Starting today, we bring you the ability to reorder the sections on your LinkedIn profile via drag-and-drop. This enhancement, one of the most highly-requested profile features from our users, gives you the ability to highlight the skills, expertise, and/or experiences that make you stand out.

Your profile is an important part of your online professional identity. At LinkedIn we’d like to provide you with all the tools you need to build and maintain a profile that can showcase your unique professional value. Now you’re in complete control over your professional brand. Given below is a quick demo of how it works:

Want to showcase your work experience or education above everything else? Do you want testimonials from your references to be the first thing people see when they find your profile? Have you synced your WordPress blog with your profile or built a great presentation with SlideShare that you want to feature? Now your LinkedIn profile offers the flexibility you need to put your best foot forward.

Customizing your profile’s section ordering is quick and easy. You will notice that the headers of each of the sections on your “Edit Profile” page now have handles that can be dragged. To reorder a section, all you need to do is click and drag one of these section headers up or down the body of your profile. When you release the mouse, the section will drop into place where you dragged it, and your adjustment will take effect immediately.

The ability to reorder the sections on your profile is just the first of a huge number of enhancements that are coming to your LinkedIn profile in the upcoming months. And, as always, we’d love to hear your thoughts, ideas, and suggestions about how LinkedIn can help you to represent, manage, and share your professional identity.

In President Obama’s State of the Union last night, he highlighted our many shared aspirations, chief among which is finding a job that pays the bill and getting a chance to get ahead. We want to help you make this a reality, so today and tomorrow, we’re offering job seekers 50% off the first three months of a LinkedIn Business account. In addition, we want to increase your job opportunities by providing companies a “buy one, get one free” job posting incentive.

The past months have been enormously difficult for the global economy. The U.S. job market, in particular, has been hit hard with millions of lost jobs and an unemployment rate in the double digits. Economists claim the recession is over, but for many without a job – or sometimes in a job that does not inspire them – this sounds cruelly abstract. Landing a job, and ideally one they’re passionate about, is still a primary concern.

LinkedIn is in a unique position to connect millions of professionals with the best career opportunities from all types of employers – small and medium businesses and larger corporations.

The LinkedIn incentives available during the next two days (Jan 28^th and 29^th) are designed to:

• help job seekers reach out to hiring managers directly and be better prepared for interviews
• help employers post more of the positions they’re hiring for on LinkedIn

Our Jobs Stimulus site can tell you more.

Forward this offer to both job seekers and hiring managers and help your connections find their dream job, even in this economy.

Ed. note: This belongs to a series of posts on how web sites and services are integrating LinkedIn functionality using the recently launched LinkedIn API. Thanks to Marcy Shinder, Vice President at American Express OPEN, for this week’s post.

We created OPEN Forum, American Express OPEN’s online community for business owners, to provide them with a place to connect and exchange insights that could help them build their businesses. We initially designed the site just for our business Cardmembers because we felt this “credentialization” as a business owner could help minimize the clutter that befalls some other networking sites. But, when we learned that LinkedIn was looking to open up its platform, it gave us an opportunity to extend the platform for many more business professionals while still maintaining the standards that our members are accustomed to.

With the LinkedIn API, millions of entrepreneurs and other business professionals on LinkedIn will now be able to actively participate in discussions on OPEN Forum by using their LinkedIn credentials – regardless of whether they are card members or not. Also, via the oAuth login, LinkedIn members can now engage with our industry experts and business owners on the Idea Hub, which features a wide array of videos and articles from business and social media thought-leaders like Guy Kawasaki (Alltop), Henry Blodget (The Business Insider), and Adam Ostrow (Mashable) among others.

Enabling more than 55 million business-minded members of LinkedIn to join the conversation on OPEN Forum provides more opportunities for our members to make those connections that can help them grow their businesses. I’m also excited about the possibilities for LinkedIn members to participate in the exchange of ideas that can help them in their own business endeavors.

I look forward to seeing you on OPEN Forum

As a company that’s based on the mantra “Relationships Matter”; we want to make it easier than ever for you to find, organize and stay in touch with your business connections. Over the next few weeks, you will start seeing improvements to your LinkedIn address book that will help you be more productive. Feature details after the jump.

Browse and find your connections more easily

The most noticeable update is a new browse panel that allows you to browse your connections by their current companies, locations and industries. In addition, you can search your connections by entering their first name, last name or current company in the search box above the browse panel.

You can also browse your new connections and your connections who may have recently added a new connection by using the Recent Activity filter in the browse panel.

Mini-profiles and up-to-date contact information

View mini-profiles of your connections to see if they have changed their current positions, added any new connections or send them a message through a third column on the right.

You can look up contact information like phone numbers, email addresses and physical mailing addresses. You can also add this information yourself by editing the contact information of connections in your address book.

This new look offers the following additional features:

• Connections automatically tagged with keywords such as “colleagues”, “friends”, “partners” and “group members” based on information you provide when inviting them to connect with you
• Organize your connections into different groups via tags
• Send a message to multiple connections at once based on how you’ve organized them by tags

We look forward to hearing your feedback on these enhancements as we optimize their user experience. Note that these enhancements are currently in beta and you can opt-out of them during the trial period. Check out LinkedIn’s newly redesigned address book here.

Ed. note. This belongs to a series of posts on how web sites and services are integrating LinkedIn functionality using the recently launched LinkedIn API. Thanks to Dan Seyer, VP Product Management at Ribbit for kicking off this series in 2010! And, wish you a very Happy New Year!

Ribbit Mobile provides a brand new way to manage your calls, messages, and phones. To get started, link your mobile phone to Ribbit – a simple process that takes less than a minute.  Once setup is complete, Ribbit transcribes your voicemail to text and sends it to you via text message and email. When online, you can make browser-based calls using your mobile caller ID. Ribbit also provides you with an unlimited message inbox, where you can read, listen to, and even share copies of your voicemail, and much more.

To enhance your experience of making and receiving calls online, Ribbit offers a powerful feature called Caller ID 2.0.  We designed Caller ID 2.0 so that you would know not only who is calling but also what the caller has been sharing online.  Many Ribbit Mobile customers are mobile professionals who are active on LinkedIn, so our team jumped at the chance to get access to the LinkedIn API.

As we participated in the early LinkedIn beta process, we discovered that LinkedIn was a perfect API partner. Once we had our developer API and secret key, we quickly built our first prototype. LinkedIn is now a key part of CallerID 2.0.

Today, when a call comes in or when you make a call, Ribbit Mobile reaches into the social web and finds the recent LinkedIn updates, Facebook updates, Tweets, and Flickr photos of the person calling you. If more than one match is found, Ribbit Mobile will ask you to select the right person.

How does it work?

To use Caller ID 2.0 with Ribbit Mobile, simply enter your credentials for your social feeds during setup.

Entering your LinkedIn credentials allows Ribbit to search your professional network and provide real-time updates.

Developing with the LinkedIn API was very straightforward.  OAuth allowed us to securely connect with LinkedIn and also present a “trusted” login interface that was familiar to LinkedIn users.  This is the same approach we are taking to allow developers to create Ribbit Mobile apps with the Ribbit API.  We’re looking forward to adding additional LinkedIn capabilities to Ribbit Mobile.

If you’d like to join our beta, you can sign up for Ribbit Mobile here.  Enter the invite code “LinkedIn” and we’ll send you an invite as fast as we can.

As I get settled in to our new LinkedIn offices at the World Trade Center in Amsterdam, I can’t help but think of my first interview for this position with Arvind Rajan, our vice president of international operations. He told me that of the 55 million professionals on LinkedIn, the member base in the Netherlands was one of the most active and highly engaged groups with the highest number of LinkedIn members per capita outside of the U.S.

Echt? (English: Really?)

That’s impressive.

As I dug deeper into LinkedIn’s proposition to professionals around the world, it made plain sense why my peers have taken to online professional networking.

Last week, Hari Krishnan, our country manager based in Mumbai, launched our India operations with the objective to connect all of India’s professionals. Here in Central Europe, the bar is just as high. By creating programs and partnerships to raise awareness and engagement with LinkedIn in the Netherlands, I believe we can help Dutch professionals succeed in the new decade and beyond and put them on a path to business and career opportunities that otherwise may pass them by.

We already have a strong team here on the ground in Amsterdam. Our near-term focus will be to establish local partnerships and ramp up our general operations. Critical to that will be hearing from you on what we can do to make LinkedIn more helpful to you in your business and career in the Netherlands.

It may be a rainy day here in Silicon Valley, but a little sunshine has just poked through the iTunes App Store.  Earlier this morning, the new LinkedIn for iPhone v3.0 app went live.

Download LinkedIn for iPhone v3.0

On the heels of the opening of our LinkedIn platform, this new version represents the next step in our efforts to bring LinkedIn to whereever you work.  Professionals are increasingly mobile, and we believe that mobile business applications are better when they are built over a platform of your reputation & relationships.  This app has been redesigned and rebuilt from scratch to help you keep your professional network in your hands, whenever and whereever you need them.

New User Experience

The minute you launch the new application, you’ll immediately see the difference.  We’ve worked to bring the most common and important features to the top of the application, to make it easy to get what you need as quickly as possible.  We wanted to make sure that even if you only have thirty seconds to spare, you can get something done.

LinkedIn for iPhone v3.0

The Power of Search

Never walk into a meeting unprepared.  Whether it’s an interview, a client meeting, or a sales pitch, now you can go into any meeting knowing who you are going to meet with, and what you have in common.  LinkedIn for iPhone v3.0 includes a completely new search interface, making it trivial to easily find people whether they are in your connections list, or one of the 55 million professionals who now belong to LinkedIn.  Whether you type in a name or keyword, LinkedIn will get you the information you need whether it’s five days or five minutes before your important meeting.

The new application has revamped the profiles screen to quickly provide you:

• A summary of details about the person
• A review of their education & experience
• A list of the people that you both know in common
• The ability to mark that person a favorite

The new Favorites functionality makes it incredibly easy to keep track of people, so you can find them later in seconds.   In addition, all of the new Updates views let you filter your updates to see only updates from your favorite people.

LinkedIn for iPhone: Profile

Your Professional Updates

Professionals increasingly need instant access to news and updates from their professional network. This new application also features a redesign of our updates functionality, giving you up to date intelligence about your network. There are now four modules to help you quickly check your updates: All Updates, Status Updates, Profile Updates, and Discussions.  You can even filter your updates to see only those from your favorite connections.

More importantly, these updates are now actionable. Based on heavy demand from our users, we have added the ability to read and submit comments on updates, right from the iPhone.

LinkedIn for iPhone: Updates

More Powerful Inbox & Addressbook Integration

The response to the recently launching Inbox on LinkedIn for iPhone v1.5 has been phenomenal. On average, our iPhone users are now checking their LinkedIn messages twice a day. v3.0 brings with it significant improvements to the Inbox, including an improved design, dashboard badging, and most importantly, support for sending invitations from a profile without the email address.

The Connections feature has been enhanced as well.  Now your connections are just a touch away, and you can easily send any of them a message on LinkedIn.  If your connection has a matching entry in your iPhone contacts, their phone numbers and email addresses will automatically show on their LinkedIn profile.  You can now also choose to download your connections into your iPhone contacts, and the application will alert you when you have a new connection who has not yet been downloaded.

LinkedIn for iPhone: Invitations

Connect In Person

LinkedIn for iPhone has added a number of new features, but we expect many will want to try out In Person.  Leveraging the new Bluetooth capabilities in iPhone 3.0, In Person allows you to find and connect with other people running the LinkedIn application in real time.

LinkedIn for iPhone: In Person

What are you waiting for?

There are too many features in the new application to detail them all here – the best way to get familiar with LinkedIn for iPhone v3.0 is to download it now.

This application represents just the beginning of our mobile efforts in 2010.   We’re just putting the finishing touches on our first native application for the Blackberry, and planning a long stretch of mobile products and enhancements in the year ahead.

If you are one of our LinkedIn for iPhone users, please join the conversation in the LinkedIn for iPhone group.  We’re very excited to hear from you and hear suggestions for new features and improvements.

Saturday night, December 12th, LinkedIn celebrated 2009 in style at the Ferry Building in San Francisco. As our CEO, Jeff Weiner, said at the party, our families make it possible for us to do the work that we do on a daily basis by supporting us at home. This night gave us an opportunity to say thank you for our families’ support, enjoy the company of our co-workers and celebrate 2009 together.

The historic architecture of the Ferry Building was converted the into a hip winter wonderland with white, blue, silver and ice.  Guests enjoyed a lounge ambiance throughout the party with white leather seating, mirrored tables and modern décor.  As attendees entered the party, they were greeted with a blue carpet exclusive entrance and professional photographs. See more pictures here.

The party included two distinct areas to celebrate with a large party space in the main foyer complete with a DJ and dancing, professional lighting, photo booths, a bar complete with a branded ice sculpture and candy displays for keeping the sweet tooth satisfied.  Additionally, a lounge was created with an acoustic trio, ice lighting, lounge furniture and topped off with floor to ceiling windows overlooking the Bay Bridge.

The party was the perfect way to end an exciting year. Thank you to our partners, Paula LeDuc Fine Catering, Sugar Shack, MPortraits Photography, Red Cheese, Entire Productions, DJ Imani, J. Russo and Clear Memories for helping make the night a huge success.  Thanks to Florina Xhabija, LaRae Hakes (both of whom are standing with me in above picture), Jan Choi and Veronica Vallez – the LinkedIn party planning team – for all their help in making this happen.

Bring on 2010!

Since September of 2008, LinkedIn members have earned over $1 million by participating in targeted research surveys on professional topics. Over 100,000 members from more than 85 countries have shared their experience and opinions on topics spanning from cloud computing to healthcare reform to real estate through these research surveys. LinkedIn Surveys enables members to share their valuable experience, help shape important business decisions, while also earning a reward for contributing their opinions.

Members who qualify and complete a survey can receive an honorarium between $5 and $100, which they can select from a variety of options such as Amazon e-certificates, Paypal transfers, Starbucks cards, books, song downloads, or donations to global charities. Over the past year, LinkedIn members have donated over $150,000 of their rewards to charities like Doctors without Borders and the International Red Cross. Here are thoughts from one of our users, Warren Sypteras:

“I was sent an invitation to do a survey  from LinkedIn.  I normally hate doing these things because I spend my time giving data for free.  Ergo;  the surveyors only benefit.  I was surprised to find that LinkedIn actually DO value the opinions they get.  Thanks!”

Launched late last year, LinkedIn Surveys allows business professionals, market researchers, consultants, or investors to gain market insights from targeted professional audiences around the globe.

Participation in research studies is by invitation only and members are selected based on their profile information and relevance of their expertise to the research topic. You can improve your chances of participation by making sure your profile is complete and up-to-date.

Here at LinkedIn, we believe that people search is one of the most valuable new areas of search technology. Late last year, we announced the launch of the new people search platform, rebuilt from the ground up. Since that launch, I’m happy to report that the enhancements have resulted in nearly doubling overall search activity on LinkedIn. Thanks for tons of great feedback you provided since we launched that has helped spur these numerous improvements.

Today, I am excited to announce the release of another huge improvement to LinkedIn’s People Search experience: “Faceted Search”.

“Faceted Search” offers dynamic filters that are automatically generated based on your actual query results. These filters let you quickly and easily hone your query over 50 million LinkedIn profiles based on 8 facets: current company, past company, location, relationship, location, industry, school, and profile languages.

A new module titled “Refine By” will include a list of the most relevant facets, based on the actual results of your original query.

The filters are generated in real time for every query by parsing all matching results and extracting the most important attributes. We then present those to you in an intuitive interface that lets you select one or multiple filters per facet. You can refine, expand or stumble upon insightful information by simply clicking on the search options that matter to you.

Faceted Search offers the following benefits to your search experience on LinkedIn:

• Enables True Guided Navigation: A list of filters are generated dynamically for every search in order to guide you through the optimal path to find the most relevant people

• Provides Intuitive Interface: Refining your search is easier than ever with an intuitive user interface that allows you to slice and dice search results by 8 facets

• Improves Precision: As LinkedIn continues to grow by the millions, increasing search space requires increased precision to help you find exactly the right people

• Increases Efficiency: Find talent, business partners, customers or a former colleague faster than ever before.

• Reduces Need for Complex Queries: It significantly reduces the need for complex Boolean queries. This was a particular need we heard from many of our power users.

Here is a quick video that highlights the key elements of Faceted Search:

We believe these improvements will help augment your productivity and we’d love to hear your feedback, questions and suggestions.