LinkedIn has long been the key social network for professional service firms and with nearly 700 million active users in 2020 it’s easy to see why. As we all found ourselves in the precarious position of lockdown, the platform responded quickly and delivered a number of new features to help us navigate the ‘new normal’. These have been released alongside some expected updates, designed to improve users’ experience of the channel.
We’re running through a few new updates that you may have missed on LinkedIn…
Share that you’re Open-to-Work
f you’re on the hunt for a new job, a good first step is to indicate to your professional community that you’re looking. In addition to being able to privately let recruiters know that you’re open to new jobs, we introduced a new feature that adds a #OpenToWork photo frame on your profile photo, which signals to LinkedIn’s broader community of 700+ million professionals that you’re open to new opportunities. For example, if your profile comes up in a search, or if you comment on or “like” a post on your feed, people beyond your first-degree connections will be able to see your #OpenToWork photo frame and help connect you to open jobs they know of.
Help others pronounce your name
Almost all of us have been there: you see someone’s name in writing and aren’t sure how to properly pronounce it. Whether you’re looking to make a new connection as part of your network, interviewing for a job, or meeting a new colleague, correctly pronouncing someone’s name helps you make a good first impression. That’s why Linkedin have recently rolled out a new feature that lets you create a recording of your name pronunciation and add it to your profile so that your visitors say your name correctly.
Spotlight your work
Highlighting your finest work samples is a great way to stand out from the crowd. Now you can highlight all of the work you’re most proud of by pinning it in the new ‘Featured’ section, so that people visiting your profile get a sense of your work and experiences, helping you demonstrate your expertise to your network.
Event Creation
Creating online events are one of the best options for networking and lead generation. With the introduction of the new LinkedIn feature ‘Events’ it allows you to create both public and private events and also allows you to share and invite your connections. You can find the new events feature from your desktop by navigating to the LinkedIn homepage, where you’ll see events you’ve joined under the events section on the left side panel. From your mobile device you can find it by tapping on the ‘home’ tab on the LinkedIn app, then tap the ‘more’ icon at the top right of the screen. Under ‘your communities’, your events will be listed at the bottom.
Support Reaction
LinkedIn Reactions launched last year providing another way for users to engage with LinkedIn posts. The latest addition is the Support reaction, a little like the Care reaction Facebook launched a few months back. The change also underlines the popularity of Reactions as a response and engagement tool and shows an alignment with the social media beast, Facebook.
Polls
This is an exciting new feature. Polls are available in all areas of LinkedIn from your individual Profile, Company Page, Showcase Page, Group and even from within a LinkedIn event. Both the creator of the poll and anyone viewing the post can see how many people have responded.
There are a myriad of uses for this new feature such as determining the type of content your audience likes, collecting data for your thought leadership campaigns, qualifying new prospects or even gathering feedback on your services.
We hope you find some of these new features useful, we certainly have. If you need advice or support with scaling up your LinkedIn efforts for the new world we live in, get in touch by emailing thrive@418group.com
