The New Face of LinkedIn

If you are new to LinkedIn, you may not have noticed, but if you’re a LinkedIn veteran, you’ve definitely experienced LinkedIn’s recent facelift. The interface has been given a complete overhaul. LinkedIn’s goal is to simplify the user’s experience. 

Here’s a summary of some of the recent changes:

Search bar: LinkedIn’s main search bar has been moved to the top center of the screen. This makes searching for People, Companies, Groups and whatever else you may search a bit easier to navigate. In the past, the search bar has been hidden among the other great features of the site and easily overlooked.

Menu: The menu choices have been rebranded. Among other changes, you’ve probably noticed that “Groups” and “News” are no longer designated menu options. LinkedIn has a new set of tabs at the top of the screen (just under the search bar). The five main tabs are as follows: Home, Profile, Network, Jobs, and Interests. Watch this short video highlighting the new navigation menu bar.
LinkedIn posted an article on its official blog addressing other changes that have been made to the top navigation links on the home page. Click here to check out the blog post. 

Messages & Notifications: Your messages (indicated by an envelope icon), notifications (indicated by a flag icon), privacy menu and help menu are more notably displayed at the top right side of the screen.

Contacts: These features aren’t as new as some of the above mentioned, but they are still worth noting. LinkedIn has given you the ability to track conversations, meetings, and notes on your contact’s profile. I’ve found this to be hugely beneficial when trying to recall specifics about when/where/or how I may have met or corresponded with my contacts. Take a look at this Contacts SlideShare for more details. 

The folks at LinkedIn are constantly coming up with new ways to enrich the user’s experience. Expect more changes in the future and keep an eye out on the Official LinkedIn Blog for updates: http://blog.linkedin.com/. LinkedIn is still the No. 1 professional social networking site. If you do not already have a LinkedIn account, I recommend that you create one. Over 93 percent of employers and recruiters use social media when sourcing candidates, more specifically, LinkedIn. 

If you’re looking for ways to boost your professional brand on LinkedIn, you may enjoy this infographic. 

Posted by Kelly Allgeier