Linkedin has become one of the most prominent channel for B2B marketeers to promote products and generate high quality leads. Linkedin realises this growing phenomena and decided to capitalise on this opportunity by creating a new User Interface which was released on 15th Dec 2016 but is still in its beta phase. Let us take this opportunity to list all the changes made by Linkedin in its new User Interface
Linkedin has removed the option to Search Connections based on company size , Business functionality and seniority level. However , all these features will be available in Sales Navigator which is their premium product for Sales people.
To add to the list of features which have been withdrawn from free account and moved to premium versions of the product are tags and notes features. This feature was used extensively to manage and segment business leads and again this feature will be now available in Recruiter Lite and Sales Navigator.
Sending messages to First degree connections which was earlier very cumbersome and time-consuming has now been made easy by allowing users to type message in a modal window on the same page instead of taking user on the linkedin profile .
Sending connection request has also been simplified . In order to send connect request to a user with a message you needed to visit the page of that connection , select relation with them and then send a request . However , with the new UI you will be able to send a connection request along with a message from a modal window .
On visiting any profile the information which will be rendered will be dependent on whether you have the any premium version of the product.
All in all the new User Interface looks neat and simpler to use. A lot of focus had been put to understand the usage pattern and behaviour and the new UI has been created accordingly . The way new UI has been built clearly signifies that linkedin is trying to make connecting with new prospective business leads simpler and faster and a clear attempt has been made by them to capitalise on this opportunity by moving most of these features into the premium accounts.
