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LinkedIn Features I Wish Existed

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If you’ve been reading my column, you know I am a big fan of LinkedIn and passionate about helping Forbes readers make the most of this powerful professional social media platform to advance their career. But sometimes I hear myself saying, “I wish I could do X on LinkedIn.” Or “I wish LinkedIn hadn’t eliminated Y.” So I decided to compile my LinkedIn wish list, and I’m asking you to share your ideas for valuable new features that would help you build your brand and expand your success. Here are seven of my top requests, sorted into three categories: Profile, Networking, and Groups.

Profile

1. Customized Content Ordering

There was a time when I recommended that career-minded professional build and maintain their own website. Then LinkedIn made some changes that reduced the need for your own site. My favorite was the ability to customize the display order of the different sections of your profile. This, along with other features like the custom background (the image that sits behind your headshot) and the ability to add rich media to the Summary and Experience sections of your profile, diminished the value of having your own website. Then, for some unexplained reason, LinkedIn removed the custom ordering feature. This eliminates the opportunity to lead with what’s most important. If this feature were to return, it would provide a lot more options for control and customization.

2. Animated Gif For Background

I love the fact that LinkedIn allows you to create a custom background for your profile. The color/image you choose helps you exude your brand and at the same time differentiates your profiles from all the others that are out there – especially those sporting the standard blue nodes that LinkedIn provides (see some profiles with compelling backgrounds in this previous post). To make that part of your profile more dynamic, I would love for them to allow you to include an animated gif (or even a short video!) – this would help your profile tell a story. Your profile can accommodate videos and other multimedia, but not in that prominent background zone.

3. Integration With Popular Assessments

It would be valuable to give members the opportunity to share their Myers-Briggs™ type or their top five StrengthsFinder™ strengths. It should be optional, of course, but it would help people learn more about you, your personality, and your superpowers.

Networking

4. Tagging

LinkedIn eliminated some extra-valuable features that made networking more efficient and productive. One of the most valuable was Tagging. It allowed you to create your own filing system for your network connections. I had tags in categories like former co-worker, client, NYC, etc. You could assign connections as many tags as you wished. Then, you could sort your connections to communicate with relevant subsets. This was really helpful. For example, when I was having a book launch party in New York City (before LinkedIn removed this feature), I was able to invite all my connections whose profiles were tagged with NYC.

5. Relationship

There was a powerful, but rarely used, feature that allowed you to create notes in the profile of your connections. Only you were able to see the notes, but you could record things like where you met, what you discussed, and when you should follow up. I would love for this feature to return with one addition: calendar integration. Then you could schedule follow-up calls with connections, ensuring they happen because the calls would show up like all other important meetings in your calendar.

6. Skype Integration

In the virtual world, video is the next best thing to being there. It allows you to connect more deeply with others. It would be powerful to be able to have video calls with connections right from within LinkedIn. This should be easy because LinkedIn is now part of Microsoft, and so is Skype. Video calling with network contacts would provide a more meaningful and personal way to connect. Of course, users could indicate whether or not they’re available for a video call – so don't worry about someone intruding on you in your PJs.

Groups

7. Sorting Groups

Groups are a powerful addition to LinkedIn. They have turbocharged what traditional professional associations are – giving you access to more information and people from more places around the world. And because you can belong to 100 groups, you can truly grow a powerful network (assuming that you’re fully engaged in those groups). But navigating groups can be a bit of a hassle. I wish I had the ability to sort groups by these criteria:

  • alphabetically
  • member engagement
  • number of members
  • category (social media groups, finance groups, etc.)

This would make it easier to know which groups to interact with and how to create more meaningful opportunities for interacting.

These features would go a long way to enhancing the LinkedIn experience and solidifying it as the single most important career management platform. Tell me what features you’d like to see on LinkedIn in the comments.

William Arruda is the cofounder of CareerBlast and creator of the complete LinkedIn quiz that helps you evaluate your LinkedIn profile and networking strategy.