April 8, 2011

LinkedIn is making some changes- Good ONES!

LinkedIn today

LinkedIn today is a new feature which allows users to get relevant news from their peers. This essentially means that you will be kept up-to-date on industry changes as they happen without having to consult several different sources. In essence, it becomes its own content curation system.

LinkedIn has also noted that news sources will be from sites like Mashable and TechCrunch, not just the usual big news and media sites.

LinkedIn today enables industries that are not specifically digital to become more digitally aware by feeding business account holders news that is relevant to them from online sources.

Share function

The “Share” function on LinkedIn makes it a bit more like a social networking site like Facebook but for professional individuals.

Sharing an article with your network will result in a Network Update telling your network where to read and discuss the article. Sharing it with your connections allows you to pick and choose who to send it to and provide a message describing why you think the content is noteworthy. Sharing news with your network helps your colleagues and peers stay on the same page, sparking discussions on the topics that matter to your network.
For Content Providers

Adding a “Share on LinkedIn” link to your website or blog allows your users to share your content with their LinkedIn connections or networks. This gives your content legs: one user visits your site and can notify literally tens, hundreds, or thousands of others, driving relevant traffic back to your site.

Third tier connections

It’s still possible to invite third tier connections, or even those with absolutely no connection to you, but only if you know their name. If you don’t know their name, you can only send an in-mail. It also appears that on a Pro account it is possible to invite third tier connections, however this facility is not available on free accounts.

Group messages system

The group messages system has changed too. Essentially, you can only send group messages to those in a specific group and no longer to those in search results, which was probably done to prevent spamming. This anti spam consideration means that businesses can concentrate on important information coming in through LinkedIn messages rather than junk they have to sift through. This could be a great encouragement for businesses to maintain their LinkedIn accounts.