Introducing the New LinkedIn User Interface [UI Makeover]

Are you feeling overwhelmed with the new LinkedIn user interface (UI)?

You may be trying to figure out how to do or access some of the things you are used to on LinkedIn.

In this article, I will outline the changes to the new UI so you can become accustomed to what’s changed, what’s lost and what’s still available.

While it certainly looks like we lost more than we gained with LinkedIn’s UI makeover, there is still plenty of functionality to help professionals, sales people and marketers to find, connect and build relationships with their ideal clients.

If you are comfortable with the user interface and are looking for help to modify or update your lead generation or social selling strategy, keep checking back as I will be covering this soon in a future article.

Below you will find my complete breakdown of the new LinkedIn user interface.

What’s Changed with LinkedIn’s New User Interface (UI)

Home Page

While the new home page contains many of the same elements, it has a clean, new (almost Facebook) look.

The look of both free and paid accounts is similar with the only difference being the Premium identification at the top of the box on the left.

Premium Members

Free Members

The box located to the left side of the page is a small version of your profile and cover photo with your name and headline. Below this are two stats. The first is how many people have viewed your profile and the second is how many people have viewed your latest post or article (or your number of connections if you have not recently posted).

At the top of the page in the center is the Status Update box. As with the old UI, you can post a status update by clicking in the box and typing your update or adding an image. To post a Publisher article, click on Write an article.

If you click in the box, LinkedIn tells you that you can tag other LinkedIn members by using @ to mention them.

While you can change who you share your posts with (Public, Public + Twitter, Connections), I would recommend you leave this set to Public.

Below the status update box is your newsfeed. Each post by your connections is now contained in a large, clean looking box, where you can still Like, Comment or Share. By clicking the three dots located in the right corner you can also:

• Copy link to post
• Hide this post
• Unfollow Connection
• Report this post

Who’s Viewed Your Profile Page

You can access this page by clicking on the Who’s viewed your profile section of the box located in the top left corner of your homepage.

Once on your Who’s Viewed Your Profile page, what you see will be dependent on whether you have a free or Premium account.

With a Premium account, not only will you see everyone who has viewed your profile in the last 90 days, but LinkedIn also provides you with additional info to the left side of the list.

LinkedIn not only indicates if your views have increased or decreased over the last week but also offers several ways you can filter the list such as:

• One or more specific companies (that profile viewers are employed by)
• One specific job title
• One method people found your profile by

To use a filter, simply click on it.

With a free account, you are only provided with the last five people to have viewed your profile and none of the filters.

Your Activity Page

You can review all of your activity such as status updates, Publisher posts and any engagement you have with the content of other LinkedIn members.

To view your Activity Page, click in the bottom area of the box found in the top left corner of the home page.

In the top left corner of the page you will again see your profile box at the top and just below your number of Followers.

PRO TIP

It is important not to confuse your number of Followers with the number of your Connections. Followers include your 1^st degree connections as well as people who have chosen to “Follow” you.

On the right-side of the page is a list of your Interests including:

• Influencers
• Companies
• Schools
• Groups

Under each heading, you will see the first three of each area, followed by a link you can click to take you to a full, editable list.

At the top of the middle of the page is a navigation bar:

• Articles (your Publisher posts)
• Posts (your status updates)
• All Activity (your engagement with other member’s content or engagement)

Articles

Under Articles you will find a chronological list of each of the articles you have published.

In each article box, you will see the title, cover image, date published and post views (which is also a link to the stats for that article).

Click the view link to open up the stats box for the article.

While not nearly as detailed as the stats provided in the old UI, in this popup you will find a variety of helpful stats.

At the top of the page you will see your views, comments and likes, although you are no longer able to see the actual people who liked, commented or shared.

LinkedIn will also share random information such as a company that had multiple people view your article, the most common job titles of your viewers, the region most of your viewers come from and how people found your article.

Perhaps one of the most useful pieces of information on the page (besides how your article was found) is the diagram which shows you whether most of your views came from your first or second degree network.

The benefit of this information is that it shows you if your posts are moving past your 1^st degree network, which MUST be your goal. It is when your extended network reads and engages with your Publisher posts that you have the best opportunity to expand your network in a meaningful and important way.

Finally, at the bottom of the box LinkedIn will recommend a trending piece of content that they suggest for you to share with your connections.

Posts

In the Post section, you will see a list of all your status updates.

In each status update box, you will see the likes and comments it has received and the number of views with a link to the stats.

The stats popup is similar to that for your Publisher posts.

At the top, you will see the text of the post, and the number of views.

Below, LinkedIn will provide you with stats on which companies had the most people view your post, the most common job titles of the viewers and where your viewers most commonly from.

Near the bottom again is a diagram showing whether most of the views came from your connections or extended network as well as content they suggest you share.

All Activity

The All Activity section shares a chronological timeline of all of your engagement (likes and comments) on other people comments or engagement with your content.

 

My Network

The My Network page is where you will find your connection requests and a list of your connections.

In the top left corner, you will see the number of 1^st degree connections you have. You can see a complete list by clicking on the See all link.

On the Connections page, you will see a list of your connections that you can scroll through.

If you have hundreds or even thousands of connections this isn’t very handy.

There are a number of filters you can use, though again, with a large network these are of little use. The filters include:

• Recently added
• First name
• Last name

There is also a search bar where you can type in a name or keyword. This will take you to LinkedIn’s current version of Advanced Search.

At the top of the middle of the page is where you will find your connection requests under Received Invitations.

I would advise against using the Manage all link at the top as you want to address each request individually.

If a list has a personalized message it will be shown below their name and headline. Click the See more link to see the full message.

You can then open a window to review their profile as well as click the Reply to Connection link in a new window to send them a follow up message.

Below your invitations is a list of people LinkedIn thinks you may know. You can review this list from time to time to look for people to connect with.

Notifications

Rather than simply being a dropdown list, Notifications now has its own page.

Here you can see notifications when people engage with you or your content in various ways.

When people engage with your status updates and Publisher posts (likes, comments, shares and mentions), you will see:

• profile views
• follows
• endorsements
• recommendations
• important events for your connections and suggestions on how to engage them

Me

You will find a lot of features now buried under Me in the top navigation.

In this dropdown menu, you will find:

• Account
  • Settings & Privacy
  • Premium subscription settings
  • Help center
  • Language
• Manage (these will only appear if you have them)
  • Sales Navigator
  • Team accounts
  • Job postings
  • Company Pages
  • Showcase Pages
• Sign-out

Apps

Advertise

The Advertise section is where you go to set up or manage any paid advertising you do on LinkedIn.

If you haven’t yet set up an ad account, you will find plenty of information on the different options and benefits.

If you do have an ad account, click the Manage Ads button located in the top right corner of the page to go to your ad accounts.

Learning

In the Learning Center, you will find a plethora of courses and learning materials under three main themes:

• Business
• Creative
• Technology

To access all the materials in the Learning Center you need to either purchase monthly access or you get free access if you have a LinkedIn Sales Navigator account.

Post a job

You can post job opening for your company on the Post a job page.

Groups

This option takes you to your Groups page.

ProFinder

You can easily find a professional to help you on the ProFinder page.

You can quickly and easily find professionals in areas such as:

• Design
• Writing and Editing
• Accounting
• Marketing
• Legal
• Real Estate
• Software Development
• IT Services
• Business Consulting
• Financial Services
• Coaching
• Insurance
• Photography
• Home Improvement
• Administrative
• Events
• Wellness

Salary

Not sure how much some with your qualifications should making in your area? You can look this up on LinkedIn’s Salary page.

Lookup

The Lookup tool is just for people who work at the same company. This is handy if you work for a company with hundreds or thousands of employees.

Slideshare

This takes you to SlideShare, where you can login or create a new account if you don’t already have one.

Create a Company Page

Tucked at the bottom of the dropdown menu, below their paid solutions is the Create a Company Page option.

Advanced Search

Many things have changed with LinkedIn’s Advanced Search, so I will be creating a separate article in order to give you a complete look at the modified search and what that that will mean for you, especially if you have a free or Premium Business Plus account.

New LinkedIn User Interface: Wrapping Up

The new LinkedIn user interface certainly has a much cleaner design. With a few exceptions, it is far more intuitive and user friendly and more closely resembles the mobile experience.

In terms of usability and features, LinkedIn has hit its free users hard with the loss of features in the Advanced Search and tools such as Notes & Tags. This will have huge effect on those using LinkedIn for lead generation and not paying for Sales Navigator.

Stay tuned for upcoming articles where I’ll dive into these changes including an in-depth look at the Advanced Search and lead generation using free and paid methods.

Is there some aspect of LinkedIn’s changes or lead generation using the new LinkedIn user interface that you would like me to cover? Send me a message here.

The post Introducing the New LinkedIn User Interface [UI Makeover] appeared first on Top Dog Social Media.

Contributer : Top Dog Social Media http://ift.tt/2lbUaz9