Users of LinkedIn, beware—the company is quietly changing the format of its Contacts page to make sending messages to your connections much, much harder. If you see an offer to “upgrade” to the new design, don’t do it.
Historically, you’ve been able to tag your connections with various labels—“friends,” “recruiters,” “compliance officers,” “Los Angeles residents,” and so forth—and then send one group message to as many as 50 people with the same tag. Simply sort your contacts by tag, hit “send a message,” and you’re off to the races. It was an easy way to fire off quick notes to large groups of like-minded people. I used it all the time to invite compliance executives to various events, Compliance Week surveys, and whatnot.
