LinkedIn News & Tips from Link?Ability – September '23

In this month’s newsletter:

?? New LinkedIn features

?? Our most popular recent posts?

?? Recent and upcoming events

UPDATE: Sept 10 – if you are visiting this newsletter because it was mentioned by Mark Williams in his LinkedInformed podcast episode 404, thank you for dropping by. The new feature in which he talked about a live link is the Custom Action Button which was launched in beta early in the year. It is therefore not included in this month's list but you can read about it here.

New Features in August 2023

August brought with it a slew of new features, taking the total to more then 120 for the year. Some are extremely useful to all LinkedIn members, others are aimed at particular sectors such as recruitment while yet a third group is for Premium members only. A few are minor and may not be worth bothering with.

Here are the new features in August:

?? Actively hiring

Find people in your network who have turned on Hiring (around their profile photo) and have Jobs listed on LinkedIn. This is for Premium members.

?? AI assisted pre-post comment review

‘Are you sure you want to post this’?is a new prompt?that identifies and warns of inappropriate language that’s been previously reported to encourage you to consider editing the comment. Presumably non-complying comments are removed.

?? See pages following page

Company pages have been able to follow other pages for a while now but we can now see which pages are following our own. This would be useful for checking out which competitors are keeping an eye on you and for you to monitor potential clients. Find this under Analytics / Followers / Pages

?? Host multiple newsletters

Until now we’ve only been able to set up one newsletter per profile and one per page. Now, we can host up to five newsletters per profile and page on different topics, with separate design and frequency of posting. This is said to be to strengthen relevance and engagement but given that the first issue of every new newsletter is sent to all connections or page followers, and automatically drops into the Featured section of profiles and onto the Home of company pages?may not be as targeted as might be hoped. ?

?? Change to feed preferences

Posts in your feed have traditionally been arranged by Top or Recent. This is being changed to Yes, personalise and No, don’t personalise. But while the words may change the meaning doesn’t and you’ll still see the most relevant posts to you under Yes, and the most recent posts under No.

?? Time stamp?added to LinkedIn Live Comments

Our first LinkedIn live after this was introduced didn’t display any time stamps on comments – either before or after so we’re no wiser as to its usefulness. It may be this is one of those features that not everyone gets at once. ?

?? New Video and Image post interface

Instead of separate video and image post upload buttons, we now have just one labelled Media. This new look is in line with the also-new (and in beta) AI-based Design feature that allows us to create images within LinkedIn. There is extensive use of icons instead of words for functions such as adding captions, filters, orientation, thumbnails etc.

Previous layout

New layout

?? Set alerts

This feature allows us to save searches we set up for topics, events, people, jobs etc and receive alerts of updates via email or LinkedIn notifications. You can set up to 10 alerts and manage them as needed. You’ll know you have this when you spot a ?? once you’ve hit Enter after adding a search term.

?? New Article/Newsletter editing tools

With a new menu comes new functions and some changes. There are blockquotes, the ability to bring in outside code and an in-image toggle for changing image sizes. But we can no longer justify images from left to right and the Draft saved icon moves to the lower right corner.

?? Immersive reader

New tools from Microsoft have been added to Articles/Newsletters to assist the visually impaired. Content can be read aloud while changes can be made to the text formatting and colours, plus there’s a translate function.

?? Label post as brand partnership

When receiving any kind of compensation for a post?you publish you can now publicly label it as a brand partnership. The idea is to increase transparency.

?? Import contacts and invite to connect

On mobile, a Network?icon pops up in the My network tab giving you access to your QR code?with?My code and Scan?options and?Add contacts for importing contacts in your account you can invite to connect.

?? Collaborative article re-design?

The?'Upvote as insightful' prompt has been replaced with Reactions but to react you now have to click through and leave your feed.

?? Merging multiple posts notifications

This attempt to reduce notification overwhelm combines multiple notifications of posts?by a single author into one. Displaying as ‘(number)?new posts from (name)’ it says how many posts the person has made recently. Click on the single notification to see a linked list.

?? Share job alerts

New to?our?Settings & Privacy?is an?On/Off toggle you can use to?signal your interest to recruiters?at companies where you’ve previously used the Create job alert feature.

Kevin D. Turner says if you are actively pursuing a career change you should?turn this off and on regularly to keep you at the top of recruiters’ lists.

?? Profile language

If you are one of those clever people who are multi-lingual, you might like to create a second profile in your other language/s. A button has been added at the top right of your profile page that invites you to add a language. However, this comes with some downsides so check the LinkedIn help page about this before proceeding.

?? About section?skills used for Collaborative articles

The 5 skills you have listed in your About section?will determine which (if any) Collaborative articles you are notified about and presumably invited to contribute to.

?? Top (Skill)?Voice on LinkedIn

When you are awarded a Top Voice badge for your contribution to Collaborative articles it also becomes a skill in your Skills section where it says 'Recognized as a Top (Skill)?Voice on LinkedIn'.

?? Top Voice badge choice

If you have earned more than one Top Voice badge because of your contributions to multiple collaborative articles on different topics, you can now choose which one to display in your?profile intro.

?? Sort updates on mobile

Choosing between Recent or Top for viewing posts?has been added to?the app. Previously only available on desktop.

?? Update to Video tab in Activity section

Until now the Video tab has just showed thumbnails of your recent video posts. But this is changing to include the first ~60 characters of each post and the engagement it’s received.

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Keen to Use LinkedIn to Achieve Your Professional Goals?

Check out our newly revamped and revised Link?Ability site with 200+ videos, articles, interviews, podcasts and more. All designed to help you achieve your professional goals using the best LinkedIn tactics, strategies and ideas no matter whether you're a beginner or have been using LinkedIn for some time. Visit www.linkability.biz to see for yourself and subscribe FREE for 7 days.

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Posts You May Have Missed This Month

Are You Being Plagued by Plagiarism on LinkedIn?

Who You Work For is Now Less Important Than Your Professional Skills.

How the New Video/Image Post Interface Works (slideshow)

How to Protect Your LinkedIn Account From Being Hacked

What kind of content is working for right now and what's not?

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Looking for Expert LinkedIn Training?

Companies all over the world are recognising the importance of upskilling their teams on best use of LinkedIn. Whether that’s to assist in the lead generation and sales process, or to enhance the brand in the minds of potential customers – one of their chief assets is their team.

LinkedIn Training New Zealand, run by internationally recognised LinkedIn consultant, Lynnaire Johnston , runs bespoke group and individual training sessions for companies looking to improve and leverage the LinkedIn presence of their team members.

Mark Cubbitt (formerly) of Nomos One says: Lynnaire's training was friendly, professional and engaging. There was much positive feedback from staff across different teams in the business.

Follow our LinkedIn Training New Zealand page or contact Lynnaire via DM or email ([email protected]).

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Events you may have missed

LinkedIn Live – Celebrating 400 episodes of the LinkedInformed podcast with Mark Williams , Mr LinkedIn.

Or watch it at https://youtu.be/laLgLJyWqoo

Events coming up in September

LinkedIn with Lynnaire Audio Event – Sept 14 – latest new features, a topic of the day and an open-mic session for those wanting to share their LinkedIn experiences or ask questions.

LinkedIn Live – Sept 30 – an overview of latest trends, new features, research results and best practice content ideas from all over LinkedIn. Suitable for anyone wanting to build professional success using LinkedIn.

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Looking to Up Your LinkedIn Game? Here are 5 ways we can help:

? Best-in-class profile makeovers

? Team training and upskilling on use of LinkedIn

? 1-2-1 LinkedIn mentoring

? Our tailored LinkedIn marketing programme that helps you become the go-to expert in your field

? Our Link?Ability subscribers site for those keen to use LinkedIn to Achieve Your Professional Goals

Talk to us about what interests you most.

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How to get in touch

Connect with Lynnaire

Email Lynnaire [email protected]

Follow our Link?Ability company page

Follow our LinkedIn Training New Zealand page

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