‘Active Status’ in LinkedIn Messaging – An interesting new feature (and On by default)

With no grand announcement LinkedIn just unrolled a new feature called ‘Active Status’. It’s a hollowed out green circle that shows when you are online and available to chat through LinkedIn Messaging. If there is no green circle, the connection is either not active or has disabled the ‘Active Status; feature. This might sound simple but has the power to significantly change the way you use the professional networking platform. It can also put you in trouble for not being able to keep your job search private.

With ‘Active Status’ feature for desktop and mobile app, your LinkedIn contacts can see if you are online and available to message. The feature is quite similar to the one on Skype. Messaging features are widely used on most online platforms. But messaging on LinkedIn was not that frequent in the past. But the new feature might improve the amount of messaging on LinkedIn, helping many users, particularly the large number of candidates and recruiters out there. Eventually it might also make LinkedIn more engaging.

If you want to keep tab on active users like recruiters and HR Heads, you might appreciate this feature, but if you are not keen, you can turn it off anytime. ‘Active Status’ is on by default, but you can turn it off anytime. Most of us are quick to turn off chat on Facebook. What about LinkedIn messaging?

LinkedIn messaging might enhance communication but ‘Active Status’ might also alert the innumerable number of overzealous message senders out there. Hence, it’s better to shut off the feature if you don’t want your contacts to know that you are online.

Here is how you can turn off the feature:

Source - ZNet

The LinkedIn Help page has adequate details on how to turn Active Status in LinkedIn Messaging off or on.

LinkedIn is not Facebook

Pause for a second before hitting that Post or Share button on LinkedIn, because, what you are about share might do more harm than good to your authority on the go-to-site for building professional relationships. Professionals like you and me turn to LinkedIn to build professional network, look for potential opportunities, and enhance professional growth. It’s a one stop destination for all this educational and professional. But lately, the quality of posts, comments, and articles have plummeted significantly.

LinkedIn is becoming a casual landscape where people are free to post anything, no matter professional or not. Simply put, LinkedIn is slowly morphing into a social media platform for people to hang out, chat, and share irrelevant content of all sorts. There is a major disconnect in the objective of the platform and the expectations and ideas of some users out there.

With so much content out there, it’s always tempting to share most of them. But remember that the rules are different on a professional networking platform and breaking them will definitely infuriate your audience. Some of the faux pas aren’t really bad, but some others can leave permanent damages on your online reputation and professional aspirations.

On most of the days, our LinkedIn feeds are loaded with a whole lot of posts that should land on a Facebook, Twitter, or Google Plus page. From personal posts, random quotes, irrelevant images and memes, birthday and anniversary wishes, to requests to contribute for charity programs, the line between 'social networking' and 'professional networking' is blurring. Some LinkedIn users bitterly fail to pull in the reins on the amount of content they share, and often run the risk of looking like spammers. Some others even overlook the danger of sharing sensitive information to hundreds of strangers and many more from extended network. A sizable number of users post numerous profanities and leave us baffled. A lot of articles and group posts are self-congratulatory and mindless link building exercises that add no value.

With millions of users from all over the world, it’s not easy to stand out on a platform like LinkedIn. If you intend to network professionally, refrain from sharing inspirational quotes, cartoons, memes, selfies, or controversial posts. Instead, upload them onto Facebook, Twitter or Instagram and you’ll get thousands of ‘likes’. If you can sell through knowledge and add value, there is nothing wrong in promoting and marketing a product or a service on LinkedIn,. But incessant number of meaningless, manipulative, and sales-y posts as status updates will hurt trust and ruin reputation of a person/company/brand.

Every online platform has its own identity and purpose. The next time you plan to share something on LinkedIn, take a step back and think twice whether you have something really insightful for your LinkedIn connections. Remember why you joined the platform in the first place – it wasn’t to share random low-quality content and get your reputation tarnished.