Starting Wednesday, LinkedIn will give its users a new way to express their opinions through shareable articles, as the company is trying to become more like Facebook. The professional networking site said on Wednesday that the plaftform would give its members "a powerful new way to build their professional brand." When a member publishes a post on LinkedIn, their original content becomes part of their professional profile, is shared with their trusted network and has the ability to reach a large group of professionals.

The site will algorithmically distribute career-related articles written by any users on its "Influencer program," a blogging platform previously available only to business people who were invited to contribute.

In addition, LinkedIn members will have the ability to follow other members that are not in their network and build their own group of followers. They may also continue to share photos, images, videos and their original presentations on SlideShare.

In recent years LinkedIn has moved away from its roots as a resume library for job-seekers, instead positioning itself as a social hub that aggregates news, links, and status updates from members.

The service also inserts ads into users' timelines, an advertising model that has been successfully deployed by Facebook and Twitter.