Jay LeonardYou might have noticed something different about your LinkedIn profile the past few days. LinkedIn this week began a roll out of a redesign for its profile pages as part of an overall upgrade of its appearance and functionality. If you rely on LinkedIn for business networking, lead generation or social media marketing, this is a good opportunity to review your profile to both make sure it’s up-to-date, and that the new look isn’t costing you an opportunity.
The most noticeable change is the thumbnail that viewers first see when they view a profile. The picture is more pronounced, and many of the links to current and past jobs or previous education are no longer available. In the old design (shown here), multiple links for current and previous positions were visible, along with a full eduction history from this thumbnail.
The old design also displayed featured websites and blogs in this area, providing an opportunity to promote them.
In the new profile design (shown below), only one current job, one past job and one education entry are listed in the thumbnail box. Website listings and other contact information are not visible until a viewer clicks the Contact Info icon at the bottom right of the box.
Proponents say the new design is cleaner and more pleasing to the eye.
LinkedIn confirmed the design changes in a statement to the Los Angeles Times.
“We are focused on making it easier for LinkedIn members to get more value out of the services we offer by creating simpler, more relevant, more social experiences,” a company spokeswoman said in an email. “This new look and feel to the profile is the first step of many more exciting changes to come to the LinkedIn profile later this year.”
While the changes appear subtle, they could have an impact on the ability of searchers to find your profile on the service, or to quickly glean information about you.
Wayne Breitbarth, author of Power Formula for LinkedIn Success, shared his concerns how the changes could hamper folks who have come to rely on the way Linkedin worked prior to Monday, and that have fully optimized their profiles to take advantage the social media channel.
“Everything is still there, but it has moved around,” Breitbarth said. “It’s going to take some research to see what strategy changes are in order.”
One of Breitbarth’s primary criticisms of the redesign is the elimination of the job history, education and web information from the thumbnail. While some have described the changes as elegant, Breitbarth says end users have lost the ability to quickly gain an understanding of who a person is by looking at the thumbnail. Without the multiple current and past job entries, a searcher doesn’t readily see information such as involvement with charities or service on non-profit boards.
“I can see less of what you are involved with. I have to scroll down the profile now to get a feel for who you are,” he said.
Breitbarth also raised a red flag over the pronounced importance of the summary section of the profile. The biggest problem here, he said, is that 50 percent of LinkedIn users have never completed the summary section of their profile. Those people may now be much harder to find and could be missing out on opportunities.
Many of those who do use the summary use it primarily as a listing of skills or specialties. Now would be a good time to revise that content into story form, making sure to keep your keywords prominent.
Other redesign concerns:
- The website and e-mail information being hidden until the contact icon is clicked – what if people don’t take the time to click
- Loss of LinkedIn contact opportunities in the upper right corner of the page to advertising
LinkedIn is still a powerful business tool and lead generator, Breitbarth said. He is currently working on a second edition to Power Formula for LinkedIn Success. He will certainly be keeping an eye on the effect these recent changes have on user profiles so he can include the latest strategies when the new edition goes to print.
Until then, he suggests that LinkedIn users use the redesign as an opportunity to check their profiles and make sure they are up-to-date. Priorities include:
- Making sure the summary section is complete, tells the users’ story and contains relevant keywords
- Checking for job titles and descriptions, making sure that relevant keywords are used whenever possible
- Taking advantage – even though it’s hidden – of the opportunities to promote websites, blogs and Twitter feeds in the contact section
In addition to his book, Breitbarth has some great tools at his website that can help you determine keywords for your profile. Even with the changes, one of LinkedIn’s core functions is as a search tool for business professionals, which means making sure you take advantage of opportunities to use relevant keywords for your profession or business.
Frequent checks of your LinkedIn profile should be part of your regular social media routine. For additional guidance to fully optimize your social media marketing profiles, download a FREE copy of our Social Media Optimization Playbook.
This article was written for Business 2 Community by Jay Leonard.
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I agree completely with Wayne’s criticisms.
I think the changes are a backward step more concerned about how pretty things look and less about how functional and useful they are.
Like the playbook! Thanks for making it!