Welcome to episode 151 at the end of another traumatic week for LinkedIn and it’s new design!

Following on from last weeks episode, I want to dig a bit deeper into what communication techniques work and what really don’t work on LinkedIn.

But first…..

Interesting Stuff I Saw This Week

Workplace from Facebook is now live…..will it cause LinkedIn problems?

Are LinkedIn understaffed and overworked?….or just low quality or ignorant? I suspect they are severely overworked and understaffed….ironic for a site that makes 60% of its revenue from recruitment!

LinkedIn Salary - Did you know that premium users no longer have to add their salary to be able to use the salary feature.
Salary can be found in the ‘More menu’

New Desktop Design Update

Now that the majority of users have the new UI, the heat is really turning up on LinkedIn…members are really not happy!

Someone has even created an online petition!
New LinkedIn - Petition - Bring Back Tagging, Advanced Search and Rankings!

Whilst I think it’s important to provide LinkedIn with feedback, I don’t think ranting helps (other than the person that wrote it might feel better!).
The above petition does not really tackle the most important or realistic issues.
Let’s be realistic, LinkedIn are not likely to bring back advanced search and tagging (which is not actually related to the new UI) has moved to Sales Navigator so they are not going to reverse that and rankings (a pointless feature anyway) are hardly worth raising a petition about!

I’m not happy with the new design either but I am trying to be constructive and find realistic solutions.
The biggest issue for me is quality - there are just far too many bugs or features that seem to have been accidentally forgotten! This is unforgivable and LinkedIn need to ‘up their game’ and sort these quickly.

Here is my list of bugs, it is worth noting that this list was almost double the length in November, so things are slowly getting better.

Bugs or ‘forgotten’ features

• Hovering over names (quoted in updates) does not open up a preview box.
• You can’t see who shared your article
• Notifications do not take you to the exact place in a thread
• Typing responses to comments is impossible to see
• Recommendation order can’t be changed - despite appearing though it can views of post’ on homepage is totally out of sync with the real number.
• Page load times are slow for many
• When someone comments on an image update you can’t see the image in your feed…making the comment often impossible to understand

Have you found any more? Let me know if I have missed any.

New UI fact: Did you know that emoji’s in name fields make the person impossible to find in a name search?
Remove all emoji’s from your name field (they should never have been there in the first place!)

Communication. The Mirror Effect

How many times do we receive a message on LinkedIn or email that shows a clear lack of understand as to our interests and needs?
How often do we see a message that is clearly a standardised format, sent to multiple recipients?

What is going on here?
People find it harder to communicate online because they have no signals to read, or at least they think they don’t…..so we get the mirror effect! The computer screen acts like a mirror and all we see is our own need and wants….net result is poor, ineffective communication.

Let’s consider a better example;
Mike Richards is specialist treasury recruiter.

Mike noticed that following an article he wrote on LinkedIn (aimed at being of value to treasury professionals) he was getting a lot of new followers.
He sifted through these followers and picked out those that were of particular interest.
He found 22 interesting followers, all potential clients or candidates.
He then sent them all a personalised invitation to connect which read as follows;

I noticed you recently reviewed my profile maybe after reading one of my articles, you may also have seen this post about improving your LinkedIn profile if it helps you?
http://www.treasuryrecruitment.com/10_linkedin_tips/
Feel free to connect if you want to?
Regards
Mike @ MR Recruitment

All 22 accepted!

This is no surprise because he acted on a clear signal that they were interested in him, rather than assuming they would be.
In addition he provides value in the link with some LinkedIn tips and the very ‘non pushy’ line ‘feel free to connect if you want to’
Mike knows his market and the tone of his invitation is perfectly suited to Treasury professionals.

This is what I mean by effective communication.
Move beyond the mirror effect and communicate in a compassionate, person centred way.

I would love to hear about more examples, both good and bad.
Please drop me a line on LinkedIn or to mark@linkedinformed.com

Welcome to episode 150, that seems like a pretty good milestone to have reached but I think the main celebration will be at number 200!

Something interesting I saw this week

Well there hasn’t been much news at all this week, it seems everyone is so pre-occupied with the new desktop design (which I am trying to avoid covering in this episode).

LinkedIn did announce that they had re-vamped their premium accounts, I’m not sure they have changed much to be honest and Business account holders are still getting a raw deal but there are a few changes worth noting, especially to the jobseeker account which is now called ‘Career’.

Here is the article;
What’s New With LinkedIn Premium?

Coaching

If you are interested in a one to one coaching session or just want to have ask for some quick advice, you can book a free 15-minute consultation with me at;
https://mrlinkedin.youcanbook.me/

New Book - I need your help

I’m starting to research the topic of online relationship building a communication for a book I will be writing.
Please drop me a line to mark@linkedinformed.com if you have any examples of good or bad online communication.

Social Media Content. What matters most - When or What?

I read a great article this by Jay Baer that really got me thinking about what matters when posting content on LinkedIn.

The Truth About How Often To Post In Social Media

I did some vary crude research myself on 6 posts I did last week on LinkedIn.

Jay makes some great points but I also think that consistently high engagement will lead to more people seeing your posts initially (before the algorithm can judge how interesting it is).

His main advice is spot on;
“Post when you have something to say”

I would just add - also at the right time, with an image and ask a question!

Lars asked via voicemail which browser I thought worked best with LinkedIn.
I use Chrome mainly but I have a feeling that LinkedIn behaves better in Firefox these days. I like Chrome because of the various extensions I use but LinkedIn don’t approve of extensions so perhaps that is why they favour Firefox.
Of course that all might change when Microsoft gain more influence!!

The second question was regarding viewing the activity stream of followed companies in the new UI.

This is a bit crazy and complicated to explain so I made a video to explain

Welcome to episode 149, it seems that the roll-out has now reached about 75% if users so I thought it would make sense to get through some of the many questions I have been receiving.

It’s funny for me, I feel like I have been talking about this for so long with very little feedback and then all of a sudden….everyone is talking about it and asking questions!

Before I get into that tough, I have a couple of updates for you;

Published Post Comments

Firstly LinkedIn have officially announced a new feature within published posts - the ability to switch off comments and report inappropriate comments - woop-de-do!
Not only is that tame but the blog article announcing it is very annoying!
Giving You More Choice Over Your Content on LinkedIn

Maybe it’s just me (probably) but I find it hard to read those ‘corporate’ type posts that say nothing at all for the first two paragraphs!

Update to Mobile App

LinkedIn have quietly added an interesting new section to a personal profile, it’s on on mobile currently but I suspect it may come to desktop eventually.
When you next go onto the app you find you are asked this question;

When you tap on add topics you are given a list of topics (presumably based on your profile & network) from which you can pick 3.

Then you add them to your profile

And this is what they look like

I’m not sure if these are searchable yet but that could become an option. It’s certainly worth adding them for now.

Your ‘Neptune’ Questions answered.

How do I create a new company page?

This is a bit hidden but you will find up at the bottom of the ‘more’ menu (you do need to scroll down).

How do I find my own company page or one I’m an admin for?

For some reason this is in a different place to the above!
For this you need to go to the ‘Me’ menu and you will see the pages you own or manage in the list.

How do I personalise invitations?

Don’t invite someone from anywhere other than their profile! If you click ‘connect’ from a shortlist or ‘people you may know’ it just sends a blank invitation.

Has the recommendation button gone?

No but it has moved. See below

How do I conduct a search within my first tier connections?

This actually hasn’t changed, the best way id via an advanced search…..wait! Advanced search has gone!! No worries, you can still do it, this video shows how;

How do I sort my homepage feed by ‘most recent’

Unfortunately you can’t but I believe there is a strong possibility that this feature may be coming and that it will be much better than before…let’s hope so!

How do I revert back to the old UI?

Sorry you can’t! My suggestion is that you focus on making the most of Neptune, it has it’s faults but also some good points and I’m certain it will improve in time.

Welcome to episode 148, this week I interview a young chap called Jack Parsons who is the CEO of an exciting start-up called YourFeed.

Jack and he team are about to launch a brand new website and social network called YourFeed, here is how they describe themselves;
Yourfeed is a disruptive online platform that helps ambitious professionals find employment, network with like-minded individuals & gather advice through experienced mentors. The platform connects hiring companies with ambitious professionals favouring skills & ambitions over experience when recruiting.

I found this a fascinating conversation about the challenges that LinkedIn face with the younger generation.
How can LinkedIn become more interesting to this demographic?
How can LinkedIn structure their premium accounts to avoid alienating the younger generation?
Is the solution within LinkedIn or is it too hard to cater for such a wide demographic?
Do you think this is seen as an important issue to LinkedIn?

I would love to hear your views on this. Please leave me a voicemail or send an email to mark@linkedinformed.com

New User Interface Update

LinkedIn announced (after I recorded last weeks show) that they are up to 50% roll-out of Neptune (internal name for the new UI) but if you are in the half that doesn’t have it, I may have a genius solutions for you!

So long as you keep open the tab that this opens, you have the new UI…as well as the old one!

Unfortunately this doesn’t seem to work for everyone, some are getting 404 error page and others see an earlier version of Neptune that is completely useless.
I’m not sure why this happens but I wonder if it is because those people haven’t imported contacts previously.

This weeks question is about the new user interface.

Question: Where have groups gone?

Answer Groups are now accessed via the ‘More’ matrix menu