If you haven’t seen yet, LinkedIn has made dramatic updates to its user interface and individual profiles. Below is a video outlining the changes and explaining why, for the small business owner, solo-entrepreneur, sale person, thought-leaders and trusted advisor, the changes have dramatically reduced the effectiveness of the platform.

In my opinion, this is most likely the biggest backwards steps any social media platform has ever made. While I got very passionate in this video filmed 2 days after seeing the changes on a clients profile, we are working to update our advice for writing your LinkedIn profile and our training videos. To stay in touch with these developments please click here.

It might seem strange to some why I would get so passionate about it and most people complain about change. However, in this case, I don’t think this applies. I know from Facebook updates I’ve not liked them and then 3 days later I can’t even remember the old version.

With these updates, however, some of the vital points of social selling, relationship and rapport building have been overlooked including the vital role the profile plays in the process. If you haven’t heard me speak on this topic to understand the importance of a profile then please do check out my other articles.

LinkedIn has been long misunderstood and never more so the value of a profile.

UPDATED: This evening I spoke with the lead trainer at my old company, which is now the chosen external LinkedIn training partner for all LinkedIn corporate accounts. He has been arguing against these changes since their inception six months ago and echoes my sentiments. His comment on the new profile was ‘It looks like something from 1996’. This isn’t complaining about change for the sake of it or because it’s a natural human response.

This is complaining against change because it is a massive step backwards that could ultimately kill the platform and users get less and less value from it.

If your profile hasn’t been updated yet, the rollout is due to complete by the 31st March 2017. If you understand or agree with the points in the video please comment below so, perhaps, the big ship that is LinkedIn may just listen to us!!