I messed with LinkedIn and found out

Back when I started using LinkedIn, a very long time ago, I was mostly connecting with the people I knew. That’s what you would usually do on any social network, I suppose. But at some point, LinkedIn introduced something that changed everything: connect and follow.

Too many connections

If you’re anything like me, chances are you have hundreds of connections in LinkedIn. That’s certainly not a reliable metric to use, but the truth is that as this number increases, so does the chance of stumbling upon content you don’t care in your feed.

When people you never contacted with asks to connect with you on LinkedIn what do you do? I’m not the most responsive person on LinkedIn, truth be told. I try not to ignore these requests, especially when they already have any connection with a connection of mine.

But even when that’s the case, as you might know, it doesn’t guarantee that particular connection will bring any valuable input to your feed.

If I ever worked with this person: connect and follow. Else: connect.

This is the golden rule I’ll follow from now on. Making a clear distinction of people I have some kind of trust in and people I never even heard of.

Connection vs Follow

When you connect with someone in LinkedIn you now have the option to follow that person or just connect. Connecting by itself won’t show any activity of this person in your personal feed—as far as I’m aware. But if you also decide to follow them, you will start to see posts where this person has commented, reacted, reposted, etc.

The truth is that it might not always make sense to connect and follow everyone. That might be exactly the reason why LinkedIn offers these two features now. For instance, I do like to connect with colleagues from previous companies I’ve worked with but I might not be interested in the content they interact with. Sometimes, purely because of the fact that we work in drastically different fields. I doubt I will have any relevant input on posts regarding financial concepts or team management.

Social networks

LinkedIn is just another social network.
As someone who has always lacked the will to be present in any kind of social gathering, be it behind a screen or in person, it can become challenging to manage.

It makes it extremely easier for me to look at my LinkedIn feed and see familiar faces commenting, posting and reacting to content, than seeing a bunch of unfamiliar faces interacting with content I don’t even care about.

Lately, before I had done this change, I would go on LinkedIn, scroll for a few seconds, see absolutely no content that would be relevant to me, see no familiar faces and eventually quit. It’s like going into a room, look around, see no familiar faces and hearing conversations you have no relevant input for.

It’s like you’re not welcome there.

International content

Now that I fixed most of my feed issues, I have a new gripe: international content.

I mean, as you work in international companies you eventually make connections with people from all around the world. That’s a positive thing in my books. But there’s no denying that their native languages aren’t always of any interest to you.

For instance, I personally have quality connections from countries such as Spain, France, Netherlands, Germany, United Kingdom, Czechia, Turkey, etc. These are people I have worked with, trust and personally admire their work in some way.

But I can only speak Portuguese, as my native language, and English. Any other language will be gibberish to me.

And yes, LinkedIn does offer a way to translate international content. But it’s not just a curiosity thing for me. I’m not just interested in translating it for the sake of reading it. Because it would make no sense to comment in English or even Portuguese in a post written in Dutch—although that might work.

I would prefer LinkedIn had an option to automatically filter out content that’s not in either of the languages I speak. But I doubt that will ever happen, especially now they’re pushing more AI features.

Reconnecting with old colleagues

As I unfollowed hundreds of people, I inadvertently created the space to bring more content into my feed. The best way to do it, I found, was to reconnect with old colleagues. Again, these fall into my rule: people I have worked with have a higher chance of bringing relevant and quality content into my feed.

And of course I’m always free to unfollow anyone if I notice they consistently interact with content I don’t personally care. No hard feelings, I hope.

The truth is that when you part ways with a company, inevitably you part ways with the people you worked with as well. LinkedIn makes it possible to keep in contact with these people, keeping up to date with their challenges and potentially share your new endeavors with them.

Bottom line

If you also feel disconnected from your LinkedIn feed, check who is bringing content into it. Chances are it’s mostly people you don’t even know. Or perhaps you know them, but they work in drastically different fields. These short steps made me go back to my LinkedIn feed:

• Follow only those whose content interests you;
• Connect and follow colleagues; just connect with others;
• Unfollow irrelevant connections;
• Engage with old colleagues for meaningful updates;

And if you are still seeing “suggested” posts in your feed, try switching to the “Most recent first” feed view. Go into Settings > General preferences > Preferred Feed View.

Ever since switching to this view I’ve stopped getting those “suggested” posts in my feed.
Hope you get the same luck.