This week on the Wednesday Edition of Talk Business With Howard on Blog Talk Radio the guest is Viveka von Rosen, the LinkedIn Expert. Viveka is the author of the book, LinkedIn Marketing: An Hour A Day – and will be talking about the latest LinkedIn changes and updates. To listen to the live broadcast of the radio show on Wednesday, April 3 at 11 AM/ET, click here. Or bookmark this page to listen later to the replay of the show which will be posted at the top of this page. Thank you, Viveka, for the guest blog post and for being on the radio show. – Howard-
LinkedIn Changes Its User Interface Again by Viveka von Rosen
LinkedIn has changed its User Interface. Again. At this time only about 20% of its members seem to have the new UI, but if you are one of the lucky ones – here’s a list of some of the changes. And if you don’t have it yet, read on, because they are coming!
Menu Bar
To be fair – most of the changes are on the menu bar. But they are big changes!
I have a video below that walks you through step-by-step. It was done on the fly and with my client’s profile (and permission), but it’ll tell you what you need to know if you to have the new user interface on LinkedIn.
Video of LinkedIn’s New Changes: http://youtu.be/tlBcFGeDURs
Homepage Tab
The homepage is pretty much the same. Except now instead of the full LinkedIn logo, it’s just the blue LinkedIn logo. But it takes you to the same place.
Profile Tab
Under ‘Profile’ you’ll notice we’ve lost the drop down box. Meaning you have to edit and view your profile from the same place. So just click on ‘Profile’, and it will open up in view profile. Click the ‘edit’ button on the snapshot, and have at it. You might also notice we lost the profile organizer and recommendations links from beneath the Profile menu tab.
The profile organizer can now be found when you click on “‘Contacts’ under ‘Network’. Recommendations can be found in the drop-down box to the right of the ‘Edit’ button.
Network Tab
LinkedIn collapsed the ‘Contacts’ menu tab and the ‘Groups’ menu tab into a new tab called ‘Network’. This actually makes sense to me.
Once you click on those links it looks the same as before.
It is kind of a bummer that you can no longer see the groups you were following right under one tab. If you want to find your groups – go to the Groups page. Or to search for groups you just have to do it in the search box.
Career Tab
LinkedIn collapsed ‘Jobs’ and ‘Companies’ under the ‘Career’ tab.
Mostly you’re losing those lovely drop-down boxes that allowed you to easily see the jobs you were saving and the companies you were following.
My biggest complaint about this is that my Company Page isn’t listed there to easily click on. I have to do a search. I have to go into Companies and either click on the Companies I’m following, or start typing in my company name.
Search Box
The search box is still the same but upfront and center.
Where the drop-down box used to give you names, now it gives you get logos and names. So just get familiar with them.
The advanced search is still available when you are on your ‘Home’ or your ‘Profile’ tab.
Inbox “Envelope”
Your inbox is now underneath the dark grey envelope on the rightish side of your menu tab. So go ahead and click on that envelope and it will take you both to your ‘Invitations’ and your ‘Messages’. Once you’ve clicked on the envelope, the inbox screen looks the same.
Notifications Flag
Notifications are the same, but the flag is bigger and off to the right of your menu bar.
Add Connections Icon
The green ‘Add Connections’ link is gone. In its place a tiny silhouette of a man with a plus sign next to it. This is extremely confusing because on most social media sites that’s actually your profile button.
Click on the little +guy and “old” connections screen pops up.
Remember, if you want to invite people by individual email, you just have to click on the ‘Other’ envelope.
Account and Settings Avatar
Accounts and Settings is new to LinkedIn. To find this section, scroll over the tiny picture of yourself on the right-hand side of the screen.
When you scroll over that picture you can:
- Sign out of your account
- Upgrade your account
- Change the language of your account
- Go to your privacy and settings area (old settings)
- Go to the help center (this is new)
- Post a job
Gone???? But not forgotten
To get to LinkedIn Today you just have to click on the LinkedIn Today link on your home page
To get to LinkedIn Signal go to www.linkedin.com/signal
LinkedIn Skills and Expertise –Skills and Expertise (not Skills Endorsements – could do without them!) was my favorite feature. What the heck did they do with it??? Well I found it. So if you loved that page as much as I did for finding Influencers, Groups, relevant companies and groups – not to mention awesome keywords, go to www.linkedin.com/skills
What’s Next?
There are quite a few more changes, so watch the video, if you haven’t done so yet – or this Slideshare presentation.
http://www.slideshare.net/LinkedInExpert/new-user-interface-and-search-changes-on-linkedin
Share in the comments below your thoughts on the latest LinkedIn changes and updates – and as a CEO, president or business owner how you are effectively using LinkedIn with your business.
Viveka von Rosen is known internationally as the “LinkedIn Expert” and is the author of the book, LinkedIn Marketing: An Hour A Day. She hosts the weekly #LinkedInChat on Twitter every Tuesday night at 8 PM/ET. Viveka’s website, LinkedInToBusiness, is recognized as one of the top social media blogs. She was named a Top 50 Social Media Influencer by Forbes.