Welcome to episode 206. As the new desktop profile design continues to roll-out to many and with the onset of spring, I thought it would make sense to think about updating and refreshing our profiles this week..

Interesting Stuff I Saw This Week

LinkedIn’s AutoFill plugin could leak user data, secret fix failed

Facebook faces exodus as businesses call time

Facebook’s new slogan: ‘If you think we’re not good for your business, leave’

Always Customise Your LinkedIn Invitation? Better not?

 

LinkedIn Features

 

The new mobile ‘Find Nearby’ seems to be broken!

The settings have disappeared which renders it useless!

(update: This seems to have been fixed but it now works differently…..I will cover this in more detail soon)

Post of the Week

Following on from last weeks episode on content marketing I thought I would highlight this excellent post from John Espirian. Great advice…and great subtitles too!

 

Refresh Your Profile

With the new profile design rolling out to many of you I thought it would be a good time to make some changes to your profile.

 

As a starting point, I posted this video this week showing a side by side comparison

 

You might find Andy Foote’s article on the reasons behind the new profile design interesting

A Scientific Explanation Of The NEW LinkedIn Profile

Some of you will have to change your background image because of the new position of the profile picture. It is unlikely to change on mobile where it is still centred. This is not a massive issue as the background image is less important on mobile, but worth considering.

The easiest way to create a background image is to find a suitable free image on Pixabay and upload it to Canva and then create a ‘custom dimension’ of 1584 x 396 px

It may also be a good time to invest in a new, professionally taken headshot image. This is no longer an expensive thing to do and you should easily be able to find a good local headshot photographer on LinkedIn, just type the following into the search field at the top of the page;

headshot AND title:photographer

then select ‘people’ and add your location

 

Review your headline: Is there clarity to your prospects? Are you using your 120 characters wisely?

Company Logo; The most recently commenced position will be the one that shows a logo at the top of your new profile. Make sure that if you have several concurrent positions that the most important one is at the top (you can move them by dragging the 4 horizontal lines)

 

Summary: This has increased from 2 to 3 lines (roughly 300 characters) now. A good summary should start with your contact details (only 45 characters are seen on mobile) and the rest should provide an enticing ‘teaser’ to encourage the viewer to click on the now more prominent ‘show more’

Media: As there are now 6 thumbnails that actually show in the preview, it may be a good time to review which media you are using and perhaps designing them so that the thumbnails (which are much smaller) show what the media is.

Skills: If you are into skills (I’m really not!) then you might want to use the new format as an excuse to review what you show (see Greg Cooper’s post above)

 

Katherine Forest questions

#2. How does one apply to teach a course on LinkedIn Learning and do you think it’s worth doing?

My understanding is that LinkedIn Learning tutors are selected by LinkedIn, there is no direct way to apply….unless you know someone! The people who I know who have done courses had an inside contact at LinkedIn Learning. If the opportunity arose, I would definitely recommend doing it although I believe you have to go to San Francisco to record it (at your own expense).

#3. Is there a shortcut for me to send bulk invitations to connect with people who are following me on LinkedIn?

There are 3rd party tools that let you do this but I would strongly advise against using them as your account could be suspended. Why do you wish to connect with them when they will see your content anyway?

 

That’s it for this week, until next time.

Have a great week everyone.

PS New Service. I am now providing one to one coaching sessions. Click ‘Schedule a call’ and arrange a time to speak directly with me.

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