Tag: Updated

LinkedIn has given its platform a new, fresh update, while it’s also announced the global rollout of LinkedIn Stories after trying it out in selected nations over the past five months.

First off, on LinkedIn’s new look – as you can see in this screenshot, the new LinkedIn looks brighter, with a pastel-type color scheme on a gray and white background – and less blue overall.

As explained by LinkedIn:

“Two years ago, our brand evolved to better reflect LinkedIn’s community of members and organizations that come together to help, support, and inspire one another. Now, we’re bringing the next chapter of this brand evolution to life across our platform with an entirely new look and feel that embodies our diverse, inclusive, warm and welcoming community.”

The update is mostly aesthetic, but LinkedIn’s also added a range of new features and tweaks to coincide with the new format.

The main addition is the global rollout of LinkedIn Stories.

As noted, LinkedIn has been testing Stories over the last few months, with users in Brazil, the Netherlands, Australia, UAE and France able to access to option. The roll-out of LinkedIn Stories seemed to slow of late, with Australia being the last region to get access back in June, but according to LinkedIn, user reception for Stories has been ‘amazing to see’.

Now, everyone will be able to try it out – and while it hasn’t become a major function of note as yet, the broader audience could give Stories a boost. Stories will be rolling out to Canadian and US users from this week, with all other regions to come shortly.

Along with the roll-out of Stories, LinkedIn’s also revamped its search process to incorporate more of its functions into your search matches. 

“Before, search was about finding people or jobs but now, you’ll have one blended search experience to easily find jobs, people, courses, groups, content and more. For example, if you’re searching for “Java,” you’ll see what’s new to learn that skill, jobs that are being hired for, relevant groups to join so you can connect with others and people you might know who have Java as a skill.”

LinkedIn’s also making searches more personalized, with results from your connections more likely to show up, and it’s added keyword filters on mobile, which, up till now, has only been available n the web version.

LinkedIn’s also incorporating the capability to launch a video meeting via a LinkedIn message, with integrations for Microsoft Teams, Bluejeans and Zoom.

It’s also adding some other new messaging tricks, like editing functionality for sent messages:

“If you make a mistake in a message, you can now edit/delete a sent message.”

There’s also a new bulk actions option in your message stream, so you can delete or archive your messages all at once, and new reactions within message threads.

Quick reactions to messages has become a fairly common functionality, so it makes sense to LinkedIn to add it in, aligning with general usage trends. 

These are some interesting functions and tools, which add to the ways in which you can connect and communicate on the platform. And the new look does add something different, maybe removing some of the corporate stuffiness that’s lingered on the platform and giving it a new sense of life.

LinkedIn’s rolling out these new features from today, so if you’re not seeing them yet, you will soon.   

Google is adding more ways for businesses to highlight how they’re catering to changing customer needs and behaviors as a result of COVID-19, with new options for listings on your Google My Business profile related to pick-up options, service changes and more.

Google has been adding more ways for businesses to display updated options and service offerings, like ‘curbside pick-up’ in ads, and changes to business hours as a result of COVID impacts. It’s now providing more tags that can be added to business listings.

“You can now highlight dining service attributes like “Dine-in” and “Takeout.” Soon you’ll be able to feature retail service attributes, like “In-store shopping” and “Curbside pickup.” 

‘Curbside pickup’ in this respect relates to organic listings, not ads, where, as noted, the option was already available.

And these could be increasingly important – according to Google, searches for “curbside pick up” have grown globally by more than 3,000% year over year, while searches for “takeout restaurants” have grown globally by over 5,000% in the same time period.

That, of course, makes perfect sense, but if you’re not listing these options on your Google My Business profile, you could be missing out on web traffic. 

To implement these changes, you need to log into Google My Business and update the relevant fields in your business profile options.

Google also says that searches containing “available near me” have grown by more than 2x across regions and categories – and catering to these more specific shopping options, Google’s also adding “Pickup later” tags for local inventory ads (second screenshot above).

The listings are designed to reduce in-store shopping time, and tap into these rising consumer behaviors. 

As reflected in the search data above, these are important updates, and it’s worth ensuring that your Google My Business profile reflects the latest info and updates in order to tap into evolving consumer behaviors. 

Really, these are logical progressions, and the more you can align your digital listings with audience need, the better off you’ll be, in terms of maximizing response.