How do I change my LinkedIn from business to personal?

Changing your LinkedIn profile from a business account to a personal account is a simple process that can be done directly within your profile settings. There are a few key steps you need to take in order to convert your LinkedIn profile from a business to personal account successfully.

Why Would You Want To Switch From A Business To A Personal LinkedIn Profile?

There are a few main reasons why you may want to change your LinkedIn profile from a business to a personal account:

• You no longer own or operate that business – If you’ve closed, sold, or stepped away from a business, you’ll want your LinkedIn presence to reflect that change.
• You now want to use LinkedIn for personal branding – If you are transitioning careers or want to build your personal brand, a personal profile allows you to focus on yourself rather than a company.
• You don’t want to mix business and personal contacts – Keeping these contacts and online presences separate can be beneficial for many users.
• You only need one LinkedIn account – LinkedIn only allows users to have one personal account, so switching allows you to free up your business profile if needed.

Making the change from a business to personal profile gives you greater flexibility in how you present yourself professionally online. It also ensures your profile accurately reflects your current status and goals.

How To Change Your LinkedIn From Business To Personal

Here are the key steps involved in changing your LinkedIn profile from business to personal:

1. Go to your Profile settings – On desktop, click on the ‘Me’ icon in the top nav bar and select ‘Settings & Privacy’. On mobile, tap your profile icon and choose ‘Settings’.
2. Select Account preferences – Go to the Account preferences tab on the left side menu or scroll down on mobile.
3. Choose Profile type – Under Profile, click on ‘Change’ beside the Profile type field. This will open options to switch to Personal, Self-Employed/Freelance, or Student profile.
4. Confirm the change – LinkedIn will ask you to confirm that you want to change your profile type from Business to Personal. Click ‘Yes’ to proceed.
5. Update personal details – With your profile now a Personal account, go through and update any details like your job title, description, experience, etc. to reflect your individual professional brand versus a business.
6. Review profile visibility – Take a moment to review your profile’s visibility settings and connections to adjust anything as needed for a personal account.
7. Click ‘Save’ – Be sure to click ‘Save’ for any changes made to your profile to officially switch over to a Personal account.

It’s that simple! LinkedIn makes it easy to change your profile type between Business, Personal, Student, and more at any time. The key is just navigating to your Account Preferences and selecting the appropriate option.

What Happens When You Switch From Business To Personal On LinkedIn?

Here are some key things that will happen when you change over from a Business to Personal profile on LinkedIn:

• Your profile layout will change – Business profiles have separate sections for products, services, company details, etc. These will disappear when switched to a personal account.
• Previous company pages will be unpublished – Any company pages you had created under that account will be unpublished and you’ll need to create new company pages from a business profile.
• You’ll keep your connections – Changing your profile type does not affect your connections so you won’t lose touch with your network.
• You may lose followers – Followers of your business page will not automatically follow your new personal profile so you may notice a drop in followers.
• Business ads will stop running – Any LinkedIn ad campaigns that were running under your business account will pause when you switch to a personal profile.
• Analytics reset – Data like profile views, search appearance, etc. will reset as it shifts from a business to personal account.

While you’ll be starting fresh in some ways with a new personal profile, the important thing is your connections, content, and network will remain intact during the transition.

Can You Have Both A Business And Personal LinkedIn Profile?

No, LinkedIn’s rules state that users can only have one personal LinkedIn profile associated with their account at a time. However, there are a couple options if you want to maintain both a business and personal presence on LinkedIn:

• Build a company page – Rather than a business profile, create an official LinkedIn Company Page that you manage in addition to your personal profile.
• Use a secondary account – You can create a second free LinkedIn account with a different email address to use for one of the profiles.
• Upgrade to LinkedIn Sales Navigator – Paid Sales Navigator seats allow you to manage both a business and personal profile from one LinkedIn account.

While a bit more work, having both a strong personal brand profile as well as a Company Page on LinkedIn is possible and can help you get the most out of the platform.

Best Practices For Switching From Business To Personal

Following these best practices will ensure your transition from a LinkedIn business to personal account goes smoothly:

• Backup your data – Download a copy of your business profile content and data for reference before you switch types.
• Update your URL – Claim a unique URL for your personal profile so people can still find you.
• Inform your network – Let your connections know you are transitioning accounts to minimize confusion.
• Revamp descriptions – Take time to change any descriptions to represent you rather than your former business.
• Review settings carefully – Double check visibility, contact info, connected accounts, and other settings.
• Update related assets – If you have a website, Twitter account, etc. update any links or references to your new profile.

Putting some time into getting your new personal account set up properly will make the changeover smooth and effective at maintaining your professional connections and brand presence.

Should You Delete Or Keep Your Old Business Profile?

When transitioning your LinkedIn account, you have two options for your old business profile:

1. Delete it – You can delete your old business profile completely. This frees up the ability to create a new business profile in the future. However, it means removing that presence after you’ve put time into building it up.
2. Keep it unchanged – The other option is to keep your old business profile active but unchanged. It will remain published and visible but frozen without you posting or updating anything further. This maintains the profile’s content and SEO value.

Here are some pros and cons to weigh for each approach:

Evaluating these tradeoffs will help you decide whether to remove your old business profile entirely or just leave it published but frozen when transitioning to a personal account on LinkedIn.

Conclusion

Switching your LinkedIn profile from a business to a personal account is a straightforward process that can be easily done right from your profile settings. Simply navigate to your Account Preferences, change the Profile Type to Personal, and then update your profile content to reflect your personal brand rather than a business presence.

When making the transition, be sure to inform your connections, backup your previous business profile data, and review all your settings carefully in the new personal profile. While you will be starting fresh in some ways, your network and connections will remain intact through the process.

With your profile changed to Personal, you can now enjoy the flexibility of customizing your LinkedIn presence around your individual professional brand and career focus. Just keep in mind the limitations of only having one personal profile at a time on LinkedIn and consider options like creating a Company Page or secondary account if you want to maintain a business presence as well.