“Steve, you might be interested in Tom Smith or this article”
Great to get – unless you aren’t actually interested, or you receive it too often…
Then it’s an annoyance.
I posted “Receiving Unwelcome LinkedIn Mail” a bit over a year ago, but Jennifer asks if I’d update this issue from the “annoying email from LinkedIn” point of view – and that sounds like a good idea.
More social…
LinkedIn is getting much more aggressive about staying in touch.
Probably some MBA telling them that we users need to get active on the system more often.
So LinkedIn is adding features and using those features to drop emails to users.
Referral Center and News about News
Jennifer notes that she’s received emails about “Jobs that might interest you” and Network (status) updates.
I’ve got my network updates turned off because I read them through my RSS feed, so I hadn’t noticed. (and apparently the Referral Center is a new feature that I don’t have yet.
I’d say the Referral Center is in beta and will be out soon – I can see the tab inside the LinkedIn Learning Center “Jobs Overview Page”, but I don’t have it on my account yet.
In addition to these, you can expect “Top Articles” to come through on the LinkedIn Today front – that I wrote about just a few weeks ago in “Reading LinkedIn Today Tomorrow“.
Settings
To get to the bottom of this, I went to my “Settings” to see what might be done. (And you can read how to do that in “Hidden Settings for LinkedIn“)
You’ll find “Email Preferences” on this page – select this.
In the menu it brings up you set the types, frequency, and people who can send you messages.
While all of these settings are useful, we’re really interested in the frequency.
Personal yes, rehash, maybe not
When you select the frequency item, you get a popup that will ask you about a dozen items or so.
I’ll stand by my advice in “The LinkedIn Personal Trainer” that you really want to get all of the personal contact messages sent to you individually right away. They’re all at the top.
Lower in the list (and down a scrollbar) you’ll find network updates, activity, discussions, referrals, and news.
All you need to do is select “No email” and you won’t be bothered with these in the future.
Defaulting in…
It’s hard to blame them, but the default is to receive these notices.
And the natural reaction to being overwhelmed with these messages is to say “thanks, but no”.
A better way?
If you’ve got a reaction to this, we’d love to hear from you.
To your continued success,
steve
—
Steven Tylock
http://www.linkedinpersonaltrainer.com
http://www.linkedin.com/in/stevetylock
Despite checking ‘no’ on all email and contact options, I’m STILL receiving emails almost daily about what my contacts are up to. Marking them as spam doesn’t seem to help…. Do you have any ideas how to stop this?
RMB,
I think I have it for you.
Go to the settings area, Email Preferences. Then click on “Set the frequency of emails” – I bet you’ve been there.
But – did you notice that there is a scrollbar on the right hand side of that screen? Use it to scroll down and you’ll find four additional items: Network activity, Network activity discussions, Referral Center, & Top articles news digest.
In particular, “Network Activity” is the one that s causing you to get the emails about what your contacts are up to.
Let me know how that works out.
steve
I am getting SO frustrated at all the LinkedIn requests sent to my work email. I’m not a LI member and DON’T WANT TO BE, and there’s no way to tell LinkedIn that I don’t know and don’t want to know the people who are sending me these requests. It’s bordering on harassment, as when I delete the emails, I just get five more later reminding me that I haven’t replied. HELP!
Valerie,
I’ve answered you in this post:
http://www.linkedinpersonaltrainer.com/2011/05/24/even-more-unwelcome-linkedin-email/
You shouldn’t have to suffer…
steve
Thanks for your help, Steve!
I closed my account with LinkedIn and I still get notices that others want to add me to their networks. I just unsubscribe from the email. Hopefully, that will work.
Bob,
Check out the post I referred Valerie to above – that might give you a good lead if what you’ve described doesn’t work out.
steve