LinkedIn Hopes New Look Will Drive Engagement
By: Julia Boorstin | CNBC Media and Entertainment Reporter
LinkedIn just unveiled a new look for profile pages.
The streamlined design is less cluttered, which the company hopes will make it easier for people to connect on the site, and therefore spend more time and return more frequently.
The professional network, which has 175 million members, said its new profile pages make it easier for each user to "tell [his or her] professional story." It's simpler to update and customize profiles. (Read More: 7 Tips for Building a 'Power Network' on LinkedIn .)
Another change: Now LinkedIn is layering company information on top of contact info — showing which contacts work where — making it easier to find contacts who work at companies users are interested in.
The third change: News will be featured more prominently, at the very top of users' pages. LinkedIn will be rolling out the new look over the next few months.
CEO Jeff Weiner has been pushing to turn LinkedIn from a service people visit when they're looking for a job to a useful tool for doing their jobs — something they use every day. (Read More: LinkedIn CEO: We're Not Like Other Social Networks .)
The idea is to make it as important to stay connected with professional contacts on a daily basis, as people think it is to stay posted on their Facebook friends status updates.
—By CNBC's Julia Boorstin
@JBoorstin
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