Being an active LinkedIn user I’m always really interested in hearing about developments that LinkedIn are introducing to improve the usability and extend the functionality of the LinkedIn platform. There have been a few developments that have been integrated recently, specifically related to the companies section, that have provided additional functionality for both users and administrators of groups and company pages.

At the end of September LinkedIn launched the limited release of LinkedIn Signal, a beta product that gives you a whole new way to consume information and news that’s most relevant to you as a professional. Being that the product is quite different in concept when compared to the general offering of LinkedIn it got me thinking about other areas in which LinkedIn could offer to users and companies to help them connect online – these could include:

User Restricted Access – As company pages and groups grow companies might want to use them as portals for information in which employees can absorb information. To do this effectively LinkedIn might add functionality that allows company page owners to restrict viewing access to content based on the nature of the user e.g. a company could post company specific communications that would only be seen by its employees, or even a specific departments/territories.

Web Conferencing & eLearning – Building on the point raised above through controlling user access to content, LinkedIn could start offer companies the ability to offer Web Conferencing and eLearning packages through there current platform. Not only would this be of use to companies looking to train and communicate internally but also to educational institutions and third party training providers.

Increased Content – The LinkedIn Signal product provides good insight to how feeds and searches and feeds can be viewed, however, to interact with the content the user is redirected away from LinkedIn in order to engage with the information. To create a portal based experience LinkedIn might look to increase the amount of content available within feeds by offering, pictures, video and full stories for example to encourage the user to stay put.

Extended CRM functionalities – With people constantly building there professional networks online with LinkedIn I personally can’t see it being too long before they look to update there “Notes” feature (available on premium packages) and develop an offering to compete with Salesforce or Highrise as they have the advantage in which there data is constantly being updated by the users themselves.

What do people think? What would like to see appear within LinkedIn in the future?