LinkedIn has cut emails sent to users by 40 percent as the business focussed social network looks to improve the relevance of its communications.
For users who receive many invitations to connect — the LinkedIn version of a friend request — the site will now send out weekly email digests instead of individual messages announcing requests.
Aatif Awan, the company’s senior director of product management, wrote in a blog post on Monday: “Many of you have told us that you receive too many emails from LinkedIn,” said Awan. “We get it. And we’ve recently begun to make changes so that the emails you receive are more infrequent and more relevant.”
LinkedIn, which launched in 2003, is the world’s largest professional network with 364 million members.
The site has become a go-to place for networking, sharing credentials and job hunting. LinkedIn also lets users create groups, where people interested in specific topics can have discussions and share content, and has features that helps users find jobs and companies seek employees.
LinkedIn will send emails to members on everything from when a person’s profile is viewed to when people want to connect. LinkedIn may also send suggestions for connecting with others.
While the emails tend to be ways for LinkedIn to get users more engaged with its site, they also prove to be annoying.
Although Awan didn’t say how many complaints LinkedIn had received about its email policy, he noted that cutting the number of emails sent to users by 40 percent has cut complaints in half.
Awan said the steps taken so far are just the beginning. LinkedIn will try to find other ways to reduce inbox overload as time goes on. In addition, Awan noted that all LinkedIn emails have an unsubscribe link and users can go into their profile settings to determine what kind of messages will hit their inbox.
“When it comes to your inbox, the message has been received: Less is more,” Awan wrote in his blog post.