How to Use the Unfollow Button to Get Rid of Clutter on Your LinkedIn Newsfeed
Over 750 million people worldwide are using LinkedIn to grow their businesses and careers.
If you are in business and looking to grow, then you have interacted with LinkedIn at least once in your life.
If you tried and stopped due to the overpowering clutter on your newsfeed, then you are missing out on a chance to become more productive and successful; that’s LinkedIn’s mission.
You see, if your target market includes professionals or even other businesses and you are not reaching them via LinkedIn, then we know why your competitors are thriving while you are barely surviving.
Read on to learn how to break through the noise in your feed to use LinkedIn as a marketing platform and completely transform your business.
But first…
What is LinkedIn?
LinkedIn is an internet platform built to help employers meet potential employees.
A glorified job board, you must be thinking.
Even though employers and employees still meet on LinkedIn to date, the platform has, over time, evolved to become one of the most valuable marketing resources. Like other businesses, you can also meet and engage with your potential customers here.
How?
On LinkedIn, you have two options when it comes to engaging with your customers:
- By connecting with them
- By following them
What is the difference between the two?
The Difference Between Connecting and Following on LinkedIn?
Connecting
Compared to following, connecting is perceived to be more intimate. So, you will connect with people you are familiar with, for example, colleagues. These are people you want to share your milestones with. You want them to see and react to the posts that you put up. You can also exchange short messages on the platform.
These people are referred to as your Connections on LinkedIn, more specifically, first-degree connections. That’s because they accepted your invitations to connect. You then link to their connections as a second-degree connection.
Following
For this group of people, you are more interested in what they post than what is happening in their personal lives. You did not request, and they did not accept any invitations to connect.
While you can see and react to what they post, that does not happen on their end. They don’t get any notifications or appear on their newsfeed when you post, but they do on your end.
Whether you are connected to a person or just following them, if you get to a point where you feel they are no longer adding value to you, you may opt to unfollow them. The process for either of them is the same.
But what are the reasons why you might want to unfollow a person?
Reasons for Unfollowing a Person on LinkedIn
When you decide to follow someone on LinkedIn, you are not just chasing numbers. You are looking for value. Right?
The value here could come as Insightful and informative content and updates, which could turn into business opportunities.
You want your feed to stay relevant and enjoy your interactions on the platform. But some people can make that entirely impossible and make you want to run for the hills. Those people could be the same people you were so excited to follow, or they could be your friends (connections).
Always engage with people who give you content that qualifies for the 3Es of social media — engage, educate, and entertain/enterprise.
If your feed is cluttered with content that does not deliver either of the 3Es, that is when you need to know how to unfollow on LinkedIn.
How then do you unfollow content that does not conform to the 3Es of social media?
How to Unfollow on LinkedIn
Once you realize you have had enough clutter on your feed, start by identifying who you follow.
- Search for the “Following” screen by going to your profile page.
- On the top next to the Home icon, tap on My network on the left side of the screen. A list titled Manage My Network will then appear. Select People, I Follow from the list, and tap on it. A grid list of all the people you follow will display.
- Identify the icon of the person you would like to unfollow. Notice at the bottom of each icon displayed, there is an active tab highlighted in light blue and reading Following preceded by a (tick) sign. “Tap on it to unfollow”. The button will now read Follow with a (+) sign preceding it.
- Tap on the Done button on the top right to save your changes.
What to Expect After Unfollowing Successfully
- If you unfollow a person on LinkedIn, don’t worry about creating bad blood with people on the platform. The other person does not get to know you unfollowed them.
- The person you unfollowed will remain a connection, but only if you had connected earlier.
- When the person posts on their end, you do not get notified. Their posts also don’t show up on your feed; exactly what you were looking for, right?
Wrapping it Up
Considering the value that LinkedIn can potentially have on your business, it would be unwise to give it up entirely because of a cluttered newsfeed.
Undoubtedly, there is a lot of noise on social media. But there is also a way to get around it and get the most out of a platform. LinkedIn is no exception, and this article shows you exactly how.
Now you can go ahead and market your brand on LinkedIn in peace.
