Since the start of June, we have now close to 10k more connections made on Linkdra and we have another 15 days to go. Amazing and looking forward to doing more perhaps. This also means there are more ways to make Linkdra better. Here is a quick round of what's in this month's release.

20.06.1 release updates

What's new in Workbench

Improved scanning of similar profiles

Every time you visit a profile on LinkedIn, Linkdra picks up similar profiles that can you now add with a simple click to your contacts. So, if you start your search with a target company or domain, then it is easy to discover similar companies that you can target as well.

What this means is for every profile, you get possibly 10 more similar profiles. That's 10x jump right there.

So, what's coming up next? Well, an automated way of collecting similar profiles from your existing searches. This is also going to make it to contacts on CRM in the July release.

Filtering out emojis

Emojis are great on the profile but, they make your personalized requests harder, especially when it comes to names. People dress up their names with extra info as well. Name extraction is improved now with the screening of emojis. This helps avoid breaking things in other CRMs as well where you may want to import data from Linkdra.

CRM updates

Smarter contacts search

Free text search is now extended to filter by status. You can also limit your search to recent records by adding a date filter. Very handy if you want to review the list of contacts added over last week. Not just your contacts but from everyone on your team.

Improved Download

You could download all your contacts with one click as a CSV file. But then working with a long list every time can be a bit daunting. Well, now you can download just what you want. Run your search on contacts and download only the records matching your search criteria.

Integrations

Coming out soon integration with Hubspot and Zapier. This is already in the works. So, every time a contact is added or updated in Linkdra, you would see them in your target system in sync.

Roadmap updates

Our core focus would continue to be around improved search. We see marketers, recruiters still spend a lot of time searching groups on social media for possible leads and a lot of hoops to find the related Linkedin profiles. This is really the painful and time-consuming part and we don't like it too. Top improvements that would come up next

Extended Domain Search

Add a target list of domains (domains are the company website address without the http://www part ), roles you want to search, and any keywords. The rest of the search should be automated for 10s or even 100s of combinations. You can already run this for company names and this will get extended to support domains that you can upload as a CSV file. It should be super easy.

Local business search

Linkdra already supports searching by location. The location match is based on what users mention on their LinkedIn profile. This is going to be further extended with the option to search local businesses for pulling out names. See more on domain search.

Suppression List

When running searches at times you want to avoid certain organizations or profiles. Today you can add them as LinkedIn profile links and mark as ignore. This is going to get better with a bulk upload option in CRM. In addition, you should be able to add keywords, company names to avoid or suppress in your search requests so that you have a cleaner list to start.

Scoring improvement

Current match scoring systems are handy to quickly prioritize the search results and have the best matches first. Soon you would also be able to train it further by add positive keywords (ones that you absolutely think are relevant) and negative keywords (drop them). One more step towards a learning system. The more you use it, the better it gets for you.

Profile updates

Currently, profiles you view get details such as a number of connections, work, and education details besides their endorsed skills. Would soon have additional data points around posts they have made and guidance around recent activity date. Yet another way to improve scoring and filtering.

Improved Personalization sending connection requests

Visual preview cards work very well compared to text when added to your connection requests. This drives conversion upto 4x easily. While you can use them on Linkdra from 3rd party providers or your own site today, tracking may be an issue.

So, you would be able to setup your own preview cards on Linkdra and link it to your campaign to get better data on how your message is performing in the field.

Integration

Besides Zapier and Hubspot, plans are on to provide out of the box integration with few other popular CRM tools.

Plans are on to connect with upstream search and sourcing tools as well. More details on this coming out soon.

Safety

No proxy, no cookie hacking, no Chrome extension approach of Linkdra will continue to be the top priority. The existing guidance on daily fair usage will continue to be monitored and updated. In addition, coming up is a set of housekeeping activities to keep a performant LinkedIn profile. This would include managing your pending connection requests, review likes, and comments.

Follow users

Besides sending connection requests or viewing profiles, you would also be able to just follow users. Track people who viewed back to build a recommended connection to add the list.

Follow up & Reminders

Once your connection request is accepted, it's time to engage. Right now this is part of your everyday Linkedin messaging. However, it would be useful is a smart reminder system to nudge back conversation. Send a follow-up message after day 2 weeks from connection acceptance.

Sequences

Add to the option of reminders and follow-ups, a sequence of pre-crafted messages to send. While some users don't prefer this and want to stay very personalized, but use cases dealing with a large number of profiles would definitely benefit.

Organization and Team features

Many of you use Linkdra with a team. You may also be running lead generation for other companies or maybe running an agency or hiring for other companies. All these use cases require a simple way to manage your work specific to a client, assign team members, and have visibility on progress. This is definitely going to be a big development focus area as we make it easier to not just manage work but share. For example, short-listing of screen profiles that can be shared with a client. More on these features coming up soon in a separate post.

Want to connect with others on Linkdra tips, tricks, and updates? Head over to the Linkdra Community page to join a conversation or start one of your own.