LinkedIn Introduces Product Listings on Profiles and New Engagement Options

LinkedIn is back again with a new update — a new product showcase element on user profiles that allows them to highlight specific items and projects they've worked on in various capacities, as well as enhancing its Newsletter functionality with some new connection capabilities.

To begin with, on Product listings, you can soon include the items you've worked on as a sub-element in your experience listings.

When you want to change an element in your 'Experience' section, you'll soon be able to include products that you worked on during your stay in the company, as seen in these example displays. Those links will also lead to the related Product Page on your company page, giving your brand another avenue for discovery.

However, you must first have the product listed on your company page before you can add it to your profile.

LinkedIn first introduced product pages in 2020 to assist businesses to promote their product offers and emphasize essential features.

This new feature is an extended form of the same, giving users more opportunities to demonstrate their expertise while also assisting LinkedIn in expanding its data banks, which include information on people, companies, and goods all collected inside the app.

This might offer new marketing opportunities, such as direct advertising of product pages, while also giving LinkedIn a better understanding of the items that individuals work on under various job titles.

This will provide more data points for matching users with suitable job vacancies and career routes, and it will also put more pressure on brands to provide product pages in their listings so that individuals may incorporate them in their experience.

LinkedIn is also working to improve its Newsletter product by adding the ability to incorporate both @mentions and #hashtags in Newsletters and Articles to further increase interaction.

As shown here, the feature will behave similarly to tagging in other apps, with the system automatically listing possible entity matches when you type a @ or # symbol.

According to LinkedIn:

“In the coming weeks, we’re rolling out the ability to @mention members and Pages within the copy of an Article or Newsletter, enabling collaborators to help further distribute your content. You can also include #hashtags in your Articles to enrich your content and help readers discover like-minded communities on LinkedIn.”

Whether this will aid in increasing reach is unknown, but it could drive some engagement particularly when you're mentioning individuals, who will then interact with your article to express gratitude for the mention.

From a reach standpoint, hashtags are a matter of speculation on LinkedIn, but they could get your post included in relevant communities and conversations, which can offer a variety of benefits.

Late last year, LinkedIn released its Newsletter option, capitalizing on the growing popularity of direct communication with your audience.

According to LinkedIn, 28 million people have signed up to get newsletter updates from their favorite companies and creators.

Although this is still a small portion of Facebook's 800 million+ users, it nevertheless represents a significant number of people eager to connect more directly through the option.

Furthermore, LinkedIn is allowing Company Page administrators to respond to any post in the app as their brand.

When admins wanted to reply to a post on the app, they will now get an account switcher option, as shown above.

“We know that a brand’s content is only part of how its voice comes to life on LinkedIn, so we are introducing the ability for Pages to respond as the brand to any post in the feed, regardless of whether they are @mentioned or following the hashtags used in the post. By joining these conversations, brands can share their unique perspective, reach new audiences, and grow their followers.”

That offers another easy option to increase brand connection and engagement, which could be useful when establishing brand expertise and building community.

Every update includes a variety of applications, giving you more opportunities to share your knowledge and skills. With LinkedIn engagement at all-time highs, it's worth thinking about how you might boost your LinkedIn connections.

The Products on Profile feature is now in early beta and will be made publicly available in the coming months in a gradual deployment.