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3 LinkedIn Updates to Encourage You to Update Your Profile

While there has been a lot of fuss about Facebook lately, LinkedIn is quietly updating and upgrading its platform and is becoming incredibly valuable to its Members.

In this week’s video, I share with you three LinkedIn updates that should encourage you to check in with your profile and make some updates.

Click here to watch the video:

These updates are super helpful for those of us who want to keep an updated profile and make sure we are appealing to and connecting with the right people. The updates I discuss are:

1. Who’s Viewed Your Profile

This is the most viewed section of LinkedIn, and now they are giving us more information about who is finding you and more importantly – how people are finding you. Use this data to tweak your profile headline, summary and experience to make sure you are discovered by the people you want to connect with.

The snapshot looks something like this (will vary based on your own profile results):

You can now learn more within categories:

Industries of your viewers

What your viewers do

Where your viewers came from (how they found you, i.e. in a Group or via Search)

Keywords that led to you

Where they work

Where they live

My results definitely encouraged me to adjust my summary section! Please remember that your headline, summary and experience section should be peppered with your keywords, as these sections play in the search function and help you get discovered.

2. LinkedIn Opens Publishing Platform

LinkedIn has now opened their publishing platform to its membership. This provides all of us greater opportunity for exposure and to offer greater value to our network. If our articles consistently receive many views, likes, comments and shares, they we have the chance to become a LinkedIn influencer.

This is being rolled out over the next few months, but if you’d like to send in an application for early release (I did) then you can fill out a short form, provide two examples of the type of content you’d be publishing, and cross your fingers.

Apply early: http://specialedition.linkedin.com/publishing/

3. Encouraging Professionalism in High School Students

In August, LinkedIn dropped it’s minimum age for Members to fourteen. This was done in an effort to encourage students to begin thinking about their future, the moment they enter high school. LinkedIn wants to provide an advantage to ambitious students, recommending they follow university pages to connect with admissions and alumni.

One high school student wrote for the LinkedIn blog,

“I’ve discovered that the sooner you put yourself in the professional community, the better your chances of finding the opportunity you want.” – Rutha Nuguse

Perhaps this attitude will spill over into behavior on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook, too. That’s why I love this push from LinkedIn. It reinforces that you are never too young to build your professional profile, polish your personal brand and manage your reputation.

This news has really made me think twice as to how I use LinkedIn and inspires me to be more proactive with my account. I hope it encourages you to do the same!

Tags: communication, LinkedIn, personal brand, reputation management, social media