The premium members of LinkedIn are getting a makeover on their profiles in the professional networking site.
In addition, LinkedIn is now offering a new membership option called Premium Spotlight, which will only cost the user $10 per month. This price is much more affordable than LinkedIn's previously offered memberships that have monthly rates of between $30 to $440 per month, and will allow the user to gain access to all the changes that LinkedIn made to premium memberships.
The profile pages of premium users have been revamped into a layout that resembles the image-centric designs of Facebook, Google+ and Twitter. Premium profile pages now have cover photos, bigger profile pictures and cleaner, easier-to-read fonts.
Regarding the cover photos, LinkedIn told VentureBeat that they "felt like a natural next step in helping members to build a more unique professional identity. ... [We] wanted to give profiles a more personal feel and this new visual component also helps members to stand out."
Currently, only premium members have the cover photo feature on their profiles. Free members will have to wait for a few months before the feature is rolled out to them.
In addition to the aesthetic upgrades, premium members can now optimize their pages with keyword suggestions. These keywords will make it easier for the member to get discovered through LinkedIn's search function. The search function also now prioritizes premium members, with premium profiles appearing twice as big in search results along with more details on the member.
Users with premium membership may also opt for an Open Profile, where their profile pages are made accessible to all other members of LinkedIn, even though there is no connection between the users.
Premium users can now also see who has been accessing their pages through a 90-day listing of Who's Viewed Your Profile. In addition, users gain access to How You Rank, showing the top 100 results against the user's first-degree contacts and company.
"We are continuously looking at new ways to add more value to our premium experience and this is just the first step of many this year," said LinkedIn product manager Dmitry Shevelenko in LinkedIn's official blog.
LinkedIn is the largest social network for professionals in the world, with over 300 million members. Included in its members are executives of top global companies. LinkedIn recently inked a deal with Evernote to connect the app's business card scanning feature with member profiles on LinkedIn.
