Sorry all for the message I am about to deliver. I know most of you. I respect some of you, but my request to you is really simple:
PLEASE STOP
I’ve long-held the view that you shouldn’t really write a paper book about Social Media. Any book that is instructional, and giving guidance to job seekers (especially), networkers or recruiters should really be an e-book with updates each month to notify the subscribers what has changed, what no longer applies and what won’t work any more. If this is not the case, then your book should really be called a history book. Publishers and writers may not like this, but the pace of change in the social media channels means anything else is really not being accurate. What you published in good faith last week might well be out of date.
Training is another difficult area. I think LinkedIn are just making too many changes, and keeping us guessing as to the impact of in particular the new profile design, to know if what is being taught is correct. I’m not sure yet how much this will impact on profile optimisation, or what impact endorsements are going to have yet. They are certainly doing strange things to search results, but there has not yet been enough time to evaluate how they change things. I’m also hearing recommendations for LinkedIn applications to bling a profile that may well be removed over the next few weeks. Let’s stop for breath and see what comes out in the wash. By all means speculate in blogs and other on-line places, but be clear this is your best guess based on our knowledge, because it is just confusing at the moment.
You can, and need to, keep up with the changes as they happen via the LinkedIn blogs, but the reality is these are more like advisory notes to the features and updates rather than explanations as to how they are going to impact. Please LinkedIn, give us a bit more of a clue, you know we love you!
At the end of this post, I have attached the video announcing all the recent changes. Only 10,000 people have watched the video. A big number, but a very small number when you consider users. This is what the channel has to say about the video:
Our Product team showcases the biggest enhancements we’ve made to the LinkedIn experience in the company’s history, including the launch of the new LinkedIn profile.
In their words, the biggest changes in history. Innovating, changing and helping in the fastest time in the companies history.
The reality of any change to any social media is that it takes a while to figure out what it really means, if anything, and this is really dictated by the way in which we, the users react. We need to get the new data pumping through the system to figure it out, and notice what is happening.
I can’t remember a time when LinkedIn has changed more significantly, and at such speed, largely without prior warning. The market respects our thought leaders and trainers, please stop for breath, give it time to shake out and start advising us again over issues like keywords or not. You will have our eternal gratitude if you can figure it out, and hold off the training in instruction until we have answers to the questions.
Thanks,
WATCH THIS VIDEO FROM LINKEDIN ON ALL THE CHANGES
I’m co-author of a book about Career Management via Linkedin in 2009 and keep track of all the changes. I’ve updated the (Dutch version of the) book every year to make…. new screenshots! The BIG change you are referring to in the enclosed video is the New Linkedin profile. No new functionality, just a new design.
Bill, I’m going to challenge you to name 3 big enhancements in the past year that changed the way how Linkedin works or how you should work with Linkedin as Recruiter or Job seeker (free basic account).
Jacco,
You know i respect the work you do, as i have recognised many times. My question on the screenshot updates and new features is how does that help someone who bought the book 12 months ago? Should they re-order and buy the updated version each year? Thats why I favour e-books where you can send out updates.
The 3 changes (and there are more) would be:
> The search algorithm favouring location, connections and skills. (which is bringing up very different results since the endorsements launch.)
> The follow feature for companies and personal accounts
> linkedIn today, updates and the share feature (which also applies an Edgerank ranking.)
I think the profile changes are a lot more than cosmetic, because we are losing sections from the new profile like website, apps like blog plug in, We are losing all of the information on the right hand side, and can add last update. you can interrogate the data and connections behind a profile, which is going to be great for sourcing.as well as being able to see the last 12 updates to get some idea of the person, seeing behind the profile. I’m not sure yest the impact the new profiles are going to have on Google search, because there are not enough profiles to test it yet. My feeling is that Google is going to read them very differently, which may be why they are designed this way. With more searches on Google than linkedIn, that has to be a big consideration. the new design is mobile friendly, and with 23% of views coming via mobile, that has to have an impact. I don’t have all the answers yet, no one has, which is why i’m appealing for a period of calm whilst we figure it out.
Bill
Bill, books about LinkedIn are not (or shouldn’t be) about LinkedIn. The ‘Career Management via LinkedIn’ book tells the story how Recruiters recruit these days, why a 100% complete online profile is important, how to network and prepare for an interview. Oh, and it explains how LinkedIn and its tools and applications can support the way to find new work or assignments.
In the PAST 3 YEARS there are NO big enhancements in LinkedIn (free basic version) that have changed the way to recruit or find new work via LinkedIn!
Let me reply to your observations to make this clear:
1) Screenshots are just to support the text. Someone who bought the book 12 months ago may still use it occasionally as a reference. Cosmetic changes are not important but I do update the book for new readers to make it easier to understand. Moreover, I’ve also written down URL’s just in case it’s not clear where to click and visit a webpage.
2) The first big change you mention refers to search results. The way this is done by LinkedIn is fuzzy and for a job seeker not relevant. All they have to know is that their profile needs to be 100% complete with relevant keywords. So, there is NO need to update my book as I don’t want to become too technical or try to explain things that cannot be explained without knowing the details.
3) The Follow feature for companies has been released on June 4th, 2010. I wrote a small paragraph about this in our 2011 update (we have a 2012 updated version too).
4) LinkedIn Today was introduced on March 10th, 2011. It is interesting to keep updated about companies, for someone who is interested to work at this place, and for this reason I’ve added 8 sentences about this in a 130 page book…
5) New LinkedIn Profile changes are just cosmetic. I’m aware of some information that is missing but I’m going to assume for now that these are bugs and we will see apps again (they bought Slideshare after all).
6) There is no change in how Google sees my profile and I have the New LinkedIn since 16 Oct (check nl.linkedin.com/in/jacco/). You can test this with tools like http://pinstamatic.com/#website. You are speculating here about a change that didn’t take place (and in my opinion never will change because LinkedIn needs profiles to appear in Google search results).
Of course, when I started with writing my books about LinkedIn that things will change or interesting enhancements will be launched. For this reason I also created blogs for all my LinkedIn books to keep readers updated. I can report you that there is not much to tell because I refrain from speculation.
More important is what readers think of these books. I’m proud that the Dutch edition of this book has been the #1 career-related book in the Netherlands since 2009 (and top 30 management book!), received excellent reviews and helped so many people in their search for new work.
As you haven’t written a book about LinkedIn, then this doesn’t apply to you then. Just to confirm, your thoughts are that your profile is read exactly the same way by Google in the new format as it was in the old, regardless of changes to Google and to profiles?
Well, what I was trying to say is that my book tells the story about how LinkedIn supports all the steps in online profiling, networking and finding new work. I’ll let you decide if this book is about LinkedIn
Have a look at my profile when you are logged in LinkedIn. Next, have a look at my profile via a Google preview add-on or a screengrabber tool. The latter hasn’t changed.
My advice for all you looking for that Magic Bullet. There is none. Learn how to communicate (and for you recruiters and sourcers – learn how to phone source!)
Bill, I agree that there is a lot changing right now and trainers/ consultants/ advisers need to stay alert to how these changes might impact the “advice” that we are giving. I think Skill Endorsements is the most interesting and game changing update we have seen in years as LinkedIn is effectively “crowd-sourcing” the placement of keywords on member’s profiles to balance the lack of information contained on the majority of profiles. This is a brilliant thing for recruiters as it provides us with richer data (and more structured data) from which we can search. I have been trying to get around to writing about it for a few weeks, so I guess here we go. I noticed that LinkedIn was asking me if I would endorse some of my colleagues for skills that they did not have yet. Once I endorsed them and waited a few minutes they started coming up at the top of my searches for these keywords (their placement in my search has more to do with them being 1st degree connections of course). Prior to me endorsing these “new” skills they weren’t coming up in searches for those keywords as their profile didn’t have them.
The whole thing is genius and good for everyone
@Johnny I have seen no evidence that 99 endorsements on a particular skill is more valuable than 1 endorsement. The great thing about endorsements, from a recruiter point of view, is that everyone is adding Skills to their profile. The result of adding a Skill to your profile is that you will appear higher in the search results.
Note: LinkedIn Skills was launched on 3 February 2011
Thanks Bill For saying it out Loud! It really is funny to see a zillion blogs even talking about the social media and tips on how to deal with and ultimately trying to predict a future.I find it really silly too…I mean first of all, the Big Question really is : How to make money from the Internet? and second is: Using your brain to make it for yourself!