News

• LinkedIn agree to payout $13m to disgruntled users who feel their email contacts have been spammed.
• LinkedIn and Microsoft announce deeper integration with Cortana.
• Bond announce deeper integration with LinkedIn for their recruiting database product Adapt

Commentary

• New LinkedIn messages function update, originally covered in episode 82.
  • Muting conversation only stops the email notification.
  • Email alerts for messages seem to be random and inconsistent.
  • 'Forward profile' feature is broken but there is ahack solution, just delete the https:// in the url of the profile you want to forward.
  • LinkedIn, you arseholes! article
  • Quick reply option in received InMail

In this special episode I take a break from the normal format to concentrate fully on a comprehensive review of LinkedIn's Sales Navigator product.

I believe that this product is critical to the future of LinkedIn who are still trying to break away from an unhealthy reliance on their flagship Recruiter product so I thought it was about time I upgraded and gave Sales Navigator a thorough appraisal.
What is Sales Navigator?

The first thing to understand about Sales Navigator (SN) is that it is not a conventional premium account. It's DNA comes from the Recruiter product and so it sits separately from LinkedIn.com.

To access SN you click on a link from within your normal LinkedIn account which opens a separate tab with a different user interface. Premium accounts are basically normal accounts with added features, SN is very different and is designed for people who are focussed on using LinkedIn as a social selling tool.

It is principally a lead generation and social listening tool, it's not a CRM (contact/customer relationship management) tool....not yet anyway!
Terminology

One of the first things you notice about SN is that LinkedIn have chosen to rename things, despite the fact that they are (mostly) the same as the traditional features on LinkedIn.com. For instance;

Leads - translation = People

Account - translation = Company

Lead builder - translation = Advanced search (with all filters)

New LinkedIn Acquisition. Fliptop, the lead scoring business announces LinkedIn takeover

• LinkedIn launch a new app called Lookup
• Foreign spies use LinkedIn to recruit civil servants
• Ex Tesla engineer joins Apple - How LinkedIn profiles are making corporate secrets harder to keep!
• Slideshape changes it's name to 'LinkedIn Slideshare' and announces an interesting new feature called clipping. It would be great if they brought this technology to LinkedIn.
• LinkedIn share price hit by worldwide stock market crash but hasn't recovered as well as others.

Users are reporting a change to their LinkedIn inbox. The invitations and archive folders have gone now but you can still see your invitations, they are just in a different section.

Commentary

In this interview with Forbes magazine Jeff Weiner (LinkedIn CEO) reveals that they are currently testing a new messaging feature for LinkedIn. This is great news and not before its time. What do you think it will be like? Will it be on the desktop app or mobile or both?

I can't wait to see what it will be like and think it could be a game changer for LinkedIn. New features are always rolled out gradually so if you get it before me then please let me know and send me some screenshots to mark@mrlinkedin.co.uk

I need to warn you about a product called 'Advanced Social Messenger'. Do not use this product on LinkedIn or you might be the next recipient of a message like this!
Finally this will be the last episode for a couple of weeks. I'm going for a much needed break in the sun when I intend to do very little except relax, eat and drink!

A change from the normal format this week as I interview the team behind Autopilot for LinkedIn. A system that allows you to view multiple profiles automatically.

On the call are Scott Offord and Philip Cardwell

I have been using Autopilot for about 10 weeks now and i have been really impressed with the results

• Is this the end for Google Plus?
• LinkedIn Publishing now available for Portuguese speakers
• Publishing soon to cover other languages starting with French & German
• Presumably this provides opportunities for new INfluencers?
• Group discussions seem to be getting more likes. Have you noticed a difference?
• Finally the biggest news of all this week is that this show has been shortlisted in the management and marketing category at this years UK Podcasters awards! Thank you to everyone who nominated the show, I am really excited and honoured to be in the top three in this highly competitive category.
• Now I need you to VOTE for the show to see if we can win! Please click on the image below to register your vote for the show....just imagine if we won?!

• Commentary

  • Social selling Index is now available for all of use, just click here to see yours
  • What is the social selling index?
  • Is this just a ploy to get people to buy LinkedIn Sales Navigator?

  • Question

  • Thanks to Gary Stockton for sending is his voicemail this week with a question regarding the time lag with notifications on the iPad app.
  • You can leave your own voicemail questions by clicking on the yellow 'ask me a question' link on the right of this page.
  • I put Gary's question to the test and found the same lag as seen below. From left to right are the desktop, phone and iPad notifications taken within seconds of each other showing the iPad app to be behind the other two

News

    China passes 10 million LinkedIn members
    Google+ share link disappears from published posts
    There is a bug with skill endorsements
    You can no longer download your connections! Well you can but it comes as part of the archive and takes a couple of days to arrive.
    New LinkedIn Slideshare lead generation feature
    Slideshare presentations are appearing in some channels

Commentary

    LinkedIn ads could work if you combine them with Google re-marketing.....and you have a decent budget!
    Lottery ticket updates have no place on LinkedIn
    How often do females get harassed on Linkedin? This is the blog post I refer to.
    Keeping your profile up to date. These politicians show varying levels of accuracy
        Jo Swinson - good work, lots of information and fully up to date
        Esther McVey - Not updated at all.
        Frank Roy - not much information to start with but it has been updated
    Lynda.com advertise their courses in Linkedin Pulse.....and manage to get into a channel!