This is a Guest Post written by Viveka vonRosen
In case you haven't noticed by my overly long title – I'm a huge fan of LinkedIn's New Contacts feature.
LinkedIn's New Contacts – So Easy!
LinkedIn’s New Contacts Feature: The Best Thing to Happen to LinkedIn Since LinkedIn!
Where to Get It
I'll be doing several posts on the new Contacts since there's so much to show. But you should get started with it now! If you don't have it yet, you can get it from your LinkedIn home page by clicking on the blue highlighted “Connections” (on the right side of the page where LinkedIn shows you your network.” If that doesn't work, try this link: https://www.linkedin.com/contacts, or if you got an invitation from LinkedIn in your email, take advantage of it right away.
If you have an iPhone or iPad you can also get the LinkedIn Contacts App from iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/linkedin-contacts/id635424128?mt=8
If you are nervous about being an early user – let me just tell you that my Profile ALWAYS fails and so far everything is working (mostly) beautifully. It took about 12 hours for all my LinkedIn Tags to load – and my folders from my paid Profile Organizer haven't shown up yet, but the benefits far outweigh those tiny sticky areas.
A Few Minor Glitches
For those of you who have a lot of contacts like I do (say 3500+ 1st level connections) and you haven't been able to remove connections for years, I have good news! With the new LinkedIn Contacts you can FINALLY easily remove those annoying connections again!
Its beeen about 5 years since I could do that! I was so excited about this feature that I almost stopped playing around with Contacts there –
But don't stop there!
Birthday and Announcement Feature
I've always said that Social media is not about the numbers but about your engagement with the individuals those numbers represent. In most cases, those numbers in your connections link are real people! (A few spammers and scammers excluded) These are real people that you can engage with, build a relationship with, and possibly even do business with!
Birthday and Announcement Feature on LinkedIn Contacts
One of the things I love about the new contacts application is the birthday and announcement feature. Now I know we already have this in Facebook – in fact – that's where LinkedIn get's its info from. But let's face it. On any given Birthday, someone might receive hundreds of well wishes. The eyes glaze over. But LinkedIn (at least right now) is a different story. Plus your letter to them will come as a message – not one update lost amongst a bunch of others…
I've already reached out to five or six people that LinkedIn told me had been promoted or had a birthday, and two people responded. With consulting requests 
“Lost Touch”
The other feature I love is the “Lost touch” feature. This shows you who in your network you've not engaged with recently. As I looked through that list of people, there were some awesome folks that I just lost touch with. I couldn't believe it had been three years like LinkedIn said, but it had been. Needless to say messages went out to all those people.
Sort by “Lost Touch”
Recent Conversations
Of course the recent conversation feature is also a rockstar. It links with the member's profile where you can now keep notes like a CRM (Contact relationship Management) tool. You been able to do that before – but now LinkedIn is also showing your shared updates and Tweets to keep you TOMA with what you recently communicated about. (You might need ConnectedHQ.com – a free tool – for this to work).
Facebook Linking
I was extremely nervous about linking Facebook and LinkedIn – but as far as I can tell my Facebook updates are not imported into LinkedIn. You're just linking your Facebook friends which allows you to see their birthdays, and invite them to connect with you on LinkedIn if you want to.
These are my favorite features so I started with them first. But stay tuned for a more comprehensive tour of Contacts as well as newer discoveries that I make.
What is your favorite feature?
