I’ve Filtered My LinkedIn News Feed. Who Made the Cut?

In my eBook… “Focused Social Selling – Less Really is More”, I made the assertion that fewer better connections will ultimately lead to higher sales. I believe this. As a part of this program, I have been spending some time on filtering my news feed on LinkedIn.

Why? Well, of the over 1,000 first degree connections that I have on LinkedIn, and I am a fairly discriminating connector, I only actually know a fraction of these people. I bear a certain responsibility for this sorry state of affairs. However, there is another much more important reason for my recent activity.

My target market is Boise, ID. Sure, I might work outside of this area but, it’s rare. Therefore, it makes sense that I be connected to, and build relationships, with folks in my area and not in … outside of my area. Of course, geography is not the only qualifier. If you talk crap, I don’t care where you live.

The challenge for me is that I cannot efficiently monitor my news feed when a huge chunk of it is coming from people who … don’t make the cut. LinkedIn doesn’t exactly make filtering easy to do but, it is a little less convoluted than it was before.

Still, there is zero reason for them to not allow you to create lists. Hell, you can do that in Twitter, Facebook, and other networking sites.

However, there are also folks who I have previously built relationships with who do not meet my geographic requirement. They are my mentors, influencers, and smart folks who make me think so … they have also made the cut.

Now, when I see a post from someone who is not among the chosen few, I can choose to stop seeing their posts while still staying connected. I call it the fail-safe feature. I may want to bring them back in at a later date.

Unfortunately, the most effective way to do this is to take 10 to 15 minutes two or three times each day to scroll through your feed and look at profiles that you don’t recognize to see whether or not you want to keep them.

I could choose to look at profiles incognito but, I have never had a problem with folks knowing that I am checking them out. Keeps them guessing. They are probably thinking that my next step will be to hit them up with some lame sales offer DM but, they will be disappointed since I don’t do that. I have an odd sense of humor.

Now, my news feed is looking much much better and there are added benefits …

I have a clearer view about what folks are talking about.
I get to see who they are talking to and many of these folks meet my target requirements.
I find myself more willing to engage with these select few. For the record, I’m barely social and this is sometimes a struggle for me.
I can now focus on building relationships with fewer people which will yield more effective results.

My next step will be to use advanced search to expand my target market (geography, title, etc.) and these folks will then be integrated into my news feed. I will continue to fine tune and some who are in now … may find themselves on the outs. The reverse may also hold true.

Nothing of this is personal! For me, it’s purely practical. For you, I would suggest that you might also want to get practical. I’m not a fuzzy person. LinkedIn, for me, is a business platform and, right now, it is my only platform. I expect a return.

I also learned something quite interesting. Very very few of my connections are actually active on LinkedIn. My news feed has been dominated, continues to be dominated, by a relatively few people. This should not really come as a surprise to anybody.

I have hidden approximately 250 people. I now probably see less than 100 people in my news feed (I’m being generous). Quick math (1,000 – 350) would indicate that 65% of my connections are not active on LinkedIn.

Shocking! How do you expect to leverage LinkedIn to gain new business if you make zero contributions to this ecosystem (community)? I thought that this only happened in LinkedIn groups but, apparently, it’s rampant. My Golden Rule for LinkedIn … Activity = Visibility.

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Craig M. Jamieson

Managing Member at Adaptive Business Services

Craig M. Jamieson is a lifelong B2B salesperson, manager, owner, and a networking enthusiast. Adaptive Business Services provides solutions related to the sales professional. We are a Nimble CRM Solution Partner. Craig also conducts training and workshops primarily in social selling and communication skills. Craig is also the author of "The Small Business' Guide to Social CRM", now available on Amazon!