A big change of scenery this week as I take the podcast out 'on the road' to Amsterdam in the Netherlands. LinkedIn has always been very popular in The Netherlands and as a result some of the most respected LinkedIn experts in the world are found there so this week I jumped on a flight to go and have a chat with two of my favourite LinkedIn trainers Perry Van Beek and Petra Fisher.

News

• Sydney university keeps suits for students LinkedIn profile photos
• LinkedIn 3rd quarter results;
  • Total revenue of $780m broken down as follows;
    • Talent solutions 59% (34% growth)
    • Learning (Lynda) 6%
    • Marketing 18% (28% growth)
    • Premium 17% (21% growth)
  • Revenue is predicted to be $3 billion for the year.
  • Unique visitors have dropped to 25% of total members (27% in Q3 2014, 30% in 2013)
  • 55% of unique visitors are via mobile
  • LinkedIn announce their largest commercial deal ever - with EY for Sales Navigator licences (a sign of the future).

Question:

I am wondering if it is possible to see previously sent invites or messages any more? I'm asking because I usually tailor an invite to a person and want to refer back to it when I send a thank you note and a longer explanation on why I want to connect with them. I can find the pending ones but not the accepted ones. Before you could go into Sent and see everything invites/messages even if they were accepted.

News

• More details emerge about LinkedIn new ProFinder trial
• Have you played the LinkedIn name game?
• New thought leaders are invited to publish for the upcoming new app
• The LinkedIn plugin that works out how old you are!
• Group messages will return
• Is this the most authentic profile ever on LinkedIn?

Commentary

• Group messaging is still possible - workaround hack
• How to post GIFs on LinkedIn

Question

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)