A commentary on Linkedin Status updates

Anymore, I tend to wonder if there is any real value in reading Linkedin status updates, or commenting on them. While Linkedin probably thought it was a good move to let people connect their Twitter accounts to Linkedin, the result has been anything but a good move. The majority of status updates I see on Linkedin are from people linking it to Twitter and typically the majority of shared information has little, if anything to do with their professional lives, careers, or interests. Instead I’m finding out where people are checking in, what music their listening to, or what the latest score is for a football game.

Even when a status update does have professional information, it’s usually a retweet from someone with a link to an article. It is rarely about the person and what s/he is actually doing. So the question arises: Is it even worth it check status updates from Linkedin?

I’ve actually created a distinct column in Tweetdeck for status updates from Linkedin. While the majority of status updates tend to be what I described above, I will sometimes find posts from people that are focused on their business and career and I’ll make comments. I also get occasional comments from people. This tells me that some people are checking Linkedin status updates.

You can also hide updates from people, and it operates similar to Facebook. Click the x by the status update and choose the option to hide posts from that person. This can help you declutter your Linkedin status updates, so that you can find the updates from people that you want to read. And as it is unlikely that Linkedin will disconnect from Twitter, this is the solution to utilize if you want to get relevant status updates from people in your Linkedin Network.