LinkedIn Cleans Up Your Profile

by Michelle Lentz

Yesterday, the LinkedIn blog announced some aesthetic changes for the professional networking site. These are all mostly subtle changes, but they do make a big difference. In particular, these things make a huge difference in the ease-of-use category. It’s now easy to find things we didn’t even know existed before.

First off, they’ve enclosed the important profile information in a blue box on your profile. This calls attention to that information as well as making it easier to find.

Next, they’ve made it easier to take action on other people’s profiles. If someone is not a connection, you’ll see a box like this:

If they are in your network, you’ll see this:

It really does make things easier. My favorite additions are the ability to print to either your printer or PDF, or download the contact information (if in your network). These options were always there, but rather well hidden. When you’re using LinkedIn as an introductory resume, it’s a nice option for your potential employer to be able to print or save your information. I also like the easy to find suggestions/links for sending messages, recommendations, forwarding profiles (I’ve always had trouble finding that one), and getting introduced.

The final upgrade doesn’t affect everyone. But for those of you out there who haven’t completed your LinkedIn profiles, this might be a help. Not only does the new dialog box let you know your percent complete, but it also lets you know what you still need to do, the percentage associated with each step and the percentage associated each.

Overall, I think the new upgrades are useful. They upgrade the look and feel of the site and make doing things in LinkedIn a lot easier for folks who aren’t accessing it every day.

What do you think of the new upgrades? Will they help you improve your profile? Will you use them? Is there anything else LinkedIn should change?

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