How can I stop LinkedIn from showing my likes and comments on my followers feed?

Having your activity on LinkedIn show up in your connections’ feeds can be concerning for some users who want more privacy over what they do on the platform. While LinkedIn does not provide an option to completely stop this from happening, there are some steps you can take to reduce the visibility of your likes and comments to your network.

Understanding LinkedIn’s feed algorithm

First, it’s helpful to understand how LinkedIn’s feed algorithm works. The main factors that determine what shows up in your connections’ feeds include:

• How closely connected you are to that person
• How recently you interacted with their content
• The level of engagement on the content you interacted with

So if you like or comment on a very popular post that is getting a lot of engagement, it’s more likely to show up in the feeds of your 1st degree connections. Interacting with content from someone you just connected with also increases visibility.

Adjust your LinkedIn privacy settings

LinkedIn does provide some privacy controls that can limit the visibility of your activity:

1. Go to your Settings and locate the Privacy tab
2. Under How others see your LinkedIn activity, adjust the slider for Sharing profile edits to Only you
3. For Sharing your comments, likes and follows, adjust to Only connections or tighter
4. Under Manage partner advertising, disable Let partners show you ads on and off LinkedIn

These settings will reduce the visibility of your activity to only your direct connections rather than all 2nd and 3rd degree connections. However, it will not completely hide your activity from your connections.

Be selective with your engagement

Since LinkedIn’s algorithm favors recently engaged content, being selective with likes and comments can reduce your visibility. Consider the following tips:

• Engage thoughtfully only on posts from closer connections
• Avoid frequently liking or commenting on viral posts
• Spread out your engagement over time rather than mass liking/commenting
• Occasionally remove past likes and comments to clear your activity stream

The less you engage overall, the less your engagement will stand out in other feeds. Prioritize quality over quantity when interacting.

Limit profile updates

Frequently updating your profile and experience is another type of activity that can appear in your connections’ feeds. Reduce the frequency of major profile changes to limit this visibility. You can also change your sharing profile edits privacy setting to Only you.

Disconnect from less important connections

Since LinkedIn’s algorithm favors activity with closer connections, pruning your network can help. Disconnecting from 2nd and 3rd degree connections as well as people you don’t interact with often will reduce the reach of your engagement. Focus on strengthening relationships with your top connections.

Use LinkedIn anonymously

If you want to interact on LinkedIn without any chance of appearing in other feeds, use LinkedIn’s anonymous browsing feature:

1. Click on your profile image and go to View profile
2. Toggle on Anonymous mode using the icon
3. This will remove your name and photo from your view
4. You can now like and comment freely without appearing in any feeds

The downside is you lose access to some LinkedIn features like messaging and notifications. But it ensures complete privacy over your activity.

Use a private/anonymous account

Another technique is to create a separate private LinkedIn account using an alternate email address. Keep your identity anonymous on this account so you can like and comment while remaining invisible to your main professional network.

Avoid LinkedIn’s notification emails

Even if your activity doesn’t appear in their main feed, your connections may still get notified via LinkedIn’s email digests that summarize activity. To prevent being featured in these emails:

1. Go to Settings > Communications
2. Under Stay up to date, disable the various email notifications

This will stop emails about your activity being sent to connections. But they may still see your engagement in their main feeds if your privacy settings allow it.

Use LinkedIn less

If you are concerned about your LinkedIn activity appearing anywhere, the simplest solution is to engage less with the platform overall. Limit your time spent liking, commenting and posting. Consider other professional platforms like Twitter where you can more selectively control your audience and visibility.

Keep your LinkedIn profile up to date but inactive for the most privacy over your engagement. Essentially, post and forget instead of frequently interacting.

Considerations when limiting LinkedIn activity visibility

While limiting the visibility of your LinkedIn activity can boost your privacy, there are some tradeoffs to keep in mind:

• You may miss out on opportunities by not actively engaging on content and posts
• Your connections get less value from passively following you
• It becomes harder to grow your professional network organically
• You don’t get the full benefit of LinkedIn for professional branding

You have to balance the need for privacy with the advantages of actively participating on LinkedIn. Try to find a middle ground based on your specific needs and priorities.

Conclusion

While LinkedIn doesn’t provide a way to completely stop your activity from appearing in other feeds, you can take steps to significantly reduce the visibility and reach of your engagement on the platform if desired.

Adjusting your privacy settings, being selective with interactions, limiting profile changes, pruning connections, and using LinkedIn’s anonymous browsing are some of the main techniques to limit exposure. But ultimately you may need to reduce your overall LinkedIn usage to gain full control over your privacy.

It requires finding the right balance for your specific situation. But with the right approach, you can interact on LinkedIn without overly exposing your activity to your broader network.