Summer is upon us! Summer is always rejuvenating for me; it’s a great time to pause, reflect and tackle new and exciting projects. I have been taking some time to get organized: “filing” emails, touching base with valued clients, peers and contacts, evaluating my processes and spending more time on LinkedIn! (Well, maybe not “more” time, but different time for sure).
The truth is, we’re on LinkedIn all day everyday here at Intero. Many days, we are more focused on working through our list of to do’s than evaluating the LinkedIn user experience. Other days, we are scratching our heads with all of the weird, wonky and just downright bad choices LinkedIn has made for its users. So, I thought I’d put together a list, (and hopefully the folks at LinkedIn read it!) of my current top 5 wishes for the LinkedIn experience.
#5 Sales Navigator Company Revenue Filter
Many professionals are using Sales Navigator to grow their networks and identify sales leads. There are a number of search filters to utilize including company head count. While this filter is useful in understanding the size of a company, it is ultimately not as helpful or revealing for sales professionals as knowing a company’s revenue. Admittedly, offering this filter would probably require a lot of research and work to set up accurately, but it would have enormous returns.
#4 “Clear your cache”
Have you ever had to contact LinkedIn’s Help Center because a basic feature or functionality was not working on your account? Was their response to “clear your cache?” Ugh. This is the response I get at least 80% of the time. The problem is that when I clear my cache, I am logged out of everything – my email, my calendar, all of the various project management tools that I use, and yes, my LinkedIn account. It slows me down and causes so many inefficiencies during my work day. I am not an expert, or even really knowledgeable about how sites are built, but isn’t there a way to build a site without requiring you to clear your cache every week?
#3 Search by State
If you do many searches on LinkedIn.com, Sales Navigator or LinkedIn Recruiter, you know that you can search by zip code or town name. In some instances, this is all that’s needed. But for many users, it would be so much easier and more user-friendly if a search by state function was available. Whether you’re trying to fill an open position, or working on building a sales pipeline, wouldn’t it be great if you could just search an entire state for leads?
#2 Out of Office Setting
I recently went out on maternity leave. In between figuring out how to get my baby to sleep for more than an hour at a time and hundreds of loads of laundry, I was checking my LinkedIn account because I felt I had to. With LinkedIn being a professional tool that facilitates communication and accessibility, it seems fairly obvious to me, and to many of our clients, that there would be an “Out of Office” setting. Vacations, medical leave, babies – life happens and it would be great to be able to let anyone who sends a Connection request or a message on LinkedIn know that you are currently unavailable.
#1 Press Enter to Send
LinkedIn, you crazy, crazy cats – please get rid of the “Press Enter to Send” feature in messaging. Forever. It is ruining everything you’ve done right with the new LinkedIn messaging functionality. It confuses everyone. It doesn’t save time or effort. We’re really not even sure what value it brings. Please, we are begging you, get rid of it.
There you have it – the top 5 things that have been driving me crazy recently. What would you ask LinkedIn to change? Let us know in the comments. Maybe we’ll get lucky and LinkedIn will be paying attention.