Marketing 101: What’s New With LinkedIn?

If you work in marketing, you’re more than familiar with LinkedIn. The social media platform for professional networking has been around since 2002. But, did you know they’ve recently made some changes to the website?

Microsoft bought the company in late 2016 and has been slowly rolling out updates to the platform ever since. Here are the most important changes that will impact your day-to-day activity on LinkedIn. 

Easier Updates

LinkedIn has made changes to the “update” feature on their platform. This feature allows users to share links, photos, work changes, and more. One notable change is the new “Public” share feature. This feature allows anyone online to see your updates. Now, your friends and connections who may not follow you on LinkedIn or have a profile can see and stay on top of your business updates. 

Another new option is the ability to tailor your posts to trending topics with the “What People Are Talking About Now” box in the top corner of your home page. This box shows the most popular topics currently being discussed across the network so you can join the conversation anytime!

LinkedIn Learning

LinkedIn Learning is a new paid subscription service available on the website. Linking with Lynda.com, the service offers video courses in tech, business, marketing and more. One unique aspect to the service is the personalization that LinkedIn Learning can provide. By browsing your connections and activity on the site, LinkedIn can suggest personalized options for the best tools and videos for you. The subscription service costs $30/month but comes free with the purchase of LinkedIn Premium. Even without LinkedIn Premium, you can try it out free with a 30-day trial.

More Accessible Messaging

Messaging and keeping in touch with your contacts on LinkedIn is now easier than ever. The messaging system on LinkedIn is now much more like the one we are all used to using on Facebook. Most importantly, this means that your conversations with people in your network are accessible from every page on your LinkedIn profile via a small pop up screen in the bottom right corner. This allows a conversation between two people to flow no matter where you are on LinkedIn’s website. 

Another new feature is the updates your messages makes when you visit a profile you’re not connected with. Click on the messaging system and it will pop up and tell you who your shared connections are, making it quick and easy to shoot them a message and ask for an introduction to your new prospect. 

New Private Mode

Viewing other profiles on LinkedIn in “private mode” has always been possible for LinkedIn Premium subscription members. Now, it’s possible for everyone. If you don’t want connections or prospective connections to see you’ve looked at their profiles, simply go into your “privacy” settings and choose your preference. You can view other profiles as a private profile with characteristics, which means LinkedIn will tell them your industry and geographic location, or you can choose full private mode, which will reveal nothing about you or your profile. 

The only catch? Choosing this option also disables your ability to see who is viewing your own profile, and erases any past viewers from the list as well. Luckily, it’s easy to switch between the two options in your settings so you can get the best of both worlds. 

Better Analytics

Now, LinkedIn is offering more insight into exactly who is looking at and interacting with your company page. While before we could see the number of views and profile clicks an update generated, now we’re getting more information on the individuals who are interacting with our content. 

You can find this in the visitor’s demographics tab on the analytics page. Now, you can learn more about the company titles, industries, and even geographic location of your daily and weekly viewers. This information helps in understanding current audience trends and narrowing down targeted posts to exactly who you want to reach. 

Streamlined Access 

One of the final changes is to the overall look and feel of the LinkedIn website. If you prefer to do your networking on a mobile device, the new streamlining of the website to match up with the app has made it much easier to switch back and forth seamlessly between the two. 

Whether you have a personal or company page on LinkedIn, new changes to the website will affect your everyday use. The new messaging system allows for better conversation with connections, and easier updates make connecting with people on and off LinkedIn a breeze. 

LinkedIn Learning, free with a premium subscription, offers personalized suggestions for tech, business, and marketing videos to help you grow in your field. If you run a company, new analytics are here to shed insight into your company audience on LinkedIn. 

Do you use LinkedIn regularly? Which updates have you enjoyed the most? And what changes are you hoping for on the site in the future? Comment below, we love to hear from you!