Managing Your Inbox
Your inbox is the focal point for all your direct communication on LinkedIn. Click the Inbox link on the global navigation bar to open the Inbox page, shown in Figure 6.2.
Figure 6.2. Your inbox is the focal point for your personal communications on LinkedIn.
The default view of your inbox is the Messages tab, which displays all the messages you’ve received. If you have a lot of inbox messages and want to filter what you see, click the All Messages link and choose one of the available options from the drop-down menu. For example, you can choose to display only unread messages, flagged messages, InMails, recommendations, introductions, profiles, jobs, or blocked messages. By default, LinkedIn displays your messages in order from newest to oldest. To reverse this order, click the Newest link and select Oldest from the drop-down menu.
From the Messages tab, you can
- View a pop-up box with information about the sender by pausing your mouse over the sender’s name. In this box, you can click the View Profile link or sender’s name to view a complete profile or click the Download vCard link to download this person’s electronic business card.
- View a message by clicking its subject line.
- Reply to a message by clicking the Reply link below the message’s subject line. See “Reading and Replying to Messages” later in this lesson for more information.
- Forward a message to another LinkedIn member by clicking the Forward link below the message’s subject line.
- Archive a message by clicking the Archive link below the message’s subject line. This moves your message to the Archived folder, which you can access at any time by clicking the Archived link on the left side of your Inbox. It’s a good idea to archive old or resolved messages to keep your Inbox focused on your current action items.
- Delete a message by clicking the Delete link below the message’s subject line. This removes the message from your Inbox and places it in your Trash folder. You can access the Trash folder by clicking the Trash link on the left side of your inbox. In this folder, you can choose to empty your trash, undelete a message you deleted by mistake, or delete messages permanently.
- Mark a message as read or unread. By default, new messages appear in bold text to signify they have not yet been read. After you read a message, the message no longer is boldfaced in your inbox. To change this, select the check box to the left of a message and click the Mark Unread button.
- Flag a message as an action item for follow-up. Click the Flag icon, which serves as a toggle, to flag or unflag a message for action.
- Report a message as spam. Click the Report Spam icon (a triangle with an exclamation mark) to notify LinkedIn of a spam message.
The inbox also includes another tab: Invitations. This tab displays all open invitations you need to respond to. Refer to Lesson 3 for more information about responding to invitations to connect.