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Creative Ramblings > Branding > 5 underused LinkedIn features that you should check out today

5 underused LinkedIn features that you should check out today

22 Jan, 2013 Branding Great Resources LinkedIn Permalink

Over the years, LinkedIn has become one of my favorite social networks to use. The site has allowed me to meet some great people in my niche, find unique content, and most importantly, be recognized at my real value.

At first sight, LinkedIn is rather unappealing and difficult to figure out. Like Google+, you need to spend some time looking around to really understand how you can leverage the site.

Here are five features that should definitely check out.

LinkedIn Today

LinkedIn Today is LinkedIn’s magazine, tailored to your interests and needs. It delivers content based on what your connections and industry peers read and share during the day. You can also customize your news by following specific industries (Marketing & Advertising, Online Media, Public Relations…).

The thing I like about the service is that it lets you see who the sharers are. And you can interact with the content and people directly within LinkedIn.

LinkedIn Today

Original Content

In October 2012, LinkedIn introduced a new feature that allows people to follow their favorite influencers on the social network. You can access the leaders’ status updates and original posts (which also include videos, photos, and Slideshare presentations) directly from the comfort of your own homepage, and then like / comment on the content and share it with members of your network.

If you are not interested in following anyone, you can still find all the articles written by thought leaders on one page: Original Content.

Original Content LinkedIn

Signal

LinkedIn Signal is a monitoring tool that allows you to search for specific keywords, topics, and LinkedIn members. You can refine your search by network, company, location, and more, and save your real-time results for later perusal.  The tool also mines shared links on status updates and shows you the most popular links.

LinkedIn Signal

Note: To access LinkedIn Today, Original Content, and Signal, mouse over the “News” tab in your menu section. You will find them all there.

Groups

Despite being considered a major LinkedIn feature, only a few people truly take advantage of LinkedIn Groups. These are great places to network with like-minded professionals in your niche, discover and share great content and thoughts, and establish your expertise.

LinkedIn Groups

Recommendations / Endorsements

The best way to be taken seriously in any industry is to gather testimonials and credentials from partners and clients. LinkedIn allows you to do just that with Recommendations and Endorsements.

Endorsements give you the opportunity to vouch for your favorite peers by endorsing the skills and expertise listed on their profiles, or suggesting ones that the latter may not have thought of adding. Unlike recommendations, which require members to write testimonials, endorsements are done in a couple of easy clicks.

You can endorse your connections by looking at the top of their profiles or checking out the new ‘Skills and Expertise’ section. Once the process is completed, these people will be notified by email and on LinkedIn.

Many people have criticized Endorsements, stating that LinkedIn now provides members with an easy way to cheat their way to the top. While it is true, there is also a good lesson to learn: Do not just add anyone to your network. Take the time to look at their profiles to make sure that you really want to be connected with them.

Further reading

For more tips on how to leverage LinkedIn, you may want to read the following articles:

Have you tried the features in this article? If so, what do you think?

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Creative Commons License
This article by Cendrine Marrouat is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

About The Author

Cendrine Marrouat is a journalist, blogger, content curator, author, and workshop facilitator located in Canada. She is the founder of two social media blogs: Social Media Slant and Creative Ramblings. On March 6, 2012, she released The Little Big eBook on Blogging: 40 Traffic Generation Tips, a comprehensive resource that provides bloggers of all levels with essential information and precise guidance to attract quality traffic to their blogs. She is currently working on an eBook on social media strategies that should be released before the end of 2013.
  • http://www.sandyappleyard.com Sandy Appleyard

    Excellent Cendrine! I knew about the groups because I’m part of several of them, and they are by far the best. In my opinion, LinkedIn groups are way better than Google+ communities; I get far more feedback. However, I wasn’t aware of any of the other features LinkedIn has to offer. I will definitely check them out! Thanks for sharing!

    • http://www.cendrinemarrouat.com Cendrine Marrouat

      Glad you found the article useful, Sandy! Thank you!

  • http://amyvernon.net Amy Vernon

    IMHO, the reason relatively few people actively participate in groups is that most are very poorly moderated. I belong to a lot of groups and swap them out all the time. There are a relative handful that are moderated, and those are high quality and have been wonderful. But the vast majority of groups have devolved into a spam fest, with no moderation on the part of the group creators.

    I think the true future of groups is the Citi-sponsored Connect: Professional Women’s Network, where every comment goes through moderation before being posted. That’s because it’s a sponsored group, so there is actually a LinkedIn staffer who makes sure there’s no spam going up. For most groups, that’s not possible, and so many have devolved.

    • http://www.cendrinemarrouat.com Cendrine Marrouat

      Hello Amy,

      Like you, I have noticed that a lot of Groups are a spam fest because of the lack of moderation. But it is the same everywhere.

      Thank you for stopping by!

  • http://incometherapy.com Sarah Park

    I haven’t really tried LinkedIn. It doesn’t really interest me. But upon reading your post, I might wanna try this one time and see if I will like it.

    • http://www.cendrinemarrouat.com Cendrine Marrouat

      LinkedIn is really good if you are interested in job opportunities or want to network with professionals in your niche.

  • http://www.propertyportfoliosoftware.co.uk/ Richa

    I have been using LinkedIn for about 2 years now and I am quite fond of it..I have used groups and recommendation features but others I am yet to give a shot.. Thanks for the share.

    • http://www.cendrinemarrouat.com Cendrine Marrouat

      You are welcome!

  • http://cabletiesdirect.com.au/ Vianney

    Nice one, Cendrine! I never knew about all other features of Linkedln that I should be using all this time. You’re such a great help! :)

    • http://www.cendrinemarrouat.com Cendrine Marrouat

      Glad you found the article useful, Vianney! Yes, people don’t really take the time to look around LinkedIn. So, they wouldn’t know about the features.

  • http://eprintmis.com/eprint-estore.html Arianne

    Your posts always look useful, Cendrine. I’m not really that familiar of LinkedIn. But based on your post, I think it will be worth to try. Thanks and keep on sharing good and useful articles! :)

    • http://www.cendrinemarrouat.com Cendrine Marrouat

      You are welcome, Arianna!