Never one to rest on its laurels, LinkedIn recently announced some interesting new profile features that can help you stand out, be found and measure the impact of your LinkedIn presence (disclosure, LinkedIn is a TopRank client).
Here are 4 ways you can take advantage of the new LinkedIn profile updates:
Stand out With New Profile Image Options
The trend towards getting more visual has taken hold of all aspects of social media and LinkedIn profiles are about to get the same treatment.
Some new image features to be on the lookout for are:
- Larger headshot photos
- Expanded profile headers
- Free gallery of background images
When deciding on which images to include in your profile, think about what kind of imagery could add a tasteful yet personal touch and tell a story about you and your professional background. Some great examples of this are:
- Richard Branson: His upward gazing profile image on a background of clouds symbolizes his reputation for sky high ideas (and also that he owns a very successful airline).
- Lee Odden: The background header showing his book Optimize speaks to his reputation as an author and marketing subject matter expert.
Get Found With Keyword Optimization Suggestions
Including the right keywords in your LinkedIn profile is one of the best ways to increase your chances of showing up in relevant search results (for prospects, customers, recruiters, etc.). However, for folks who may not be experienced with keyword research or search optimization, this can be a challenge. LinkedIn is aiming to help by providing personalized keyword suggestions.
Some key areas of your profile to include keywords:
- Headline
- Summary
- Experience
- Skills
With the recent rollout of LinkedIn’s ‘Galene’ search architecture that improves the speed, relevance and scope of internal searches, it’s extra important to make sure you are optimizing your profile with the right keywords.
Open Up Your Profiles Accessibility
One of the defining characteristics of LinkedIn has been the privacy of your profile details and inbox from members who are not close connections with you. In what could be a dramatic shift, LinkedIn is introducing a new setting called Open Profile. This option allows you to make your full profile visible to all LinkedIn members as well as allow anyone to send you direct messages.
Whether this update will result in more connections with customers or a deluge of spam remains to be seen, but it’s certainly worth testing Open Profile. After all, you can always turn it off.
Measure and Compare Your Visibility
A popular feature of LinkedIn is the ‘Who’s Viewed Your Profile’ report, and it’s about to get an upgrade that allows for viewing a full 90 day time range of profile views.
Curious to see how popular you are compared to your LinkedIn peers? The new ‘How You Rank’ report will show where you fit into the top 100 most viewed profiles among your company and first degree connections.
LinkedIn has been making some major updates this year that impact both members and brands. Smart marketers should take notice.
What do you think about these new LinkedIn features?
