Have you seen the new features LinkedIn has been rolling out recently? Showcase pages; blogging tools; “Who Viewed Your Profile;” a new profile design; “Get Introduced;” and their “common interests” for engagement, to name a few. LinkedIn is continually making it easier to connect with others and communicate ideas, increase interactions, and create more business opportunities.

1. Spotlight on Showcase Pages
You DO have a LinkedIn Company Page, right? If not, perhaps you still need to be convinced that your industrial business needs to have a strong social media presence. But assuming that you are already convinced, and DO have a LinkedIn Company Page, LinkedIn has recently added a feature called “Showcase Pages” that allow you expand your presence even further. Showcase Pages are extensions of your Company Page, and can be used to highlight different product brands; divisions; initiatives; or any other aspect of your business that you want to … showcase. Create a Showcase Page when you want to narrow the segment of LinkedIn users who might be interested in a particular product, service, or topic.  By posting relevant content and updates, this makes it easier for users to find more specific information than you present on your Company Page.

2. Blogging and Thought Leadership

In an effort to become the place to go for professional content, LinkedIn has added a blog feature to personal pages. This is a wonderful combination of content marketing and social media, which means you can create content for a built-in audience by sharing it with your contacts. You’ve probably heard the buzzword “Thought Leader” floating around the internet. Thought leaders are seen as trustworthy authorities in their particular fields. When thought leaders share another’s or create their own content – it is for the benefit of others. Your blog should be about producing quality content that answer questions or touches on topics that people are anxious to hear about. But, are you wondering how this helps you boost your business? You are drawing people in by rising above the egocentric and clamoring noise of other people’s content. This route takes patience, but by investing your time and energy in LinkedIn’s new blogging tool, it will facilitate your path to thought leadership and pay big dividends by connecting you with potential clients.

3. Who has looked at my profile?

The graph is pretty similar to before, but now LinkedIn will help you spot trends in the people who are checking you out. The new dashboard is full of great information such as breaking down what position people hold that are viewing your profile (an incredibly useful feature for salespeople!), the industries your viewers work in, and how viewers found you based on location and keyword search.

Do you often wonder how to achieve higher profile views on LinkedIn? LinkedIn helps you out by giving you recommendations intended to boost your views and how taking those actions will increase your presence. It may be only 1% here and 2% there, but with over 259 million people and counting with LinkedIn profiles, those small percentages add up over time. 

4. The Focus Is On You

LinkedIn has rolled out a new profile design that features customizable header images, larger profile pictures, and the ability to add video and other media. LinkedIn’s new look aligns nicely with other social media platforms, but still maintains its professional edge. The focus on images means it is imperative you create a company page for your business and add your photo and logo. All of this will enhance your brand and boost your visibility on the site.

The other part of the new design is it provides a more complete picture of your potential prospect. You can now see their experience, any volunteer work, or publications they’ve authored. They have made messaging easier by simply hovering your cursor over a first-level connection and having the “Send a Message” and “View Profile” options appear. This is a great CRM (customer relationship management) tool as you can easily spark engagement with people whom you are connected with on the site. It is important to keep your relationships strong!

5. It’s Nice to Meet You!

One of LinkedIn’s newest and coolest additions is the ability to “search by keyword” for second-level connections in their Get Introduced feature. How does this benefit you? It provides you with the ability to be extremely discerning in your engagement. No more advanced searches and going through connections to see if they would recommend the person. If a first-level connection gives the second-level connection a glowing recommendation, then you know this is a person you will like and trust to do business with because your first-level connection already does. You can also easily ask for your connection to introduce you, so the person will be expecting you to contact them and you will not be wasting those precious introduction requests.

6. Common Ground

Everyone is talking about the new “Common Interests” feature that LinkedIn has added. Now, they show you exactly what you have in common with another member, making it easier to connect with them.  It helps to minimize that “cold call” feeling when you already have some knowledge about a person’s interests.  LinkedIn has made it extremely easy to add skills, causes, and interests your profile, so others can find you by these criteria. The great thing about this is when you go to send a message or introduction request, you can personalize your message based on these common interests, and increasing the chance of a response. The whole goal is to create as much common ground as possible with prospects, target audiences, and niche markets. You can do this by joining groups in your area of expertise—as well as ones that appeal to your targeted audience.

Encourage, Engage, Earn

Using LinkedIn’s new features will help you be socially active on their site. It is all about becoming a trusted connection that shares useful content. If you are actively encouraging others by sharing and creating quality content, engaging others in group discussions, messaging members, or even a daily update, you will earn an increase of profile views and potential clients. What LinkedIn is trying to do is promote connections by making it easier to find, examine, and reach out to them. Try to take advantage of all new LinkedIn features as they are rolled out, and you’ll soon find you are making better quality connections that will hopefully lead to new business.