LinkedIn just released some pretty exciting changes to its link-sharing capabilities. LinkedIn members may now share image and article excerpts, they may re-share links, and use LinkedIn's new shortened URL. If you already use Facebook, the eight new features introduced today will be familiar to you. I think the most interesting changes are those which enhance a member's status updates. As of today, if you paste a link into your status update, just like in Facebook, when you click on “attach a link” LinkedIn will automatically pull and post an image along with an excerpt from the article you are linking to.
Additionally upgrades enable members to delete and edit posts, control who sees your shared links by selecting the connections or groups you want to see your status updates and shared links. You may now re-share posts that include links. This, they made easy too. Just click the “Share” button and you can re-share a link you find on LinkedIn with your entire network. When you do this, it automatically credits the person who originally shared the link.
Clearly, LinkedIn implemented these ideas after watching the popularity of Facebook increase over the past year. These changes enable LinkedIn to make itself a viable platform that enables its members to share information and articles with their network. I would guess that the introduction of the new Linkd.in URL is related to a member's ability to integrate a profile with Twitter. The new shortened URL uses fewer characters taking less away from ones 140 character tweet.
Personally, I like the new LinkedIn upgrade. I, for one, will share articles with my LinkedIn network that I may not want to share with my Twitter followers or my Facebook friends. It's nice to know I have the option to limit things to each constituency. I appreciate the flexibility.
What do you think?
