LinkedIn New Features - The 6 Most Important Ones

[00:00:00] LinkedIn is constantly evolving and it's pretty much a full-time job to keep up with all the changes. But good news, listeners, in today's episode, I've got everything you need to know and why it's important. Welcome to the Social Media for B2B Growth Podcast. I'm Michelle J Raymond. And each episode I'm sharing best practices and actionable tips you can apply to your own B2B social media strategy.

[00:00:28] G'day everyone. It is Coach Michelle J Raymond and they say in life two things are certain, death and taxes. And I'm going to add a third one to that. Just when you think you know everything that's going on with LinkedIn, they're going to change things around again. In today's episode, we are going to go over the six changes which I think that you need to know and why they're important. This isn't a how-to podcast. This is literally just keeping you up to date.

[00:00:55] If you want to know more about the different changes, make sure that we're connected over on LinkedIn or you are subscribed to the YouTube channel where I'll be putting lots more how-to and helpful type videos. Before we go into the six key changes that I think you need to know about, we are going to hear a quick word from our podcast sponsors, Metrical. Last month we explored Metrical's 2025 social media report and guess what? March brings us another exclusive Metrical study.

[00:01:25] This time, a deep dive into LinkedIn. And this report, listeners, is like the pot of gold at the end of the LinkedIn rainbow. It will dissect over 47,000 accounts and 570,000 LinkedIn posts to uncover the network's key trends, engagement, growth and video performance. Metrical's LinkedIn study will be released at the end of the month, so stay tuned for the report link and study findings.

[00:01:52] This is just a quick reminder that LinkedIn is a premium Metrical feature. So to access all of your account insights, scheduling and reporting, you can sign up for a premium plan which starts at just $18 a month. And the good news for your listeners is if you use code MICHELLE30, you can test any Metrical premium plan for 30 days for free. All the details that you need to do that are in the link in the show notes.

[00:02:20] Okay, listeners, I am going to do my best to power through these six changes. And of course, like a good podcast host, I am going to save the best to last. So stick around to the end so you don't miss out on this one because out of all the changes, this one I think is a signal that the game is changing on LinkedIn and you really need to keep up to date with these kinds of changes.

[00:02:40] So let's start with number one. Number one is your LinkedIn profile banner. So on your personal profile, that big billboard up the top. Now we have the opportunity to turn that into a slideshow. So not only can we have one image, we can have multiple images that change every four seconds or so. Now I love this. You could use it strategically. You could have it for different products, promote upcoming events.

[00:03:06] Maybe you've got different services. So for me, I could have the training that I offer. It could be my speaker services. It could be promoting the podcast. There's lots of different ways that you can use it. So keep an eye out for that with all of the changes that we talk about today. Just understand that LinkedIn rolls these out in waves. There is nothing that we can do to jump the queue or get them faster.

[00:03:28] And in fact, pretty much most of these six changes we're talking about today. I don't even have them on my LinkedIn profile. So if you want to stay up to date with all of the latest changes, and I mean every single change that pretty much all the people on LinkedIn that I know are keeping an eye out for these changes, follow along with Kevin D Turner. He is the go-to source that keeps a record all of these.

[00:03:51] I'm not doing everything. I'm just doing the changes that will make a big difference to you and have an impact on leveraging LinkedIn for business growth. So Kevin D Turner, I'll put his details in the show notes because he does an amazing job of collating this because let's be clear, LinkedIn doesn't put it anywhere. And how are you meant to know whether these things have actually been rolled out? It's not like we get a notification.

[00:04:19] Let's move on to number two. Number two, I wish this had happened just a little bit earlier before I recorded the podcast episode on newsletters versus email newsletters, because one of the downsides to LinkedIn newsletters that I said was that the analytics weren't great. Well, guess what listeners? Maybe LinkedIn have been listening to the show because now we've got access to some more analytics for your newsletter, which are email sends,

[00:04:48] and most importantly, and most importantly, the open rate. So it's really good when you're trying to measure the performance of LinkedIn newsletters. Having this open rate is another step in the right direction. So that one, I was high-fiving LinkedIn. So cool to see it. And yeah, I hope that we just get some more to know how much of the LinkedIn newsletter people are reading, but yeah, definitely a cool one. And if you have a newsletter, check it out. Maybe you've got this feature before I do.

[00:05:23] Change number three, which I think you should be across is all to do with the LinkedIn video feed historically has only been on mobile. Well, they've brought it across onto desktop as well. So if you are someone that uses LinkedIn on desktop, you'll now have access to that video feed, which I think is a good thing, but I'm still not convinced that the video feed is something that people want or use on LinkedIn.

[00:05:47] I am open-minded to hear your feedback. Drop it in the comments if you're on Spotify or watching this over on YouTube or send me a direct message over on LinkedIn. So besides the fact that the video feed has come onto desktop, there's been a few other minor changes, nothing that's earth shattering.

[00:06:04] I think LinkedIn are trying to figure out how this is going to work best. So I'm just going to reserve my judgment and wait and see because we're way too early in this. The numbers that people were reporting back at the end of last year where short form video was getting millions of impressions. I think those days are over from what I'm reading from those same people. They're no longer getting that kind of attention. So it was great while it lasted. LinkedIn often does this when they roll out new features.

[00:06:32] They want you to love them. They want you to use them and they have a vested interest in their success. So it seems to have the dial turned down, but again, it's a watch and see where short form video goes on LinkedIn. I really hope you're enjoying what you're hearing. And if you are, please do give us a review and a rating in the podcast app you're listening on. You can do so on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, CastBox and Podchaser.

[00:06:59] I really do appreciate every bit of feedback I get. So just scroll down on the podcast landing page to find the link to leave your reviews. Change number four on LinkedIn. Now, if you are someone that likes a bit of a bargain, then they don't often come along on LinkedIn, especially when it comes to your premium subscriptions.

[00:07:19] So if you have a LinkedIn premium career or LinkedIn premium business account, then the cool thing is they have launched what's called premium duo. And that means basically you can share the premium account with somebody else. So another LinkedIn member. And what I love about this, you get a discount on one of them. It's 15%. The other one that's 25%. So who doesn't want to save a bit of money when it comes to these LinkedIn subscriptions?

[00:07:49] So I love that idea. What is a bit clunky, and I hope that they fix this, is that to be able to enable this. So say, for instance, Lil and I wanted to share one, which we will be going through this process. The way that you make this happen is a little bit clunky. You have to cancel an existing premium plan and then go through the re-sign up and then add the other person onto your account. So it's a bit clunky, but hopefully LinkedIn are working on that in the background.

[00:08:18] But yay for discounts. Let's talk about change number five. And change number five is a big signal from LinkedIn about a change, which on the surface is quite subtle. But when you hear about number six and see how they work in combination, then you will be as excited as I am.

[00:08:43] And it's not often that you hear the words analytics changes and excited coming out of my mouth. So let's talk about the analytics change, which I think is kind of cool. So you have an analytics on your personal account called profile appearances, and that talks about where did your profile show up? And that could be things like, did your profile show up in a post? Right. That was one way. Did your profile show up in search appearances? That's another way.

[00:09:13] Did your profile get recommended on the recommended tab? You know, that's the network recommendations, which is another way to get discovered. Love these, but wait for it. My favorite one of all is you get to find out, did somebody discover your profile through your comments? So imagine that when you are commenting right now, when you listen to people like myself going, commenting is powerful.

[00:09:42] One of the hardest things is justifying that and putting a number on it for clients when I'm working with them in training and saying, no, you must have a commenting strategy. Like these are so cool and so powerful to get discovered. And they're like, yeah, prove it. And I can't really, except for my own personal experience and saying, trust me, which, you know, famous last words. So from that perspective, what happens is you can now put a number on that and no one else can see these numbers.

[00:10:11] And that's what I love as well. It's private. So you're running your own race. So how cool will you now get to see the impact of your comments? Now, I promised you that number six was something that I think is a game changer. And again, I'm excited because it's moving some of that focus away from always just looking at analytics around posting. And we're talking about more changes to analytics.

[00:10:41] And this time it is around comments. Now, comments are getting a bit of an overhaul at the moment, which is kind of interesting to see. I like it. But right now for both pages and personal profiles, there are people that have had it rolled out to them where they can now see the numbers of impressions or their comments. And what do I mean by an impression? An impression is basically the sets of eyes that that comment was seen by.

[00:11:11] So imagine it showed on a screen and someone went by it, right? They don't have to click on it. They don't have to do anything. It just has to have gone past their eyes on the screen. Now, obviously, there's varying degrees that people do that. And some impressions are worth more than others. But ultimately, I think if you just view the higher the number, the more your comments resonated. And that's a good thing.

[00:11:34] And we've never been able to see that again when you're telling someone, just trust me, the same as the previous update. It doesn't resonate. But now people will really, truly see the power of commenting. And so this is a change that I'm on board for. I love that it's happening for pages as well. That's kind of cool to see that they didn't get left behind. The power of commenting is alive and real.

[00:12:00] And I think I might even dedicate next episode entirely to the power of commenting so that we can talk about this some more. So if you are not subscribed to the podcast already, please make sure that you do. And for me, I guess as I wrap this up, I better hurry up and get myself packing my bags ready to head away to Uplift Live in the UK to speak. I hope I get to meet some more of you, as I've said pretty much every podcast episode recently.

[00:12:28] And same with people in San Diego at Social Media Marketing World. I can't wait to do the World Page Advocacy Tour and share my new learnings that I've discovered around company pages that I can share with everybody else out there so that they can get success. So it's super cool. But yeah, I'm a person that avoids packing at all costs. The only thing that I've packed so far is pretty much the Tim Tams. Make sure you come and see me and grab one of those. So until next week, listeners, cheers.

[00:13:02] Thanks for listening, everyone. Once again, if you found value in today's episode, please follow or subscribe and leave a review in your podcast app. And more importantly, connect with me on LinkedIn for more insights and strategies. Until the next episode, keep growing your B2B with social media.