In the past several months we’ve seen a continuous stream of updates from LinkedIn. From mentions to Sponsored Updates to an increased emphasis on content, LinkedIn is becoming more marketing-friendly by the minute. The latest change is a makeover for LinkedIn Groups.
If you’ve spent any in LinkedIn Groups in the past, a few things probably come to mind: plain layout, spam and, with a bit of digging for the right group, valuable industry discussions. The update brings “a new streamlined look that will give Group managers and Group members the ability to customize and visually differentiate their conversation space.” Check out the screenshot of the updated group layout below.
The most obvious change is the addition of the LinkedIn cover photo, which makes groups look a lot like LinkedIn company pages. A blog post introducing the changes emphasizes that the interface will “make it easier for members to find and engage in a Group,” although those changes aren’t immediately clear. LinkedIn is currently in the process of rolling out Group updates to English speaking members.
Along with the big redesign announcement, LinkedIn released an infographic with impressive stats on Groups — for example, more than 2 million groups have been created so far, and over 200 group conversations happen each minute. While LinkedIn members can join up to 50 groups, the average member joins about seven.
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