#7: Verify Your LinkedIn Privacy Settings
Although having control over your privacy on LinkedIn is a good thing, be careful that you don’t hide relevant information from the people you want to attract. This is a crucial step to gaining visibility on LinkedIn. You could have a great profile and post interesting, insightful updates, but if no one sees them, you won’t accomplish much.
To verify your settings, click the Settings link above the global navigation bar. On the Account & Settings page, verify all your settings, particularly the following:
- Public Profile. Select Full View to make your LinkedIn profile visible on the web. This way, when people search on Google or another search engine, they can find your LinkedIn profile. If you don’t want every field visible on the web, you can select only the fields you do want to share. For example, you might want to display Basics, Headline, Summary, and Specialties, but nothing else. Click the View My Public Profile as Others See It link to preview what’s visible on the web.
- Member Feed Setting. You can specify who can view your profile’s member feed section (see Figure 5), which lists a summary of all your LinkedIn activity, such as posting an update, making a recommendation, or participating in LinkedIn Groups or Answers. For maximum visibility, you can make your feed visible to everyone. Or, for more privacy, choose to share this information only with your connections or network.
- Contact Settings. If you want to hear from other LinkedIn members, indicate that you’ll accept both introductions and InMail. Blocking InMail could prevent others from contacting you. You can also enter your email address in the text box at the bottom of this page if you want to provide an alternate method of contact. Remember, though, that this information is public so be sure to use an email address that you don’t mind sharing with others.
- Profile and Status Updates. For maximum visibility, you should notify your connections when your post updates and display these updates on your company’s profile.
Figure 5 Choose who can view your LinkedIn activity on your profile.
Taking the time to review these seven areas that affect your profile’s visibility can have a great impact on the results you achieve on LinkedIn.