LinkedIn, world's biggest social network has made it easier for professionals across the globe to update and edit their professional profiles by incorporating a couple of major changes on its huge platform. On Dec 12, 2014, Alexis Baird -Product Manager for Profile Completion at LinkedIn confirmed on official Linkedin blog that the profile editing experience has been simplified to a great extent in order to makeit easier for members to make the most out of their professional profiles.All editing on LinkedIn will now be done instantly via inline editing mechanism, which is introduced for immediate LinkedIn makeover. Besides this, it's now simpler to add new sections to your Linkedin profile via "Front and Centre" channelthat makes it convenient to add Projects, Courses, Publications, and Patents without using the complex editing options at the upper left corner.

If you're thinking that this is the first time Linkedin has incorporated major changes in its renowned platform, it is not true because one of the posts by Mashable back in June, 2014 has revealed that LinkedIn is taking some design inspiration from Facebook and Twitter. Ever since, LinkedIn began rolling out its new update in Dec, 2014, professional profiles of millions of users worldwide including both premium & free members have gone through major transitions.Technological advancements in paid ads are not new, but advancements in online personal branding is one of the biggest factor, which is pushing the product managers and other folks at LinkedIn to roll out new features for allowing users to come up with a "stand out" professional profile. Moreover,LinkedIn publishing platform in the era of Content marketing has also made LinkedIn rethink about the platform in order to stay on the top of all professional social networks.

5 Major LinkedIn Upgrades that can make your professional profile rock online

To help you in taking maximum advantage of the updated Linkedin platform, I've jotted down 5 major LinkedIn upgrades to help you in creating a rocking professional profile.

1. All editing can now be done inline

Inline editing is the biggest LinkedIn update introduced by the product managers to make it easier for professionals to update their professional online account. This update has been rolled out in December i.e. before the New Year as a part of their monetization strategy because this is the time, when employers are on their hiring sprees and many professionals switch to other companies to give a head-start to their career. Though, it is pretty sure that this update will encourage all LinkedIn members to update their skills and experience online, employers will also get benefit from this recent update to a great extent.

What's New& How to do it right - Instead of banging your head with the icons and tabs at the upper left corner, userscan now click the little pencil icon to make all the edits. It means that all the necessary editing and profile updates can be done instantly by simply hovering over any section of your profile and making immediate changes to update sections with relevant information.

To update your profile on LinkedIn's updated platform, simply hover the cursor over the header of your LinkedIn profile (immediately next to your profile photo) and click on the individual pencil iconsdisplayed next to your "Name", "Professional headline", "Country", "Experience" and "Education". If you're still unsure how to do it, you can look at some examples by simply clicking the "Show examples" tab displayed before you.

To explain this newly introduced feature clearly, I've attached the image of my own LinkedIn account. Take a look at the image shared below to know more.

Notice the inline editing interface that uses a pencil icon that certainly eases the process of updating your LinkedIn profile.

2. It's now easier to addnew sections to make your profile "stand out" among the rest

Besides inline editing, you can also add new sections to your LinkedIn profile in a simpler way.Earlier, the LinkedIn members who are intended to tweak their professional profiles have tonavigate to the upper left hand corner of their profile for adding new Projects, Certifications, Courses, Publications, Test Scores and Patents etc.However, the introduction of the new LinkedIn makeover update has made everything simpler & less time consuming.

Besides, you can also edit your overall experience in your profile and make changes to your professional summary within a couple of minutes for creating a "stand-out" professional profile.

Below I've added three screenshots along with additional information to let you know how the new LinkedIn feature works

3. Track the progress of your professional profile measuring it with "Profile Strength" feature

At the upper right corner, LinkedIn has introduced the "Profile Strength" feature to show your progress as you improve your professional profile. To show you how the "Profile Strength" icon looks like on the updated platform, I've shared an image below

As you improve your LinkedIn profile, the "Profile Strength" feature will indicate it by filling the circle with "blue" color and displaying you an "All Star" profile badge.

4. Custom background

Though the custom background feature is already available to all premium members, LinkedIn has begun rolling out this exciting feature for all its members to give an eye-catching visual appeal to its professional platform.By using this feature, professionals who've a LinkedIn account can enhance online personal branding via uploading a custom background for their profile headers. One can also drag the background image to position it just like Facebook allows you toadjust your cover photo on"Facebook timeline".

How to get it done right:Instructions to add custom background image to your LinkedIn Profile-

As per new LinkedIn guidelines for custom background, you need to create a custom backgroundimage within the recommendeddimensions of 1400X425 pixels with maximum file size of 4MB and jpg, gif or PNG as image formats.

After image optimization as per set limits, navigate your cursor over the"Profile" tab and click the "Add a background photo" icon displayed right at the top. Now, upload your image. It will soon be displayed on your background with three additional tabs - "Save", "Change Image", and "Remove Image". You can also drag the background image to adjust it just like you do on your "Facebook timeline".If you're perfectly fine with the displayed image, click on "Save" tab. In case you want to replace the image with a new one, click on "Change Image" andif you want the background image to completely disappear, click on "Remove Image" tab.

Bonus Tip - To do everything quickly, you can take help from tools like PicMonkey and other image optimization software that makes it easy to optimize images online without compromising on quality.

5. See Who has viewed your Profile to track employers who visit your profile and gain insights on how you rank for profile views

This is also an amazing LinkedIn upgrade that has helped professionals across the globe manage their accounts more efficiently while fetching maximum benefits of the biggest social network that connects them with employers globally.

How to use it in the right way-To use this newly updated feature, login in to your LinkedIn account and navigate to the "Profile" tab displayed at the upper left corner. Don't click it, just hover over it to get to the "Who's viewed your Profile" option. You'll soon see a webpage similar to the image shared below with "Change Settings" option on the topmost header.

To see how you rank for profile views, click the "How you rank for profile views" option. You'll see something like the image shared below.

Conclusion

With the new LinkedIn user interface updated just a month ago, LinkedIn has finally made it much easier to grow your professional network and take advantage of their newly updated features. Besides this, it will also help professionals across the globe gain endorsements and recommendations to spruce up their online accounts. If the users take out some time from their busy schedule to discover common connections and interests, I am sure you can take monetary advantage also from this updated platform through biggest opportunities shared by the employers on LinkedIn. LinkedIn is also making changes to its publishing platform LinkedIn Pulse and is now allowing both premium and non-premium users to share their ideas within their social network.

Have you started using the new LinkedIn profile features? Leave questions if you're facing difficulties by using the comment box below.