Welcome to episode 143, before I get into anything else I just want to extend my warm wishes for the festive season.

Happy Christmas everyone!

Is This LinkedIn Censorship?

I posted the ‘Dear Satya’ image on LinkedIn last week and a number of people were @mentioned and several commented.
One individual decided to @mention Satya himself and I am wondering if this resulted in the post being deleted by LinkedIn and possibly why I found my account suspended this week!

On Wednesday 21st December I was unable to log into LinkedIn and only saw an error message stating my account had been suspended!

I had to sweat this out all, wondering what on earth I had done wrong! Eventually I received this email from the safety team;

At first I assumed it was just an innocent mistake, then I tried to find the Dear Satya update and my conspiracy theory started to grow!

What do you think? Am I letting my imagination run away with me here?

Updates

The excellent browser extension Dux-soup has updated and is now compatible with the new User interface - great work!
The only problem is that having the extension enabled seems to be slowing LinkedIn down. I’m sure they will sort that out soon.

The Google Chrome browser has also recently updated and this now includes a LinkedIn notifications feature - nice.

Another Security Breach

I’m not sure this is something to lose any sleep over but it is another sign that LinkedIn are often vulnerable;

You can read more about it here;

LinkedIn's training arm resets 55,000 members' passwords, warns 9.5m

Question;

Could you discuss the difference between connections and followers?

I get connection requests from people that I really don't know and don't want to connect with. However, I would like for them to follow me on LinkedIn.

I know that I have seen profiles where I could choose to follow the person, but not connect with them.
Is there a setting that I don't know about? I would like to have less connections and more followers.

How do you recommend that I accomplish this?

Answer

Whilst there is no perfect answer to this question, I do discuss the differences between followers and connections and what steps you might be able to make to encourage more people to follow you rather then send an invitation to connect.

Scroll to the top of this page to listen to the show.

Welcome to episode 142, on the week that the roll-out of the new desktop interface has really begun……Have you got it yet?

Please get in touch and let me know your thoughts if you have.

I found out from a very good source this week that LinkedIns internal name for the new user interface is ‘Neptune’ which got me thinking “How do they come up with these names?”

You might associate Neptune with the Roman God of the seas but Neptune is also a planet - Interestingly I read that Neptune is not visible to the unaided eye and is the only planet in the Solar System found by mathematical prediction rather than by empirical observation.

Could these be a reference to the removal of Advanced Search I wonder?!

Want the Old UI back? There is a short-term workaround

The guys at Autopilot for LinkedIn have devised a short term way of accessing the old UI if you wish to (I’m not recommending you do).

Here is what they had to say;
We found a temporary solution for those of you who have already been rolled over to LinkedIn's "New UI" and who still want to be able to use Autopilot.
For now, you can use a VPN software that allows you to change our IP address location to a country like Spain, Romania, Finland, Italy, etc (not the USA or Canada). When you are logged in to LinkedIn from an IP address that originates in an obscure country, you will be shown the OLD UI.
This will buy you time for a little bit while we work on fixing the issue with how our tool works inside of LinkedIn's new UI.
Go here and click the Link that says "Hide My Ass", and try out their 1 month subscription for €9.99/month, which I believe is around $10.63 USD/month.

I’m not sure this will work so be careful, I personally found that once I had the new UI, my view limits were drastically reduced in LinkedIn.com and I found my account suspended in no time!

Tags/notes and Sales Navigator

Following on from LinkedIn’s announcement that Takes and notes were no longer supported in the free version of LinkedIn and to continue using them you need to upgrade to Sales Navigator I thought I would take a closer look at how this transition works.

It doesn’t - it’s a disaster!

Yes you can upload your tags to Sales Navigator but all that does is add them to the list of tags, they are not officially assigned to a profile until you save that profile as a Lead, they are greyed out until you save.

This shows a complete lack of understanding of how we use tags.

The whole point of tags is that they are an easy way to find people you have categorised in some way - the reason you do this is because you won’t be able to remember everyone by name.

In Sales Navigator, Tags can only be used as a filter in a search result but the imported tags are not assigned to profiles until they are saved as leads….so how do you find those profiles you tagged in LinkedIn.com?

You can’t!

Slideshare Update.

An update on this subject from last week about the potential demise of Slideshare. Someone pointed out that a plausible explanation would be that LinkedIn are looking to merge Slidehare and Pointdrive.
Pointdrive are a business acquired by LinkedIn earlier this year who produce a product that is used to communicate and share content with customers and prospects.

Boolean Search in the New User Interface

I have seen several people state that you can still use Boolean search queries in the new UI. I really don’t believe this is true.
LinkedIn have clearly stated it is no longer supported in Recruiter Lite, so why would it be possible in the free version?
I think it is easy to believe that boolean is working but this may well be the algorithm doing the work for you.
I recently demonstrated the best way to search LinkedIn in this video;

Are Recruiters Walking Away From LinkedIn…..And Is This Such a Bad Thing?

I read this excellent article this week from Katrina Collier;

Recruiters, would you accept this from any other service provider?

This brings us back to the Facebook argument again! I know a little about Katrina and I have always considered her a highly credible expert in social recruiting. She doesn’t elaborate on what she means by ‘being creative’ to be able to recruit successfully via Facebook - unless you buy her training but my guess is that it involves some form of search (although career data is weak on Facebook) combined with building communities and groups.

These are all viable methods and I can’t argue with the logic of sourcing candidates from a variety of sources and the data she backs her argument with in favour of Facebook is pretty compelling.

Judging by the comments on her piece and the feedback I am getting from Recruiters, I think it’s probably true that many Recruiters will soon be spending a lot less time on LinkedIn.

Whilst LinkedIn don’t want this, I suspect they have factored it into their plan - sales of LinkedIn Recruiter are less likely to be affected, I suspect its the lower level premium accounts and free users that will walk away and LinkedIn, now backed by the financial powerhouse that is Microsoft can afford to lose some revenue in the interim period before Sales Navigator really takes off.

Are LinkedIn users going to miss Recruiters?

I doubt it!

Good Recruiters who build relationships will continue to stay active on LinkedIn (as well as other places). Facebook could be a place to talk about jobs and careers but it is not a place to talk about business, LinkedIn allows us to keep our personal lives personal and not have our Facebook time interrupted by work related subject matter.

I believe the vast majority of people feel this way.

Recruiters who are only interested in posting endless jobs and sending inappropriate messages to potential candidates will probably go to Facebook….good riddance.

This could actually help make LinkedIn a better place!

1. A voicemail question fro Jaz about the annoying habit that some users have developed of putting keywords in their name field.

2. I recently purchased the Sales Navigator. Thank you for all the information that you have put out about it. It really helped me decide if I was willing to pay for it. Now that I have it, I have a question about segmenting prospects and the recommendations that LinkedIn provides. I am a financial advisor, but I also volunteer with a couple industry organizations. So here is the issue I am having. I have many connections that are other financial professionals. They are not prospects to become my clients, however, they are prospects for joining industry, or professional organizations that I participate in. I think that because I have all these connections, LinkedIn thinks that I want to prospect other financial professionals. However, these are not the sales leads that I need. Is there a way to segment leads into potential clients and potential colleagues? How do I tell LinkedIn Sales Navigator that I want client leads that fit my target demographic (professional women, 25-40)?

I answer both questions in detail in the podcast. Go to the top of this page to listen to the show.

Welcome to episode 141….the calm after the #linkedinthebin storm of last week!

The feedback was great from last weeks show, thanks to everyone who voted. The result was a draw between myself and Angus.

If you want to hear another round of Linked-in-the-bin, let me know and I will have a think about who I can invite as contestants.

Interesting stuff I saw this week

Search Filters are being removed

A Business account holder received the following message this week

Message from LinkedIn reads;

At LinkedIn, we're always looking for ways to simplify and improve your experience – helping you be more productive and successful. This sometimes means removing features that aren't heavily used by most of our members to invest in others that members tell us offer greater value.

As such, we're removing the Premium search filters feature that allowed you to apply additional advanced search filters to find people on LinkedIn. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause you.

If you'd like to continue using this feature, it's available on our Sales Navigator platform, which you can now enjoy for a free trial period of 3 months*. LinkedIn Sales Navigator is a product we launched a couple of years ago and is targeted at sales professionals - it lets you keep track of your existing relationships, research your network, and find new leads faster with tailored recommendations.

Please feel free to contact us with any questions regarding your Premium account.

The LinkedIn Premium Team

This would appear to suggest that the premium filters are the only thing they are removing but that is definitely not the case with the new UI - perhaps this is an interim move whilst the roll out to the new UI takes place?

Do you have a business account? What do you see in the advanced search area now?

I checked someones free account and the premium filters were still showing

As usual with LinkedIn, a lack of clear communication leaves us all confused!

Tags & Notes

A number of people have also contacted me this week to say they had received notification that Tags and Notes were being removed.

This was originally announced several months ago and I haven’t see the relationship tab on connections for some time now so I was surprised to see this.

As with search filters / advanced search these features have all moved to Sales Navigator.

Whilst I’m a big fan of Sales Navigator, I do think it’s a very poor show to remove these features from free users as well as Job seeker and Business account holders.

Sponsored InMail

LinkedIn Releases Sponsored InMail Campaigns for All Advertisers

This could be useful for some although I fear more spam is likely to come our way!

Microsoft deal approved by EU due to Xing concession

Microsoft Said to Use German Site to Appease EU Over LinkedIn

Great article from Greg Cooper about Sales Navigator

Should I Upgrade to LinkedIn Sales Navigator? A Guide for SMEs (SMBs)

Don’t Trust LinkedIn

I was reminded by a follower this week that I warned people against using Tags in June 2014

when I wrote a post on LinkedIn titled Be careful LinkedIn......

Which included the lines

“For instance. LinkedIn Contacts is a fantastic feature, effectively a free social CRM system built into LinkedIn. So why aren't people using it? Well what happens if I write notes, add reminders etc and then find they have all disappeared because LinkedIn changed its mind and decided that this was not the direction they want to go in!”

So now LinkedIn are basically saying the following;

“I know we gave you something and asked you to use it and now we want you to pay to keep using it but please use it…..we promise we won’t take it away or suddenly increase the cost.

The lesson? Don’t use features that tie you into LinkedIn….period.

This is not a reason to upgrade the Sales Navigator in my opinion, unless the info you wish to add is non essential to your business

If your content and followers are all on LinkedIn - diversify where you place your content. Keep writing posts but don’t just rely on LinkedIn.

By all means link Sales Navigator to your CRM but don’t add any valuable data into your LinkedIn account.

I hate to say it but we have to learn from experience. LinkedIn are not a company to be trusted!

With these changes and the impending outcry when everyone gets the new UI, I fully expect the likes of BeeBee to encourage a migration away from LinkedIn.

Whilst I understand the sentiment and the desire to protest, there really is no point in cutting your nose off to spite your face!

LinkedIn is useful to us because of it’s members, the company that run it may annoy us and at times act in ways which prove they are not trustworthy but that is no reason to leave.

The right response is to keep using LinkedIn because the majority of professionals will be there. I have no loyalty to LinkedIn but I believe that the point of social media is to engage and build relationships with those that you wish to do business with and to do that you need to be active where they are…and most people are on LinkedIn.

Voting with your feet and migrating to other smaller networks is not the answer, the vast majority of people on LinkedIn will never leave so neither should you.

Just don’t trust them with anything of value or importance to your business.

Stop ‘Bigging’ yourself up!

Don’t tell me…let me find out

This week a connection of mine posted a status update showing a screenshot of a recommendation they had received on LinkedIn!

This loses all impact - stop telling me how great you are (even if it’s someone else words)

A product with a testimonial printed on it is seen as blatant, untrustworthy marketing. A product with a review attached to it is seen as credible…both the same thing

Slideshare - RIP?

Following a voicemail from Gary Stockton, I started to investigate the rumour that Slideshare could be shutting down.

I haven’t asked LinkedIn about this (because they never tell you anything!) and the ‘Todays Top Slideshares’ feature has now been updated but I still smell a bit of a rat….watch this space!

Below is the article referred to;

Is LinkedIn Killing SlideShare?

Welcome to episode 140, this week I thought we would have a bit of fun with our new gameshow!
Hopefully it will not only put a smile on your face but also provide some useful information & tips.

But first……

Interesting Stuff I Saw This Week

Ransomeware
There have been lots of articles and scaremongering about images on social media this week. This article actually sums up the ‘ransomware’ issue quite accurately.

The Truth Behind Malware On Facebook, LinkedIn; Google's New Policy On Malware Sites Freaking Scary

The reality is that you have nothing to worry about by browsing your LinkedIn feed, viewing and sharing images.
The only time you should ever be concerned is when you download images to your PC (Mac not affected).
This is not likely to happen, the only situation I can imagine you being at risk from is if someone sends you a message with an image attachment - in this situation, only download that image if you are 100% sure of the source.

Whilst we are talking images, I noticed this week that LinkedIn have still not corrected the image sharing issue I highlighted in this post I wrote back in May;
Please Don’t Share My Image

I had heard that one of the reasons they have redesigned the desktop experience was to allow them to fix such issues (apparently the old platform made it difficult to fix issues such as this) so optimistically I checked out the new UI to see if had been fixed. Here is what I found…..

Microsoft Takeover

Apparently Microsoft had their eye on LinkedIn for many years…I bet the price wasn’t anywhere near $26.2b in 1996! You can read the article here;
Microsoft has courted LinkedIn since 2006, founder says

Introducing our new game - Linked-in-the-bin!

I’m trying something new this week. It’s mainly a bit of fun but I’m hoping you might find it useful as well.
The format is based on the BBC TV series Room 101 where contestants nominate something they wish to be banned and sent to room 101.

In this version I have invited two of my respected colleagues/competitors from the world of LinkedIn Trainers to nominate which LinkedIn feature they would like to dump ‘in the bin’

The format works as follows;

• Each person has up to 2 minutes to explain why their chosen feature should be dumped in the bin.
• The other 2 contestants get to counter this with their own argument as to why the feature shouldn’t binned. Each person has up to 1 minute of rebuttal.
• The original nominator gets the final word. Just 30 secs to come back on the others arguments.
• The winner is decided by you, simply vote by Tweeting your vote using #linkedinthebin and the name of the person whose feature you agree should be binned.

For example Tweet : #linkedinthebin I vote for Mark.  Of course you don’t have to vote for me!

The contestants.

As well as myself I have invited Steve Phillip and Angus Grady to this inaugural Linked-In-The-Bin show. Both are respected UK based LinkedIn Trainers (click on the images below to view their profiles;

Features for the bin;

Angus - Default invitation to connect messages
Mark - Skill endorsements
Steve - Groups

Have a listen to all three arguments and vote for the one you think is the most compelling by tweeting #linkedinthebin and one of the names above.

New Desktop Design Update

I tried to write a recommendation for someone this week and this is what happened;

Drop me a line if you get the new desktop ‘experience’ this week at mark@linkedinformed.com

Welcome to episode 139, this week I’m mainly exploring a subject which many people find a real challenge - how to promote you or your products/services without appearing cheesy or being too pushy!

But first….

Interesting Stuff I Saw This Week

The three articles I refer to are shown below;

• Microsoft set to win EU approval for LinkedIn buy
• LinkedIn files suit to stop bots from data scraping its site

I also have a further update on the article about LinkedIn being banned in Russia I covered in last weeks show. It seems LinkedIn have been somewhat arrogant in their handling of this issue which could have been sorted out before going to court (according to a contact I have in Russia).

The Art of Social Selling

A good rule of thumb when selling or promoting something on LinkedIn is to take your lead from off-line behavioural norms.

You wouldn’t walk into a networking event and think “right, how am I going to sell sell sell to this lot”!

In reality you would ‘work the room’ talking to people, asking questions, building rapport and getting to know them. You probably wouldn’t try to ‘sell’ anything unless they enquire.

This is how it works on LinkedIn.

In this section I explain my thoughts on how trust is built on LinkedIn, the actions that we take to generate a magnetic profile where prospects feel motivated to come to you.

The New Sales Navigator Inbox / Messages experience.

This is a big improvement to this area of Sales Navigator so I made a short video to demonstrate what is new and different.

Welcome to episode 138, this week I thought I would address the issue that many are talking about…Facebook’s perceived threat to LinkedIn.

Facebook Vs LinkedIn

As far as I see it, Facebook will never be a realistic alternative to LinkedIn for online business networking.
This however, is not a view held by all and the debate has recently resurfaced due to Facebook's entry into the job advertising market as well as the publication of a recent survey which suggests that C-suite executives are more likely to get thought leadership articles from Facebook.

Read the article here;
Senior executives use Facebook more than LinkedIn when seeking thought leadership, report suggests

You will find a link in the above article where you can download the full report from Grist but the main sections I refer to are below.

The most important number here is that only 28% of C-level executives source leadership material from social media.

It is surprising but out of the 28%, more are influenced by Facebook but in truth we are only talking about 44 versus 38 executives.

I can't imagine a world where we are comfortable engaging with business Contacts, Family members and personal friends from the same profile and on the same network.

That's my view but I'm not saying I'm right!

I would love to hear your views on the subject.

Let me know by sending a voicemail via the link on the right edge of this page or you can email me at mark@linkedinformed.com.

LinkedIn’s Q3 Results

These results showed a continued slowing of LinkedIn growth to just 23% in comparison to the same period last year.

LinkedIn could be banned in Russia

Interesting report suggesting that the 6 million members in Russia could be frozen out of the site unless LinkedIn can negotiate some sort of solution….I think they probably will.

You read the full article below;

LinkedIn faces ban in Russia after court ruling

Question:

I have a list of approximately 5000 first degree connections but I have never kept in touch with them or indeed kept on top of them. I'm now looking at this massive list and wondering how I should engage with them.
I would like to introduce them to a new products that I have but I obviously don't want it to be spammy. That said, sending out an individual messages to all of them will be impractical.

What do you think is the simplest, most practical and least invasive way of getting my message out to these people?

I answer this question in detail towards the end of this episode. Click on the play button at the top of this page to listen to the show.

Welcome to episode 137. Well what a crazy week it's been, quite possibly one of the craziest weeks in living history!
I thought I would take this opportunity to answer some of the many questions you have been asking regarding the new desktop user interface.

But first…..

Interesting Stuff I Saw This Week

LinkedIn Record is rumoured to be rolling out soon to all members. I haven't seen any official confirmation of this from LinkedIn and I'm not exactly sure how it would work but the opportunity to post 30 second videos to our followers would be great!
You can read the article I refer to here;
LinkedIn’s Big New Feature – Native Video

Facebook have announced that they will provide ways to advertise job openings on business pages. Journalists are getting excited thinking that this is in some way a threat to LinkedIn not realising that the majority of LinkedIn's success in recruiting is through its search capabilities not recruitment advertising!
You can read about here;
Facebook threatens LinkedIn with job opening features

You can read the full article here;
Scam Says LinkedIn Team Needs Your Photo ID for Account Verification

Connect 365

This is not a scam but a product that is getting a lot of people excited….. Apart from me!
For "Just" $1497 of your hard earned cash you can buy a lifetime subscription to this product that has three elements to it.
A three module training program (which will be out of date when the new UI is released)
A messenger software extension that will allow you to send Messages to all of your connections on a rotational basis (spam in my opinion and against linkedIn's terms)
An Implementation Group (Facebook group with other customers)

I have several problems with this product;
The price reflects the fact that it is sold via an affiliate network and not the actual value of the product.
The messenger software will not work with the new user interface
The limited time offer is somewhat suspicious given that we know that linking is about to undergo a massive change.

These are just my opinions and you should take a look yourself at linkedinselling.com rather than just take my word for it.
Given the imminent changes with LinkedIn I would not advise anybody to buy any product of this nature (good or bad) until the new user interface is fully released.

The new UI - your questions

In this episode I provide answers, The best I can, to the following questions that were sent to me.

Which of the 17 missing features will return?
I have a business plus account. Is it worth keeping this account now that the new user interface is coming?
Can I opt out of the new UI?
I saw Pro-Finder in the menu in your video does this mean that it's now available outside of the US?
Do we still see a public profile URL in the new LinkedIn profile?
Is the search function exactly the same as it is in the mobile app?

A new scam email has been circulating recently which encourages you to verify your identity with LinkedIn. This is fake and an attempt to steal your identity - be careful!

Hello and welcome to episode 136 at the end of another crazy week in the wonderful world of LinkedIn!

I have spent this week working in the beautiful and sunny Costa Del Sol, it’s my annual escape from the wet and cold of England at this time of year.

LinkedIn have now said that the version of the new desktop UI I have is actually in ‘beta’ ie it’s not ready for general release…..you don’t say!!!

I covered this extensively in last week’s episode and don’t intend to cover too much more now because it’s clear that things are likely to keep changing.

I did mention recommendations which have improved. You can now see ‘given’ and you can now recommend and asked to be recommended and the option to edit your recommendations has returned although this still needs some work.

It’s very frustrating to be in a position to spot omissions and bugs and not have anyone (sensible) to report them to!

New Company Pages

The new design of company pages are now being rolled out, all admins should see the new design.

As far as I can see, the functionality is pretty much the same but the design has be refreshed. One change that will effect all admins is the need to upload a new background image to all company and showcase pages.

Advanced search

I see the removal of advanced search as the key test as to whether LinkedIn have correctly judged the difference between the hunters and the hunted (see episode 134 for more information on The LinkedIn Paradox).

The key question here is on the fringes between hunters and the hunted. LinkedIn need the regular users (the hunted), without them they are nothing and the super users (hunters) have no reason to be on LinkedIn either.

Super users just need to upgrade, no question. But if regular users feel they are being pushed towards upgrading then we all have a problem and LinkedIn have messed up big time!

Do regular users feel they have a need for advanced search?

Have LinkedIn misjudged the definition of a regular user?

Only time will tell but it’s a big call by LinkedIn.

No More Boolean Searches!

Irina Shamaeva broke this story this week. Apparently LinkedIn are dropping the ability to search via boolean from all but it’s top level Recruiter accounts.

Another example of pushing Recruiters to pay more for LinkedIn….the squeeze continues!

Read the excellent article below.

Boolean Is Dead. On LinkedIn Only

LinkedIn Salary

This is a very exciting new feature from LinkedIn and potentially a game changer for recruiters!

Individual users on free accounts in the UK, Canada and US can now check the average salary and benefits for their job (or one they are applying to) against other LinkedIn users.

To do so, however, they need to enter their own compensation information (this will be kept confidential)

This is a fantastic idea, give people highly valuable information but ask for their data in return, thus increasing the quality of the data!

IN addition, and most importantly Recruiters using a Recruiter premium account will be able to add salary as a filter in their searches - genius!

You can read more about this below

Introducing “LinkedIn Salary”: Unlock Your Earning Potential

Or watch the promotional video below

Welcome to episode 135 and what a week it has been!

This episode is 100% dedicated to sharing with you the new desktop design that I woke up to on Saturday morning.

It is still early days for the new user interface (UI) and it still has many bugs so things are bound to change over the coming weeks but having spent the last 4 days investigating every link, page and angle of the UI I can confirm the following;

• LinkedIn are unifying the mobile and desktop UI’s
• Recruiters & sales professionals are targeted as members who should upgrade to premium
• The focus of the design is to encourage more activity
• This is a massive gamble by LinkedIn!

This 2 minute video will give you an idea of how to navigate around the new UI

Lost features

1. Advanced search   (inc connection search)

Desktop search is now the same as mobile search. You have to start with keywords but you cannot combine keywords with current job title. Once the initial search is performed you can then filter the results although you cannot see a number next to each filter.

2. Saved searches

You can no longer save a search result with alerts and it would seem that our previously saved searches have also disappeared!

3. View your followers

4. emoticons in messages

Gutted….not!

5. Out of network profiles.

When you find a profile out of your network in a keyword search result you are no longer able to open that profile, here is what you see;

6. Edit display name in profile

7. Rich media in profiles

8. Move profile sections

9. Move current positions

10. Cant move or edit which recommendations show

The above points 6-10 are all covered in this video;

11. Posting updates to Twitter

The option to post a status update to Twitter no longer exists;

12. Video autoplay.

This might just be a bug but as it stands videos no longer autoplay in the stream.

13. Top/recent updates option

Our updates are now 100% based on what the algorithm think we want to see, we have no control other than by our actions.

14. Introductions

They only just fixed this feature but now it has gone. 2nd tier profiles show mutual connections but there is no option to ask for an introduction.

15. Last 3 posts in profile - just 1 now

This is to make way for activity. You can see this in the above video.

16. Additional info section - interests - personal details - advice for contacting.

If you have spent time adding valuable information here in your profile, I would suggest you copy and save it somewhere. When you get the new UI it will be wiped!

17. Pdf Download.

You can still share a profile from the 3 dots menu but the pdf download has gone.

It also goes without saying that all Chrome extensions have stopped working in the new UI (until their developers get to work on them!)

Additional features

1) Many links open in a new tab

This is so handy but I wish they did it for profiles in search results as well.

2) Summary at top of profile

3) Last 3 activities show in profile

4) New size for background image 1536 x 768 (1400 x 425)

5) All profile/thumbnail pics now circular

Points 2-5 are also covered in the above video

6) No need to give a reason when inviting

At last!

7) Personalized invites much more visible

This is what you see when you click on ‘connect’ in the profile or in a shortlist

<first invite message>

That’s it for now, I will start digging into more specifics next week.

Questions

I’m sure you have plenty, so please fire away! I am more than happy to take a look at whatever you need to know about the new UI

Welcome to episode 134, this week there won’t be much to read in the notes because the whole episode is dedicated to an interview I recorded with fellow LinkedIn coach Bruce Johnston.

Bruce and I discuss his recent post ‘The LinkedIn Paradox: The Hunters And The Hunted’ which is all about how LinkedIn need to carefully walk a tightrope between growing their revenues (appealing to hunters) and growing/retaining enough active members (the prey)

Read The LinkedIn Paradox: The Hunters And The Hunted

I think this is a really important subject and getting it right will be critical to the future of LinkedIn.

Bruce and I cover a lot of ground in this episode and I hope you find it interesting and thought provoking.

What do you think about the paradox. Is this the most critical issue LinkedIn face?