Here’s a quick one – LinkedIn has given its profile views section an update, bringing back some older functionality to provide more insights into how your profile views are tracking.

As explained by LinkedIn:

“This month we refreshed the "Who's Viewed My Profile" page with a new look, and brought back functionalities that provide a quick snapshot into who's visited your profile over time. Whether it’s because they noticed you changed jobs, saw something you posted in their feed, or they generally wanted to know more about your professional life, someone viewing your profile is a great indicator that they could be open to reconnecting.”

As you can see, LinkedIn has brought back the graph showing profile views over time – you can view the same within the mobile app by tapping the drop-down menu at the top of the “Who’s Viewed Your Profile” section.

Of course, to get the most out of the profile views feature, you need to upgrade to Premium – Premium users are able to see all the people who’ve viewed their profile over the past 90 days, providing a much better perspective on exactly who you should be looking to reach out to in order to capitalize on opportunities.

How valuable, exactly, the profile views data is comes down to how you’re using the platform. If you’re pushing to generate leads from LinkedIn, then you can use profile views as a kicking off point for a conversation – while most people are just coming by to take a look at your credentials, there’ll undoubtedly be some who are keen to connect based on that initial spark of interest. In those cases, reaching out to those people with a quick connection request and message could help.

It can feel a little intrusive to send a connection request based on a profile view, but then again, the opportunity is there. It won’t lead to new business every time, but it’s another option to help establish connections, which can lead to new possibilities.