By default, you’ll see that most people on Linkedin have a Connect button like shown above. Now that is a great option, however unfortunately, I’m sure many people have connected with someone on Linkedin innocently and almost immediately you get spammed since they can now message you. Of course, you can remove them but there is a better way to reduce this happening.

What you do to change the default option from Connect to Follow is go into your Privacy settings, then select Blocking and hiding. At the bottom enable Make follow primary.

Now the default action will be Follow as seen above. Is Connect still there?

Yes, but you need go hunting for it, which means that most people trying to spam you probably won’t bother doing that.

Not foolproof I admit, but certainly a handy way to make it just that little bit harder to spam you!

One of things that I’m spending a lot of time here at the MVP Summit in Seattle doing is networking with other MVPs. One of the best tools to connect is via Linkedin. Here’s a really simple way to make that happen that I learned about today (and can share) using the Linkedin mobile app.

Fire up the Linkedin App on your mobile device. Here I’ll use iOS. To the right of the search bar you’ll notice four squares arranged together as shown above. Select this.

This should take you to a screen like shown above. Across the top you now have two options, Scan and My code. Scan allows you to use the camera on your device to scan someone else’s Linkedin QR code. My Code display your QR code that you can share with others.

Once you have scanned in the QR code using this method, that person’s Linkedin details will appear on your mobile device and you can connect. Easy eh?