WordPress Blog App for LinkedIn

Were you annoyed that the LinkedIn WordPress App was removed?

So if you were one of the people adversely affected by LinkedIn removing the WordPress application, that linked your blog to your LinkedIn profile, there is a new way to get your blog noticed on your profile.  Actually, there are two and I will quickly review both:

1.  “Add your videos, images, documents…“:  When you see this below the sections of your LinkedIn profile while in edit mode, you can link your WordPress Blog here.  If you copy the url to your blog in the box that opens asking you to “Add Link”, LinkedIn will scan your blog for media or images and create a link, including the text in your blogpost.  There are some limitations and drawbacks.  First, if there is video content, it will key on that content before still images.  Even if that is not the image that you want to feature in the LI link, there doesn’t seem to be a way to change the visual representation in your LI profile.

Also, the image is a link, not to your WordPress page, but rather to a reprint of the page.  If you have nicely structured paragraphs to your post, LI might run it all together in one massive paragraph.  I suspect that this is related to the theme that you use in WordPress and the way that LI interprets the formating of your post.  At the bottom of this new representation of your WordPress page, there is a link to the original content.  However, it would be nice to be able to go directly to the original content, rather than through this intermediate page, because you will certainly miss out on “likes” and comments on your WordPress page.

2.  “Add Projects”:  I just noticed the invitation to add projects to your profile.  There is a quick dialog to place the project and link it to a particular section, i.e. particular experience, and to enter a link.  LI creates a link to that project under that particular experience item and creates a separate section called “Projects”.  LI does allow you to enter a nice description of the content at the link you enter, but someone viewing your profiles will have to click on the name of the project, which becomes a link.  No other visual representation is created.  At least, the link takes the viewer directly to your WordPress page, rather than to an intermediate page as described above.

To see how the “project” approach works, visit my profile at the link below.  Neither of these methods is as elegant as the old WordPress app, so I encourage you to provide LinkedIn with appropriate feedback expressing your displeasure with removal of the app.

by David Phillips

Connect to me on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/davidlphillips