LinkedIn Groups—New and Improved

written by Adam Cupples (@ACupples)

Who has two thumbs and likes the NEW LinkedIn Group interface and functionality? (Two thumbs thumping into my chest) “This guy” Yup, I’m that guy.

For those who haven’t noticed or have been ignoring LinkedIn lately, the Groups have changed and I’m loving it.

I’ll leave my favorite new feature that received my two thumbs held the highest until the end, just to create some blogging suspense. I’ll start with my one thumb up and a couple of head nods… it goes to…..

• Latest Posts

I like what they did here. I’m a fan of the scrolling bar and being able to scan the groups discussions so you can easily read what’s happening now, in the past hour etc.. It’s much more user-friendly — you can easily comment on specific questions. You can even “like” a post (hmmm, where did they get that from? They probably could have consulted an online thesaurus so they weren’t completely ripping off Facebook… my choice would have been “fancy” as in “I fancy that discussion on the latest developments and implementation of social networking in the strawberry rhubarb pie industry”).

Next, two thumbs up – but not way up – goes to…

• “Most Popular Discussions”

Instead of sifting through hundreds and hundreds of discussions, now LinkedIn highlights the most popular posts so you can see what the group really cares about and what’s creating all the buzz.

And now the number 1 reason….. (insert drum roll, I know, I know you can hardly wait…)

 NUMERO UNO (well actually two things that I’m giving two thumbs way up and a funny grin)

• First, if you’re active in your group and participating, not just viewing/scanning, you will get a little PR for yourself and your company. There is a section called “Top Influencers This Week” (see below). If you’re involved, starting discussions and commenting, the group will recognize it.

AND……….

• Second, you better get an even better profile picture. If you start a discussion or comment it seems they drastically increase the size of your picture! Here’s a tool you can use… and I swear this is my first attempt at it, but I think I’ll keep my untouched photo (but I was curious to see what I’d look like with blue eyes):