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3 Ways to Stop the Flood of

Information from

LinkedInDavid J.P. Fisher

In/iamdfish@dfishrockstar

@dfishrockstar

One of the biggest complaints I hear about LinkedIn has nothing to do with the platform. It's centered on the massive numbers of messages that professionals get when they sign up. It clogs up your inbox, both in your LinkedIn account and email. It’s like trying to get a drink from a firehose.

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Don't hate LinkedIn because it's sharing information with you - that's one of the reasons you are there. It's a matter of tuning LinkedIn like a radio to get just the information that you want. The exact nature of the desired signal will be determined by what you are trying to learn from your LinkedIn connections.

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1. Control how many emails & messages you get

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Visit the Communications tab on the Privacy and Settings page. You can manage how

you get emails about the various activities on LinkedIn.

Whether it's connection requests, activities in your

Groups, or LinkedIn Pulse, you can choose to get emails once a week, once a day, or not at

all.

Visit the Communications tab on the Privacy and Settings page. You can manage how you get emails about the various activities on LinkedIn. Whether it's connection requests, activities in your Groups, or LinkedIn Pulse, you can choose to get emails once a week, once a day, or not at all.

@dfishrockstar

Again, it depends on how you are using LinkedIn. If you are visiting the site daily, then maybe you don't need to get reminder emails because you'll see those connection requests anyways. If you want to be make sure that you don’t miss anything, get a weekly digest email and you'll be able to respond to anything that's relevant.

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2. Optimize how people can reach out to you

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If you are using LinkedIn to build a robust network to support your offline relationships, you can keep your LinkedIn account relatively welcoming. You can allow anyone to send you an invitation and choose to accept Introductions, Inmails, and even Open Link messages. All of this is controlled through the same Communications tab.

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You can also limit this flow of messages if people are abusing this; which can happen a lot if you are in a role where salespeople, recruiters, or job applicants pester you. Remember that by limiting the inflow of messages and invitations you are also making it more challenging for the people that you want to interact with. In networking, balance is important.

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3. Control your Newsfeed

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One of the most powerful tools on LinkedIn is the ability to "listen" to what's happening in your network in just a few minutes a day. It can be incredibly annoying when you have a connection that gums up the works by posting ten articles in a row or liking fifteen other posts. You have to scroll, scroll, and scroll down to get past them.

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You can remove them as a connection, but what if you want to remain connected and simply avoid their chatter. You can hide them from the newsfeed and prevent them from overpowering everyone else (and retain the connection). By all posts, there is a small dropdown triangle that will allow you to hide that user from the newsfeed.

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Taken together, these three steps will allow you to focus on the most important activities that are happening within your network. Sure, not every email and status update will be relevant, but there will be much less static to obscure the important messages that are coming to you every day.

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If you found these tips useful, you should check out my book, Networking in the 21st Century…on LinkedIn. It’s full of strategies, tactics, and tips that will make you online network a robust part of your business world.

Find it on Amazon

@dfishrockstar

I help individuals and organizations harness the power of relationships to uncover new opportunities and make existing business easier. Basically, I help them take "networking" from being just a buzzword to a viable business tool.

Come see what I’m working on over at iamdfish.com

@dfishrockstar