I consider LinkedIn one of those necessary evils. As a professional and especially an online marketer, you have to have a LinkedIn account. And sometimes you actually DO get legitimate emails there. However, unfortunately you have to typically wade through all of the spam that’s sent via the LinkedIn messaging system. It turns out, though, LinkedIn themselves will send you spam in your inbox there. Here’s how to opt out of that.
Keep in mind that I never EVER signed up or opted IN to receive LinkedIn’s promotional messages, or spam. Granted I’m not a pro user there, I just don’t spend enough time using it as a sales tool. I never knew that LinkedIn can just send you their own promotional spam in your Inbox without you opting into it.
So, today, I get this in my inbox on LinkedIn:
It looks and reads like this:
“LinkedIn Marketing Solutions
Thanks for being a marketer on LinkedIn
Bill,
As a special thank you, we’re giving you $50 in LinkedIn advertising credits to create a new campaign. Click the button below before February 15, 2016 and we’ll send $50 in ad credits directly to your email inbox. The credits are subject to limited availability so make sure to request yours before they run out.
With LinkedIn advertising you can drive high-quality leads for your business.
How it works:
Define your audience based on job title, function, industry, and more
Acquire customers directly from the LinkedIn homepage and mobile feed
Set your own budget and only pay for clicks, with no contracts or commitments
Request credits
This is a promotional message from a marketing or hiring partner and was sent to you based on your browsing activity or non-personal information such as job title, primary industry, or region. You will only receive a maximum of one promotional message every 60 days. You can Unsubscribe here. Per LinkedIn’s privacy policy, your name and e-mail address have not been disclosed.
If you opt-in to share your information with the advertiser, this information will be subject to the advertiser’s privacy policy. You can opt-out generally from targeted ads from most third party companies here.
© 2016 LinkedIn Corporation, 2029 Stierlin Court, Mountain View, CA, USA.”
Well, certainly I’m a marketer, and they have that part right. But I just don’t want to spend money right now on LinkedIn ads or their advertising, even though they’re giving me free ad dollars to spend. What I find interesting, though, is this part at the end, in small copy:
“You can Unsubscribe here.”.
Yep, well, if I can UNSUBSCRIBE, then does that mean that I opted in to receive their promotional messages (i.e., spam)?
So, to opt out of receiving LinkedIn spam, you have to unsubscribe. I did that, hopefully they’ll actually comply with it this time.