LinkedIn Changes: What Your Business Needs to Know

• Community
• Marketing
• Marketing Strategy
• Podcast
• Social Media

Episode 52 of Landscape Digital Show reveals what your business needs to know to take full advantage of the recent LinkedIn changes.
 

If you have the new LinkedIn profile interface you know its bigger and bolder.

On the surface, this update looks like LinkedIn has simply polished things up, but the reality is you’ll want to make some adjustments so that your connections and people searching for your skills and experience can find you.

If you do not have this new update yet, be patient. Our understanding is you will by the end of the month.

Let’s take a look at 6 of the more relevant LinkedIn changes.

#1. The Summary

The Summary used to be a separate section, but now it’s part of that top box that includes your headshot photo and headline.

People are only going to see the first 220 characters of the Summary in that box, so you need to make some adjustments to take full advantage of this valuable real estate.

Think of those first two lines of content as a meta-description — a little introduction of the content to follow. Craft this carefully to express who you are and what you do to make a difference in this world.

The goal is to entice people to click and explore your entire profile Summary. So, you may want to include a call to action like this: Learn How In My Summary. 

You may want to consider putting that statement in all caps.

#2 – Who’s viewed your profile

Also prominently displayed at the top of your profile is the number of people that have viewed it. This is valuable information that you want to take action on.

If someone viewed your profile there is a good chance he or she is considering working with you. A friendly response is obviously a smart option.

If you participated in our 1st webinar you’ll recall one of the advanced LinkedIn strategies is to view the profiles of the people that you want to work with. They’ll see that activity and possibly reach out to you.

Also, this where LinkedIn will make a pitch to sell you on the Sales Navigator, which is the premium service that costs $79/month, because you can only see the 5 most recent views with the free version, but can unlock all of them with Sales Navigator.

#3. Skills and Endorsements

It’s possible that LinkedIn is deemphasizing this because they are only displaying your top three skills.

You can choose the three skills that best represent your current business focus. This should ideally be what gets you hired, which may not necessarily be the 3 most popular skills.

#4. Your Experience

The Experience section is now much more important than it has been because most people are not going to click through to read your entire Summary.

Unlike the Summary section where you just get two lines of content, the Experience section for your primary business or position automatically opens completely as people scroll down. But that’s only for the first position.

In addition to listing your most important position first, you should add media, which could be videos or links to articles on Slideshare.

If you are not familiar with Slideshare check it out because it’s owned by LinkedIn and the easiest way to include articles, PowerPoint® presentations, and other content to your profile. To get to it go to the More button at the top of your profile and click on Slideshare.

#5. Notifications

The Notifications section makes it much easier to engage with people on LinkedIn without losing the flow of the conversation. This is where you will find content that you have been tagged in. For example, I recently attended a networking event and was tagged, along with a dozen others, in that photo.

This is how LinkedIn is feeling a lot more like Facebook. It’s one more reason why you will want to invest the time to share content that represents your skills and expertise well.

#6. The LinkedIn Newsfeed

The newsfeed is where LinkedIn takes us most of the time, so it’s clear they want this to be central to your LinkedIn experience, and why they designate it the Home page.

The top of the Home page newsfeed is where you make content updates, including adding new articles to LinkedIn Publisher.

It’s striking how much it is beginning to resemble the Facebook newsfeed. In addition to the usual content updates most of us have been sharing, I’m noticing more salesy content. Why? Because the opportunity is free.

But don’t expect that to last. For now,  if you want to get updates out about your events and things like that, you need a nice eye-catching photo to go with it. And I really want to underscore the importance of that photo to avoid getting lost in the stream.

Also, find a balance with the type of content you share because just like Facebook, users can hide content from their feed and block people that are overly promotional.

There’s nothing wrong with a little promotion if its relevant to your audience, but that’s a slippery slope if your audience is diverse, which it is for most of us on LinkedIn.

All said, I really think these are positive changes for LinkedIn because when Microsoft purchased it there was some fear that it would become too corporate. But clearly, it’s recognizing the need to retain its current identity, while taking notice of the trend toward more multi-media content.

In fact, don’t be surprised to see live video in the LinkedIn newsfeed real soon. Until then, think about how you will use it to accomplish your business objectives.

Show Notes

• To learn more details on the LinkedIn changes, check out this article from Social Media Examiner.
• Never miss an episode. Subscribe to Landscape Digital Show on iTunes.
• And if you are on Facebook, please like the Landscape Digital Institute page. I’ll greatly appreciate that!