How to Fix LinkedIn's Biggest Annoyances

Melanie Pinola

Love it or (most likely) hate it, LinkedIn is the leading social network for your career, whether you're looking for a job or just want to stay in touch with others on a professional level. It's also incredibly frustrating to many of us. Here's how you can make LinkedIn less annoying and more useful.

ll social networks have their fair share of annoyances and critics, but LinkedIn appears to have the most (or at least most vociferous), with complaints about the service ranging from it being "useless" to "spammy" and "creepy." Just like getting past our biggest pet peeves about Facebook, Twitter, and Google+, though, there are solutions or workarounds for LinkedIn.

Annoyance #1: SO Many Emails

Join LinkedIn and it seems like you've signed up for an endless stream of spammy emails. Emails saying "please add me to your LinkedIn network," "Jobs at your company," "Congratulate This Person and 3 others," and "News about Some Other Person and more happening with your network." If any little thing happens to any possibly connected person to you on LinkedIn, it's going in your inbox. The ratio of email notifications you get from LinkedIn to the amount of time you spend on the service is absurd.

There's a simple kill switch: This bookmarklet that turns all of the email settings to "no email" in LinkedIn. That's the nuclear option—no emails at all for any type, but there could still be relevant emails you do want to get out of your spam folder and into your inbox (without having to set up complex filters)

To change the frequency of specific types of emails, go to your LinkedIn settings by hovering over your profile photo on the top menu, then Privacy & Settings. In the Communications section, choose "Set the frequency of emails." There you'll be able to restrict emails by category to individual email messages, a weekly digest, or no email. (Here's a more in-depth explanation and tips in video form from my LinkedIn in 30 Minutes publisher.)

I'd set only the emails that are directly to you from other LinkedIn members in your network (those under "Messages from other members") as individual emails and the rest as either weekly digests or no email to keep the inbox spam to a minimum.

Annoyance #2: Too Much Automatic Sharing

Annoyance #3: Lots of Paranoia and Stalking

Annoyance #4: Meaningless Endorsements and Recommendations

See all the annoyances and how to fix them

LinkedIn Profile 101 for Job Seekers - 5 Tips

By Brandi Tape

Your LinkedIn Profile can be an invaluable resource for most job hunters.

Now, before you write the site off as the uptight cousin of Facebook, check out this two part series to learn how to make your LinkedIn profile work for you. We’ve sifted through lists upon lists of the good, bad, and ugly LinkedIn tips to bring you the most valuable information that can help you shine now!

1. You get out what you put in. This is not the time to be lazy here, complete your profile as thoroughly as possible. Sure, having a profile at all will help your odds for that recruiter magically find you, but filling it all the way out will increase your chances of a call or offer if they’re able to discern a little bit about you from your profile as well. Make sure you include details about what your skills are, where you’ve worked, and what people think of you. LinkedIn makes it easy to gauge how well you’ve completed your profile with its built-in meter, prompting you with suggestions with suggestions on how to strengthen it further.


2. Make it yours.


More on tips 1-2, Tips 3-5, and the complete article

Optimize your LinkedIn profile so jobs find you - 10 LinkedIn Tips

Cinnamon Pollard

Think of your LinkedIn profile as a digital version of your CV. It's a gateway to your personal brand so it needs to be complete, professional looking and optimised for maximum exposure.

LinkedIn has become an extremely useful tool for networking and is the sourcing tool of choice for recruiters. In the US 94 per cent of recruiters use LinkedIn for sourcing and recruiting.

It’s also the first place that potential recruiters and employers will look when they are considering you for a role.

These 10 tips will help you optimise your LinkedIn profile so that jobs find you:



1. It’s OK to be vain
Get your vanity URL. This is a custom URL with your name in it that points directly to your profile. Having your name in your vanity URL makes it more likely to appear in a Google search when someone searches for you. This makes it easier for recruiters to find you and share your information with prospective employers.


3. Have a keyword strategy


5. Add sections


Read more about these three LinkedIn Tips, all 10 tips, and the complete article

5 Simple Ways to Spring Clean and Declutter Your LinkedIn Profile

Tomeeka Farrington

Now that the Spring flow­ers are bloom­ing and weather is warm­ing up it’s only fit­ting that you extend your cleanup efforts into the social sphere. Time to stop neglect­ing your LinkedIn pro­file, think strate­gi­cally and opti­mize your pro­fes­sional iden­tity on the “World’s Largest Pro­fes­sional Net­work.” This way, both you and your employer can receive a fruit­ful return on social invest­ment. Whether you’ve received every LinkedIn endorse­ment imag­in­able or have cho­sen to flood your pro­file with all kinds of key­word lingo, it’s time to declut­ter. Here are 5 sim­ple ways to help you get started:

1.    Keep Score of your Con­tent Marketing
Sick of cre­at­ing use­less posts that flood your LinkedIn page? Can’t seem to write con­tent to encour­age reader engage­ment? Worry no more – LinkedIn recently cre­ated a con­tent mar­ket­ing scor­ing tool that mea­sures user influ­ence.  Tak­ing into con­sid­er­a­tion pro­file spon­sored updates, com­pany pages, per­sonal groups, employee updates and influ­ence posts, LinkedIn’s con­tent mar­ket­ing score pro­vides users with tips on how to improve their con­tent mar­ket­ing strate­gies. Based on a scale rang­ing from 1–1000, LinkedIn pro­vides users with a pri­vate grade, which reflects the impact of your paid and organic con­tent.  With LinkedIn pro­vid­ing you  rec­om­men­da­tions on ways to improve your score, it’s time you start spruc­ing up that pro­file and reach your unique masses.



2.    Take Advan­tage of the New LinkedIn Pub­lish­ing Machine



3.    Pro­duce Orig­i­nal Con­tent and Watch it Trend



Read more on these 3 ways, all 5 ways, and the complete article

3 Places to Find Job Postings on LinkedIn

By Arnie Fertig

Over the course of the last few years, the value of traditional job boards has declined, while LinkedIn is now often thought of as THE place to go to find a job. LinkedIn has made the whole process social and interactive. The larger your network, the more opportunity you will have of seeing that perfect position for which you are hunting. There are numerous ways to use this social networking site to be seen and gain business intelligence. Here are a few key ways you can also use it to find specific jobs for which you can apply.

1. Your Activity / Updates feed. When you first login, click on the “Home” menu choice at the top of the page. This feed will take up the left two-thirds of your window. Here, among other things, you’ll find the posts that everyone in your network has made recently.

These updates are constantly changing. Therefore, you’ll have to check back with frequency or else you'll miss many of them. Unfortunately, LinkedIn discontinued its signal functionality, which used to allow you to search this feed for items posted within the last two weeks.

2. LinkedIn’s own job board

Read more about places 1&2, place 3, and the complete USNews article

Top 10 LinkedIn Tips for Job Seekers

By Alison Doyle

Are you using LinkedIn to job search? Would you like to get your career on the fast track? LinkedIn is the top site for professional networking, and it's full of tools to help you make connections and find your next job.

When you're using LinkedIn, the details matter. Your profile needs to be perfect, you need to be well connected with people who can help your job search and refer you for employment. It works both ways though. The best way to use LinkedIn is to give to get. Write a recommendation, endorse a colleague or forward an introduction. The more you help your connections, the more likely they will be to help you.

If you're currently employed, it's important to be careful on LinkedIn. If you don't want your boss to know that you're seeking employment, you can hide your activity. You should also be cautious about who you let know that you're job searching.

Even if you're using LinkedIn already, it's a good idea to give your profile a makeover every now and then. It also makes sense to keep connecting, even if you're not actively job searching. The stronger your presence on LinkedIn, the better shape you'll be in for your next job search.

Here are the top 10 tips for using LinkedIn for job searching, including step by step instructions for using LinkedIn's features and tools.

1) How to Use Your LinkedIn Profile as a Resume
Your LinkedIn profile is an online version of your resume. It should have the same information that is on your resume and, if you're looking for a new job, you will want prospective employers to be able to review your credentials for employment, including your qualifications, your experience, and your skills. Here's what to include in your profile.

2) How to Send LinkedIn Invitations and Messages 

There are right ways and wrong ways to connect on LinkedIn. Paying attention to proper LinkedIn etiquette is a must if you want to get connected. Here are instructions for sending LinkedIn messages and invitations including the best ways to invite people to connect with you, what to include and how to format your messages, and more guidelines for messaging on LinkedIn.

Tips 3-10 and the complete article

5 key tips to maximizing your profile on LinkedIn

Kathie Kelly

In a previous post it was discussed how employers are using LinkedIn and other social media tools to find their future employees and get a feel for their online personality. In this post I share 5 key tips in getting the most out of your LinkedIn profile and ensuring it puts you in the driving seat when it comes to finding your perfect job.

Don’t forget this is a professional network and these tips are geared towards portraying yourself in the best possible light for your future employers – remember everything can be searched so think about your long term goals when you post.

Tip #1: Connect with the key movers and shakers in your industry. If you don’t know who they are then search for companies and groups that resonate with your profession. Take note of who posts regularly and try to engage them by adding your comments too. Try an advanced search to find the key contacts within companies that you want to work for – enter location, job title and company name. You can view 2nd and 3^rd tier connections (friends of friends) so the more relevant connections you have in your industry the better.

Tip #2: Regularly post updates.

Tip #3: Ensure your profile is positive 

Read more on these 3 tips, all 5 tips, and the complete article

We Can All Be LinkedIn Influencers. Here's How

BY Marla Tabaka  @MarlaTabaka

Want to get published next to Richard Branson and Guy Kawasaki?

When LinkedIn launched the publishing network known as LinkedIn Influencer in 2012, members gained instant access to top voices in business such as Richard Branson, Martha Stewart, and Arianna Huffington. Now you have the opportunity to join these powerful voices as LinkedIn opens the doors to its publishing platform to the public.

"The more you converse, the more you know about how your community works and why they need you. LinkedIn publisher opens up the door to community conversations," says Barbara Rozgonyi, founder of CoryWest Media and Chicago's Social Media Club. These conversations can expand your network in a big way, because all likes, comments, and shares will distribute your content beyond your immediate network. You may also find your content distributed as part of "Best of LinkedIn" and even beyond LinkedIn to its partner sites.

Who Writes?

The privilege of publishing extends to 25,000 members on the network, but LinkedIn is steadily expanding the capability to all members in multiple languages over the next few months. Apply here for access; you'll know you have posting privileges when you get an email from LinkedIn.

A caveat: If you're not a writer and your company's creative archives are bare, don't write a word until you ask yourself why you want to stand out on LinkedIn. What's the purpose? As in any marketing or social-media effort, it's best to have a reason, a strategy, and a plan before you begin.

Rozgonyi's "5 Ways to Sidestep the Social Media Sinkhole" garnered more than 3,400 views and was shared 430 times on LinkedIn. Here's her advice on the why and how of a buzzworthy post.

Why publish?

How do you make your post great?

Read the complete Inc. article to find out more

8 LinkedIn Profile Tips

Melissa Leiter

Many people think of LinkedIn as a resume of sorts. While that’s certainly true, it is also so much more. 

Get out of the mindset of “traditional resume” and get ready to learn the LinkedIn profile tips you need to know to help further market yourself and your business.

First, let’s take a look at why you need a LinkedIn profile as a small business owner. You’re not looking for a job, so how can you use LinkedIn?

Unlike other social sites, LinkedIn is not generally a place to push out “fun” messages about your product.  Rather, LinkedIn is predominantly a networking site to connect with individuals in your industry as well as find, share and engage with more in depth content.

As 260 million users are actively using LinkedIn, there’s a good chance that someone will go to your page at some point to learn a little bit more about you and your company.  Especially if they are in your particular industry or looking to learn a little bit more about who runs your company.

This is a perfect opportunity to further showcase your company and your brand by making sure your profile is inline with that brand.

Follow these tips: 

3) Your summary.  In order to add a bit more of a personal touch to your LInkedIn profile I suggest completing a summary of yourself.  This is a great place to talk candidly about why you started your business and what it means to you. Furthermore, if you are looking to gain specific connections on LinkedIn for a certain purpose, here’s a good place to point that out.  Try to keep it short and entertaining.

5) Your tagline. This is a great place to emphasize your brand. I highly recommend avoiding the generic. Try to stand out. Instead of just putting “business owner,” get fun with it.  Or at the very least describe what kind of business owner you are. I.e. “SF Sustainable Furniture Company Owner.” (Side note: have fun but try not to come off as arrogant.)

8) Groups.

Read more on these tips, all 8 tips, and the complete article