LinkedIn s New Profile User Interface Work-Arounds by Viveka Von Rosen Update to LinkedIn Marketing: An Hour a Day, published by Sybex / John Wiley & Sons; ISBN 978-1- 118-35870-2. Like all online and software tools, LinkedIn is a moving target. After my book went to press, they changed the user interface in a couple of significant ways. This article describes those changes so that readers of the book will be up to date. Where Did vcards and Network Statistics Go? Here are just a few of the areas affected by the new UI: vcards Network Statistics Colleagues and Classmates New to LinkedIn Messages, Introductions, and InMails Website Info Recommendations Message and Notification Tabs As you might have read on my blog*, despite LinkedIn s newer cleaner look, the new UI is not getting rave reviews. *(http://linkedintobusiness.com/linkedins-newprofile-user-interface-is-cleaner-and-moreprofessional/) Amongst the biggest complaints has been the removal of Network Statistics and vcards. However, there are some imperfect work-arounds. I am hoping that with the complaints people have been posting, LinkedIn will reconsider the removal of these two items and reinstate them. Why did they remove them? I honestly have no idea, and LinkedIn isn t saying much. My guess is that since Network Statistics seemed to be broken half the time anyway, they just got rid of it. And vcards might have made it too easy for spammers to put you on their mailing lists.
Network Statistics Fix While you can no longer access Network Statistics from your Contacts tab, you can still find your first level connections as well as your total network size on your home page under Your LinkedIn Network as seen below. If you want to see how many first- and second-level connections you have, then you can click the New People in your Network link right below and when the search screen pops up, uncheck the 1st and Group categories up top. Even though it says new people this is your entire network. Not quite as quick as clicking the Network Statistics tab that they have had since the beginning of time, but you will get the numbers you need to track and monitor your growth on LinkedIn, as we mention in Chapter 2 of the book. vcard Fix There really isn t an easy fix for the missing vcard link. That being said, you can always do it the old-fashioned way and cut-and-paste the person s contact info into your CRM or contact management system. I was not sure if or how the lack of a vcard tab would affect some of LinkedIn s third-party apps that use connection info (like ConnectedHQ, HereOn.Biz, and Hookflash), but they still seem to be working. I spoke with Nick Smoot of HereOn.Biz and he said that the new UI has not affected their application (that deals with LinkedIn user contact information) at all.
To get a connection s contact info, just click Contacts in your main menu and then on to the Connections link. Find your connection and click their name. Then just copy and paste their info into your email or contact management system. Or, if you are already on their profile, just copy and paste their contact info from the right side of their profile page. A good practice since we no longer have vcards is to go to a person s profile as soon as you connect with them, tag them and pull their info. A bit pain-staking for sure, but the practice will service you well in the long run. I did notice in using my smart phone and ipad (as well as the CardMunch app) that I still have easy access to my connections contact info. So this might be the excuse you needed to buy that ipad!!! Colleagues and Classmates New to LinkedIn This option is now gone, replaced by the People You May Know Tab. Add Connections is completely different, as seen below. Adding Connections The green Add Connections link is still the same on the top righthand side of the page, but that s where everything changes. Or at least has the appearance of changing!
Adding Email Contacts for Email Services It s a cleaner screen, and I like that it s pretty explanatory how to add Gmail, EarthLink, Unique Domains, Yahoo, or Hotmail addresses. Adding Email Contacts from Your Own Domain I especially like that it is now much easier to add your own unique domain email address (name@yourdomainname.com), because many of us have our own websites and our own email addresses now. If you have another domain (Comcast, AOL, etc.) you can click Any Email to upload those contacts. Adding CSV Files What might not be as clear is how to add a CSV file or individual email address. In order to do that you (still) need to click the little box that says Any Email. Then you will get the More Ways To Connect option. The two links beneath that header are the Upload Contacts File link and the Invite By Individual Email link. This is really what you were able to do in previous generations Add Connections screen. So it hasn t gone away, it s just a lot harder to find. In order to upload a contact list, you just click upload contacts file, look for your CSV file (wherever you keep it), and upload your contacts. If you re not sure how to export a CSV file, my blog has an example of how to do it in Outlook: 1. In Outlook, select File Import And Export. 2. When the wizard opens, select Export To A File, and click the Next button. 3. Select Comma Separated Values (Windows), and click Next. 4. Select the Contacts folder you would like to export, and click
Next. 5. Choose a filename and a place to save the file (for instance, Contacts.csv on the Desktop), and click Next. 6. Confirm what you are exporting: make sure the checkbox next to Export is checked, and click Next. LinkedIn will give you tips on how to upload CSV files from other services, here: http://help.linkedin.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/2909 Individual Email Addresses The Invite By Individual Email link will open up a box that allows you to simply type in your email addresses one or many separated by a comma. You can also cut and paste a list of text emails here. So we haven t lost the functionality, but it s not as clear or easy as it was before. Messages, Introductions, and InMails The ability to invite someone to connect to you is still pretty obvious: a big blue Connect button. (You will still have to jump through the usual hoops of telling LinkedIn how you know the person.) But the ability to ask for an Introduction is now hidden in the drop-down box to the right of Send InMail. I like that they are calling this section Engage, but maybe they could make it easier to engage?
You can also ask for more info (and send a personal message if they are a first level connection), look for references (folks you have in common who have worked with the individual) and Share, Export (to PDF), Save (if you have a paid account), and Flag a profile here. Website Info You can still add and customize your web info by clicking the little Rolodex card and clicking Edit and then Other. The problem is of course that people need to know to click that link (which one reader pointed out the younger generation might not even recognize!). Your websites will still show up under the Additional Information link. One resourceful client added See my websites listed below for more information near the top of their summary section.
Recommendations There are no more recommendation counts. Of course you should still try and get the best recommendations possible, but now your network will literally have to go into your profile and count them. I think this means I m going to go in and delete all the recommendations that are no longer relevant or impactful! If you still want to let people know how many recommedations you have, you can always manually type Recommendations: 23 (or however many you have) in your Summary section. Message and Notifications Tabs LinkedIn has finally added both Message and Notification icons to their menu bar. The new bright red icons pull your attention to the fact that you have Messages (including both invitations and messages) waiting for you. (You can still find them under your inbox tab as well.) The icons turn to black
when you have emptied your Inbox and have no notifications, and your inbox will turn blue once you click it even one time. (I also noticed I kept getting an error message when I clicked on it that my Inbox was unavailable. But three times was the charm. Just keep clicking it until it works.) Or just click your Inbox tab. I like that you can accept or ignore Invitations still from the new icon dropdown. You can also Reply to or Ignore your messages. Because of all the recent spam lately, I still recommend going into your actual LinkedIn inbox, and then their profile, and checking the folks out before you accept an invitation or respond to a message. The tab I find most interesting is Notifications. Since it has been released I find a marked increase in my communications with, and relationships with my network. Now in one place you can see when: Someone likes or comments on your status update Someone shares your status update Someone comments in a group discussion you started Someone comments on a group discussion you have commented on Maybe more but I don t know what yet When you click the notification, it will take you to the discussion, comment or post so you can further interact with the individual. Now this is a modification I can get behind! Finally LinkedIn is giving us something back after taking away vcards and Network Statistics and Recommendation numbers! As LinkedIn continues to make changes, I will keep you updated at www.linkedintobusiness.com. Make sure to visit us often! Adding connections: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xbffob2kxqk New user interface: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufg0wqyxmvi