If you’ve read about my “6Ps” system on this blog or in my newsletter, you know that there are three steps required to perform successfully on the Big 3 social networking sites: (1) connect; (2) assimilate; and (3) participate. The second step in your performance — assimilate — requires gathering information from your networks that will help your job search. If your networks are large (and, they should be), assimilating information can be time-consuming.
Accordingly, one chapter of my book (Chapter 8 – Practice) focuses on how job-seeking lawyers and law students can use the Big 3 sites efficiently. One practice I suggest for efficient use is activity blocking – assimilating information from your networks based on the activity.
I praise LinkedIn in my book because the LinkedIn news feed groups updates by activity … or, it did! Until yesterday, all status updates appeared together at the beginning of your news feed. Then, connection updates (i.e., individuals in your network with new connections) appeared. Application updates appeared together. Company updates appeared together. You get the picture.
The grouping of activities made using the site an efficient use of my time. If I only wanted to review status updates, I could quickly go to the site, review status updates, and get back to daily tasks. Now, all updates are mixed together — cluttered. Here’s what my news feed looked like this morning.
The first status update is the fifth update. I have to shuffle through connection updates and a company update before I find the first status update. Shuffling through the clutter takes more time and makes using the site less efficient.
You can still view updates by activity, but it requires an extra step. Here’s how:
- Scroll through your cluttered updates under Network Activity.
- At the end of your updates (but before you reach Group Updates), click on See more Network Updates.
- Notice the menu of choices – you can view updates by category (activity) or connection.
- Click on Category View to see your updates by category or activity–the way they previously appeared in your news feed.
Why did LinkedIn change the organized, efficient format of its news feed? Is it trying to mirror Facebook and Twitter? Why? LinkedIn changed a feature that didn’t need to be changed. The organization of the news feed was perfect until yesterday and, in my opinion, the best organized news feed of the Big 3. So, why change a good thing?
Tags: job search, Lawyers, LinkedIn, network activity, news feed