LinkedIn is a popular social media platform used by professionals and businesses to connect, share content, and find job opportunities. With over 800 million members worldwide, LinkedIn has become an influential site for expanding one’s professional network and online presence.
A common question that comes up is whether your LinkedIn connections can see the posts, articles, companies, and other content that you like or engage with on the platform. The short answer is: it depends.
What Your Connections Can See When You Like or Follow A Company
When you like or follow a company on LinkedIn, your 1st-degree connections will be able to see this activity when they visit your profile. It will show up under the “Likes and Follows” section, with the company name and logo clearly displayed.
Liking or following a company serves as an endorsement and enables you to get updates from that company in your LinkedIn feed. Publicly exposing this activity to your connections allows them to learn more about your professional interests and preferences.
However, only your 1st-degree connections will be able to see the companies you like or follow. Your 2nd and 3rd-degree connections, as well as anyone else outside of your direct network, will not have access to this information.
Example of Company Likes Visible to Connections
For example, if you like and follow companies such as Google, Amazon, and Microsoft, your connections will see those company names and logos on your profile under “Likes and Follows.”
What Your Connections See When You Like or Comment on Posts
When you like or comment on someone’s post in LinkedIn’s feed, this activity is visible to your 1st, 2nd, and 3rd-degree connections. It displays in their feeds and notifications.
The notification will typically contain your name, profile photo, and the text “liked [original poster’s name]’s post.” If you leave a comment, the comment’s text will be included too.
This allows your broader network to see your interactions and engagements on the platform, helping build your professional brand and personality.
Example of Post Engagement Visible to Wider Network
If you like or comment on a post by one of your connections, your 2nd and 3rd-degree connections will be notified with text saying “[Your name] liked [connection’s name]’s post.”
What Your Connections See When You Like or Comment on Articles
Similar to posts, when you like or comment on a published article in the LinkedIn feed, it’s visible to your extended network of 1st, 2nd, and 3rd-degree connections.
A notification will appear in their feeds indicating that you liked or commented on an article. This serves to spread engaging content wider across LinkedIn and showcase your interests and expertise to more members.
Example of Article Engagement Visible to Wider Network
If you comment “Great article, thanks for sharing!” on an article posted by someone in your broader network, notifications will appear in all connections’ feeds alerting them to your comment.
What Your Connections Cannot See
While your engagement with companies, posts, and articles is visible to your connections, there are some likes and follows that are kept private on LinkedIn:
- You can follow specific individuals without your connections being notified or seeing it on your profile.
- Liking or commenting on someone’s activity update posted to their own profile is not shown to your connections.
- Your page visits are private and cannot be seen by others.
Essentially, your 1st-degree connections have the most visibility into your activity, while 2nd and 3rd-degree connections have limited visibility related mainly to feed interactions.
How to Control What Your Connections See
If you want to limit the LinkedIn activity your connections see, there are a few options:
- Be selective in liking and commenting on posts and articles.
- Unlike companies and pages you no longer want publicized on your profile.
- Use anonymous mode when viewing profiles to keep your browsing private.
- Go into settings and disable notifications for when you comment and like activity.
Keep in mind though that organic engagement on LinkedIn is a good thing for building your professional brand and fueling the algorithm to show your content to more members. Judicious linking, commenting, and liking tends to have a net positive effect.
Conclusion
In summary, your 1st-degree connections on LinkedIn can see the companies, organizations and influencers you follow as well as your post and article likes and comments. This provides them visibility into your interests and expertise.
Your 2nd and 3rd-degree connections have limited visibility, mainly related to post and article likes and comments appearing in their feeds. But they cannot see which individuals you follow or any private profile browsing.
LinkedIn is aiming to foster engagement on the platform, so likes and comments are designed to be visible to your wider network. But you can always control what you engage with and fine-tune settings if you want to limit visibility.
Bottom line is LinkedIn activity can shape your professional brand and help make connections. But be mindful of over-sharing or engaging indiscriminately without regard for how others may perceive it.
Acting authentically and engaging thoughtfully will maximize the upside of sharing your likes, follows, and comments broadly on LinkedIn.
This covers the basics of what your different connections can and cannot see when you interact with content on LinkedIn. Let me know if you have any other specific questions!