedIn as the social media platform they valued most — more than X, Instagram, Facebook and TikTok combined.

• 61% planned to increase their LinkedIn use, while only 15% planned to focus more on X and 11% on Facebook.

Reality check: TikTok and Instagram are still hugely popular with younger people. There's a reason Tim Walz and Barack Obama are hopping on TikTok to appeal to youth voters.

Slide decks are no longer limited to dull meetings within Corporate America. PowerPoint is cool now.

• The big picture: Gen Zers and millennials are using the software to prepare whimsical presentations on niche topics, dating history or vacation destinations for their friends and family.

💻 Case in (Power)Point: Tight Five Pub, a sports bar in D.C., hosts PowerPoint parties where locals gather to present silly, heartwarming and informative slideshows on esoteric interests, according to the Washington Post.

• Topics include the history of rats in the city and a point-by-point breakdown of what America might have looked like if Richard Nixon had defeated JFK in 1960.

📈 Zoom out: #PowerPointNight is trending on TikTok and Instagram.

• Clicking through it shows all the ways in which young people are having fun with the software.

🏖️ Family members are using PowerPoint to pitch their ideas for the next vacation, in a competition.

❤️ Friend groups are getting together and presenting slide decks on each other's jobs or dating histories.

🏳️‍🌈 People are even using decks to come out to friends and family.

What to watch: Microsoft is leaning in to the repurposing of its tech, adding on a party template for presenters to use.

The Permian Basin harbors three of the U.S.' most endangered animals: lesser prairie chickens, dunes sagebrush lizards, and freshwater mussels called Texas hornshells.

• Without safeguards, these species will disappear.

Tell the federal government to enact critical habitat designations.

💰 What does it take to be a 1 percenter in D.C.? Short answer: More than it used to, which can help explain local luxe trends.

🗝️ Chef, humanitarian — hotelier? José Andrés Group is opening a luxury boutique hotel and members-only club in Georgetown, taking over a long-vacant property near M Street.

🍹I got the exclusive first details on Tapori, an Indian street food spot and cocktail bar opening on H Street NE from the all-star team behind Daru.

🩷 The DMV contestants from the upcoming season of "Love Is Blind" have thoughts on the local dating scene, and they recently dished to Mimi.

Dunes sagebrush lizards, native to a part of the Permian Basin, have lost more than 95% of their habitat to oil and gas development and sand mining for fracking.

• Lesser prairie chickens also now occupy a fraction of their historic range.

Federal officials must protect their survival and recovery.

🎸 Anna is headed to All Things Go music festival.

Today's newsletter was edited by Alexa Mencia.