LinkedIn may be great as a glorified resume, but it’s lagged behind other social networks in terms of socializing. Yes, they have groups and Questions & Answers, but those really are discussion boards, where conversations happen in the public, and it’s hard to keep track of specific connections. Recently, LinkedIn borrowed a page from Facebook and added the ability to follow people so you can keep track of what they’re saying across different groups. While still a far cry from the socialization available on Facebook, it’s a good step forward.
When you’re looking at a specific discussion in a Groups page in LinkedIn, you’ll now see links to “See all ___’s activity” and “Follow ____”. When you click on the first link, you’ll be taken to a page that shows the person’s activity in groups as well as their most recent updates to their profile. The second link, “Follow ____”, will put that person’s activity onto your overall Groups page so you can keep track of them more easily. If you click on a person’s profile within a Group, you’ll also see how many people (who) are following them, as well as how many people (and who) they’re following.
Being able to follow a person to see what they’re doing and saying across the various groups you’re both in can be very beneficial for developing a relationship and providing meaningful conversations. Unfortunately, the follow feature seems to only be implemented in the Groups so far – I didn’t see a way to see your followers or people you’re following on your profile (or others profiles) – nor is there a way to see those updates on your profile. There also seems to be some sort of default in terms of followers (maybe all your 1st level connections?) because I have 203 followers and followees when I didn’t do anything. I’d like to see LinkedIn take the idea of following and implement it across the site – making it easy to see what’s going on with those you care about right from either your profile or some other dashboard page.
Have you used the following feature? What do you think? How should LinkedIn use this feature to make it more beneficial to you?
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Technorati tags: LinkedIn, social media, strategy, marketing, social networking, business
{ 3 comments }
LinkedIn is getting more social. I noticed this when they partnered with Twitter to share the status updates. I think that was a huge change, that will help keep LinkedIn looking fresh for the people who visit. I will have to check out the new groups function that you mention here. Thanks for pointing it out. I'll be sharing with our readers as well!
Good point, Sandi – The Twitter integration was pretty huge. I'd like to see them continue that integration with other social networks (like Facebook). I think they also need to consider a dashboard as a homepage – where you can customize what type of information you see. I'd also like to see them open up their integration more the other way, so I can get things from LinkedIn onto other networks. Thanks for your comment and especially for reading – much appreciated.
Good point, Sandi – The Twitter integration was pretty huge. I'd like to see them continue that integration with other social networks (like Facebook). I think they also need to consider a dashboard as a homepage – where you can customize what type of information you see. I'd also like to see them open up their integration more the other way, so I can get things from LinkedIn onto other networks. Thanks for your comment and especially for reading – much appreciated.
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