I remember when I was first invited to join LinkedIn and it was described to as being ‘like Facebook but for business’.
Over time I’ve drifted away from using it, mainly due to the number of messages I receive from people trying to get me to buy stuff, but with the all the new features LinkedIn have added in 2017, maybe it is time to start taking the social media platform seriously again.
#1 – LinkedIn Video
Let’s start with the big one: native video on LinkedIn.
Video is without doubt the most powerful way to tell stories and connect with an audience on social media and now finally LinkedIn have added the ability to post video on the platform directly, rather than linking to videos hosted elsewhere.
You can post videos both on mobile and using the desktop versions of LinkedIn and after you post a video, you can see key audience insights (more on this shortly).
I wonder how long it will take for LinkedIn to add live video?
#2 – LinkedIn Audience Network
LinkedIn Sponsored Content has always let you reach professional audiences in the newsfeed, but now LinkedIn Audience Network enables you to reach even more professionals with your ads by placing your Sponsored Content on high-quality, third-party publishers across mobile and desktop.
The LinkedIn Audience Network is designed to increase your marketing footprint beyond the LinkedIn platform so you can extend your campaign’s reach, deliver on your budget more easily and get your content in front of the right people, wherever they are.
This works in a similar way to the Facebook Audience Network, launched in 2014.
#3 – Multiple Images in a single post
No longer are you limited to posting one image at a time. Now LinkedIn lets you select up to nine photos to share in a single, helping you improve storytelling and audience engagement.
#4 – Analytics and Audience Insights
You can now find out more about the engagement with your posts and articles (and videos).
On both mobile and desktop, LinkedIn can show you insights about:
- Job titles and locations of your viewers
- The companies they work at
- How they found your post
- How many views, likes, and comments you are receiving
- How many people re-shared your post and who they are!
#5 – Customized Notifications
LinkedIn’s customised notifications tab lets you see new milestones about your connections, a daily rundown of trending news, or how you’re being discovered in LinkedIn search
You now have full control over these notifications — simply mute or turn off notifications you no longer want to receive. You can also unfollow a connection so that you no longer see their updates in the notifications tab or in your Feed without having to disconnect from them.
#6 – See connections of your connections
The best referrals and new connections often come from people in your extended network.
LinkedIn have added a “Connections of” filter so you can easily search your connections’ connections. They’ve also added the ability to click on mutual connections from search results so that you can quickly see everyone you have in common.
#7 – Public sharing
You can now post videos and articles on LinkedIn as ‘public’ meaning that people don’t have to be logged in to LinkedIn to see them.
Don’t want to do this? No problem, you can simply choose to share with your connections only when posting.
And finally…
If those seven features aren’t enough, LinkedIn have also reintroduced the ability to hover over people and companies to quickly see more without having to click into their profile.
With all these new features, I think it is time to take revisit your LinkedIn profile and start publishing more content for your professional network.
