I had a friend recently ask me why nobody commented on or ‘liked’ her LinkedIn status update.  I explained that there was a very low likelihood that people even saw her update in their newsfeeds.  LinkedIn’s newsfeed can often feel like a vast wasteland of meaningless updates.

By default, the LinkedIn newsfeed updates you on everything from the new connections people are making to profile changes – “Betty added X to her profile”.  To some people this is useful while to others this is annoying.

Unlike Facebook, LinkedIn does nothing to try to create a meaningful newsfeed experience.  LinkedIn is counting on people to participate in Groups if they actually want to find and share information.  Alternatively, you could use LinkedIn’s “Signal” to search through status updates in order to find useful information.

What people don’t realize is that they can completely control what type of content appears in their LinkedIn newsfeed so it can be as useful to them as possible.  To edit the content you see in your LinkedIn newsfeed access your LinkedIn settings:

Once you’ve logged into your settings you can change many different features of LinkedIn.  In order to change your newsfeed you will select the “Account” Section and click on “Customize the updates you see on your home page”:

From within this section you can deselect all of the information that you do not find helpful or beneficial:

Depending on your unique objectives for participating in LinkedIn you might find certain updates more valuable than others.  Once you’ve selected the relevant options you can “Save Changes”.

Now, if only there was an option to delete all of the damned Twitter Tweets people automatically share with LinkedIn – if I wanted to read their tweets I’d follow them on Twitter!

Geoff Evans, Founder of Social Media Coach

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