We were really sad to see the departure of that handy LinkedIn summary of people’s recent updates and activity, which used to appear on their profile page. It was a great way to keep informed about what was new in a connection’s world and catch up on their latest news.

LinkedIn has said it’s trying to improve the user experience by removing this feature. The forums would suggest, however, that many people found the ‘recent activity’ section gave valuable insight to help them cultivate relationships with their network.

With this section removed, a person’s LinkedIn profile now just becomes a glorified CV. But perhaps that’s where LinkedIn wants to go – focusing more on its benefits in recruitment, rather than in helping people develop their professional contacts in a business-focused social network?

So can still LinkedIn still help you nurture and develop your network of connections?

Well yes, it can, but it now involves a bit more time, effort and luck in spotting your connections’ updates. Here are several ways to try and remain current about individuals in your network:

1. You can use the ‘All updates’ drop-down menu on your home feed to only show the ‘shares’ (these are the updates from your network). This will help you to screen out say Pulse-generated news stories, but unfortunately, it won’t screen out sponsored updates/ads appearing in your home feed.
2. The daily or weekly email digest you can opt to receive about your network’s news now becomes more of a must-read, as it’ll give you a handy summary of what your network’s been up to.
3. You might want to switch off the updates from those connections who hog your home feed so you don’t miss the latest news from others.

LinkedIn would seem to be trying to drive us all to view our home feeds more frequently. This is where our connections’ updates will appear, but it’s also where LinkedIn will display sponsored updates and news stories.

Will more updates be missed?

We’re not quite sure how busy professionals will be able to keep such a regular eye on their home feed. Worryingly this could mean people’s updates may not get seen as much as they used to.

So while LinkedIn is still a useful tool to:

• keep in contact with the individuals in your network (especially when they move jobs)
• view their skills, capabilities and the groups and interests
• send messages to them and
• see who in your network is in touch with whom

…we do so wish it would reflect on the word the ‘social’ in ‘social network’ and reinstate the recent activity section in a person’s profile.  Surely to foster dialogue and social interaction you should have the opportunity to quickly update yourself on what is current in one of your connection’s professional lives?