LinkedIn rolls out new profile to keep users coming back for more

LinkedIn just unveiled a sleek new look for profile pages that it hopes will get people to spend more time and come back more often.

The professional network, dubbed “the anti-Facebook” with 175 million users and its shares trading at about $111, said the new design, which will roll out over the next few months, makes it easier for users to update their profiles and connect with others.

It’s all part of a push to fuel growth and engagement on LinkedIn. LinkedIn wants people to visit LinkedIn every day to stay in touch with their professional contacts, not just when they are job hunting, much the way people check Facebook each day for status updates from their friends.

Only a handful of companies connect hundreds of millions of people and only LinkedIn connects that many professionals, LinkedIn Chief Executive Jeff Weiner said during a news conference Tuesday at the company’s Mountain View, Calif., headquarters.

LinkedIn faces a possible competitive threat from Facebook which, looking for ways other than advertising to make money from its 1 billion users, could expand into professional networking.

The changes to the LinkedIn profile are part of a gradual evolution of LinkedIn’s look and feel, similar to Facebook’s revamp of the profile into Timeline and Twitter’s new profile page. Common to all three: bigger photos. But LinkedIn is also adding features it hopes will get people to spend more time on the site, including the recent addition of “endorsements.”

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