How to Hide a Contact’s Activity on Your LinkedIn Newsfeed

Posted on March 9, 2013 by The Résumé Studio

Did you know you can hide a contact’s activity on your LinkedIn newsfeed?

I didn’t either, until I met with some LinkedIn folks last year.

Sure, you want to stay connected with your contacts. But some connections like to post a lot of updates. (Meanwhile, what is “a lot?” I post to LinkedIn several times a week, so I could be deemed “a lot.” It’s all subjective, isn’t it? So this post should really help.)

Related post: How to Hide Your LinkedIn Contacts from the General Public

The problem is, you still want to stay connected.

You don’t want to un-friend them overtly, right?

The solution? THE HIDE BUTTON!

Here’s how:

Click the “Home” button on your LinkedIn profile.

This is your newsfeed; information pumped to you from your connections, companies you follow, etc.

Hover over a status update and you’ll see the word “hide” appear in the right corner of the contact’s update frame.

Click “hide” (if you dare), and watch their updates disappear from your newsfeed.

The beauty? You’ve not deleted the offending obsessive status updater from your list of contacts. Instead, you’ve cleaned up your newsfeed from too many posts from the same person.

The downside is that you won’t see ANY of that contact’s updates unless you visit his or her profile page directly. A shame, because many prolific posters can offer lots of insightful newsfeed items. Plus, I’m not sure how to un-hide contacts (there must be a way), so be certain that hiding them is what you want to do.

If you know about “un-hiding” contacts, or have other related tips, share them here!

Until next time!

Jared Redick

Visit: The Resume Studio.com
Follow: @TheResumeStudio
Like Us: http://www.facebook.com/TheResumeStudio
Connect: LinkedIn.com/in/jaredredick
Call: 415-397-6640

Filed under: LinkedIn Ideas, Online Privacy, Social Media | Tagged: | 1 Comment »

LinkedIn Checklist: 10 Tweaks for Control Freaks (Part 2)

Posted on March 1, 2013 by The Résumé Studio

the traffic lights on white backgroundA week ago, I posted Part 1 of my ten tips for better controlling your LinkedIn profile.

Here’s Part 2:

Control Tweak #6:  Customize your public profile (Settings > Profile > Edit your public profile)

LinkedIn lets you “control how you appear when people search for you on Google, Yahoo!, Bing, etc.”

Thank you, LinkedIn.

One of the complexities of having a public profile on LinkedIn is that part of our credit worthiness comes from our career history. It stands to reason that some random individual with illegal intentions could use your LinkedIn profile — and other smatterings of data about you across the Internet — to create a profile in your name, and yes, even apply for and decimate your credit worthiness.

For this reason, I don’t allow LinkedIn to show my past positions publicly, and indeed, you may have other edits once you see the deep levels of customization LinkedIn offers.

Remember that information you’ve listed on your profile will still be fully visible to your connections, which gives good reason to know the people to whom  you are connected. Although even LinkedIn seems to be encouraging that we cast a much broader net these days.

While you’re on the page in question, scroll down and be sure you’ve customized your public profile.

Related post: How to Customize Your LinkedIn URL

Control Tweak #7: Edit your name, location and industry (Settings > Profile > Helpful Links)

I’d ignored this for several years, when in 2009 I took a training by Jason Alba ( author of “I’m on LinkedIn, Now What?”) and he recommended that I change my profile headline from “Principal” to “Executive Resume Writer.”

The effectiveness of my profile changed within moments as Google inexplicably re-indexed my appearance in search, not to mention the value of searches inside the LinkedIn ecosystem.

After all, who types in “Principal” when searching for an executive resume writer?

:facepalm:

The same can be true for one’s industry. My profile’s performance increased dramatically when I changed from “writing and editing” to “professional training and coaching,” which more appropriately defines my work.

As an executive résumé writer, I want people to be able to reach me. I use my LinkedIn profile often, and I’m accessible. If I returned to retained executive search, however, I’d write my summary in third person, formal tone of voice, and lock down my accessibility. I might even stop posting status updates.

Decide the best approach for you, and set up your own profile to match your position and purpose on LinkedIn. Continue reading →

Filed under: LinkedIn Ideas, Online Privacy, Social Media | Tagged: , , | 1 Comment »

LinkedIn Checklist: 10 Tweaks for Control Freaks (Part 1)

Posted on February 23, 2013 by The Résumé Studio

Writing Control Your LinkedIn Presencean executive résumé is baffling for many of the folks I speak to every day.

Too often the résumé becomes a bloated version of one written straight out of college, and by mid-career there’s so much information that it’s tough to be objective about what stays and what goes.

Then comes LinkedIn, posing as a résumé, but not really being a résumé because of its public nature, norms, and new boundary-pushing ways.

To be absent from LinkedIn is to marginalize opportunity. To be on LinkedIn without understanding it, however, is to potentially invite career gaffes and public blunders in a new age.

The result of all this confusion is a shell of a LinkedIn profile that looks like its owner doesn’t care.

Happily, LinkedIn offers a variety of settings and controls so we can sleep at night, and perhaps instill more confidence to meaningfully build out those profiles so LinkedIn can actually start working for us.

Here are five I’ve prepared for you to tackle this weekend. I’ll post the next five in seven short days.  Continue reading →

Filed under: LinkedIn Ideas, Online Privacy, Social Media | Tagged: , | 1 Comment »

What the BLEEP are LinkedIn Endorsements?

Posted on January 26, 2013 by The Résumé Studio

What are LinkedIn EndorsementsAnd more importantly, does LinkedIn risk losing credibility in the long term by unwittingly opening its users up to legal problems in their careers?

A close friend recently asked, “What are LinkedIn endorsements, and do you condone them?”

As management within a public retail giant, he is not authorized to give references or recommendations about employees in his everyday life.

Indeed, reference checks are funneled along to HR, which offers scant details limited to “yes that was their title” and “yes, those were the dates.”

So his wise instinct is not participate in LinkedIn endorsements.

“What are LinkedIn endorsements, and do you condone them?”  Continue reading →

Filed under: LinkedIn Ideas, Online Privacy, Social Media | Tagged: , , , | Leave a comment »

Missed the Memo? Don’t Put Negative Stuff in Writing

Posted on July 28, 2012 by The Résumé Studio

Recently, a friend — let’s call her Sue — wrote a pretty funny Facebook rant. Don't Share Negative News

Witty marketing is her gig, after all, and she’s smart-as-a-whip, so we all enjoy reading her creative take on life.

Unfortunately, the post involved blasting a sponsor, and she then proceeded to copy and paste the would-be sponsor’s rejection letter on her Facebook wall.

Yes, on her wall.

I inboxed her right away and suggested that she remove it ASAP.

While perhaps humorous behind closed doors — yes, there’s probably a time and a place to blow off steam — social media has become a bull pen of possible career-blunting blunders. For some, “trying not to step in it” has become a full-time affair.

If you’re prone to what my mother used to call, “popping off at the mouth,” consider the possible implications of my friend’s post: Continue reading →

Filed under: Hopefully Humorous, Job Search Tips, LinkedIn Ideas, Online Privacy, Social Media | Leave a comment »

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