Have you heard about LinkedIn’s new “About this profile” feature?

LinkedIn doesn’t tend to shout about new features, so it’s very possible that this is the first you are hearing of it. I have to say, it is something from an employer or recruiter’s point of view, that I think is a very positive step forward and could prove to be a very useful tool for all of us!

So, what’s it all about?…

For employers, recruiters and talent sourcers like myself, who use LinkedIn to source candidates, finding information about a specific person can sometimes be a bit of a trawl.

It is also hard to tell whether the information you are looking at is up to date, especially if there is nothing to see in the profile’s Recent Activity section.

But, if a potential candidate is showing all the signs of being the perfect fit for your role, we are going to want to go ahead and get in touch either way, right?

Having found the candidate on LinkedIn, it makes a lot of sense to get in touch via the same platform. We can either send a connection request, or an InMail and hope that they respond.

But, how likely is this person to respond? Do we even know if they are active on Linkedin?

Furthermore, and most importantly, how do we know this is a genuine person and that the information we are seeing is true and accurate? LinkedIn suffers with fake profiles and scammers just like most other platforms.

Wouldn’t it be great if we could temper our expectations by gauging a person’s activity level?

If only we could see at a glance that this person is genuinely who they say they are, work where they say they work, are active on LinkedIn, and therefore very possibly going to see our diligently crafted message.

Well, with the new “About This Profile” feature – you can!

This fab feature has been designed to help verify identity and authenticity, enabling employers and individuals alike to make informed decisions about LinkedIn members they interact with.

It’s a ‘quick view’ information source to provide us with more data about an account at the click of a button!

The “About this profile” Feature will show you:

• When a profile was created
• When a profile was last updated
• Whether the member has verified a phone number and/or work email associated with their account (for work emails, this will start with a limited number of companies of 10 employees or more, but you can expect to see this expand as over time with additional companies).

As with any new feature, it is likely to take some time to develop further as it begins to be used more widely. I for one am interested to see how LinkedIn drives the verification of employment via work email addresses. 

To learn more about verified information on your profile, visit the following link from Linkedin.
https://www.linkedin.com/help/linkedin/answer/a1359065 

Have you found yourself using this feature yet? I’d love to hear your thoughts.