For a job seeker, LinkedIn is an extremely valuable resource.
I don’t really spend a lot of time on the LinkedIn.com website these days though, preferring to use HootSuite as my social media dashboard and leverage its ability to post selected updates to my LinkedIn contacts. Additionally, I use Google Reader to monitor RSS feeds from LinkedIn Answers and my Network Updates.
But yesterday, LinkedIn turned on some Facebook-like improvements to the service’s link and news-sharing features that may draw me back.
When you share links/articles and thus add them to your profile, you can select whether they will be visible to the public, your network, or only a specific individual.
Like in Facebook, links automatically generate image and article excerpts, which should increase the frequency of visitors actually clicking through to read the posts. Unfortunately, this doesn’t work when you share a link with LinkedIn from Twitter.com or a third-party social media dashboard application.
This new look is visible both in your profile and your activity list, helping visitors learn about your professional interests and expertise. Notice the difference in the image at right between the two most recent posts at the top and older links which were shared before the new features were enabled.
Add to that the ability to easily re-share links to connections, groups, or individuals, a similar sharing experience at sites like the New York Times, and automatically link shortening (lnkd.in), and you have a greatly improved social media experience when working within the LinkedIn ecosystem.
For additional details about these improvements and a short video showing how you can use them, please visit the LinkedIn blog.
How much time do you spend in LinkedIn? Are these updates to the news and link-sharing features enough to make you spend more time there?
David Swinney helps businesses implement social media strategies and plans in order to identify customers and their influencers, engage them in conversation, and leverage those connections to improve the bottom line.
As a technologist with a background in social media, corporate communications, technical and customer support, vendor relationship and project management, he is able to comfortably discuss various social media topics with managers, individual contributors, and just plain folks.
Contact David if you're looking for someone to create, build, and enhance your customer relationships using social media tools and technologies. 