LinkedIn's new user profiles demonstrate the network's effort to bring more visual content to social users, and the update could also better promote brand pages followed by account holders.

After redesigning its Company Pages earlier this year, LinkedIn has made similar adjustments to user profiles. In its official blog, LinkedIn detailed adjustments focused on more visual content and fostering engagement between users and their contacts, including individuals and brands.

At the bottom of a profile, visitors now see a list of the individual follows on the site. Including companies followed will help people learn about the brands their connections have endorsed and can help marketers strengthen their presence on the network.

Additionally, LinkedIn’s move signals the continued shift toward more visual content for enhanced social media experiences. Connections images, company logos and other visuals are all larger and prominently displayed on the redesign. Other platforms made similar changes earlier this year. From Facebook’s Timeline to Twitter’s continued profile adjustments, social networks have actively looked to bring their users more high-quality images to spark engagement.

Currently, the upgraded profiles are not the default setting for all LinkedIn users. However, people can sign up to receive the updated pages. This likely indicates LinkedIn will test and improve the layout in advance of a complete rollout.

Earlier this summer, Brafton highlighted LinkedIn’s adjustments to users’ homepages to focus on shared content. The redesign made the site a more valuable social media marketing tool, since share site content receives more visibility.

Joe Meloni is Brafton's former Executive News and Content Writer. He studied journalism at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and has written for a number of print and web-based publications.