When you make changes to your LinkedIn profile, such as adding a new job, skill, or education, LinkedIn will automatically notify your network about the update. This can be helpful for staying connected and letting people know what’s new with you. However, some updates are minor and don’t need a notification sent out. Luckily, LinkedIn allows you to turn off notifications for your profile changes so you can update your profile seamlessly without bombarding your connections. In this article, I’ll explain how to turn off notifications when you make profile updates on LinkedIn.
Understanding LinkedIn Notifications
LinkedIn sends out notifications to your connections by default whenever you add or change the following information in your profile:
- Current position
- Past position
- Education
- Location
- Industry
- Profile photo
- Profile cover photo
- Skills
- Accomplishments
These notifications appear in the notifications section of your connections’ LinkedIn accounts and in email digests. The notification will include your name, photo, and the details of what was changed. For example, if you add a new skill like “Social Media Marketing,” the notification may say “Clara added a new skill on her LinkedIn profile: Social Media Marketing.”
The intention is to keep your network informed about major updates in your career and life. However, some changes are small and don’t need a notification, like changing your profile photo or tweaking a couple words in your summary. The good news is you can control which updates generate notifications.
How to Turn Off Notifications
Turning off LinkedIn notifications is simple to do:
1. Go to your LinkedIn profile page
2. Click “View profile” to view your profile as your connections see it.
3. In the right sidebar, click “Manage public profile settings.”
4. Under “Profile visibility,” uncheck the box next to “Notify your network via an announcement when you make changes to your profile.”
Once you uncheck this box, LinkedIn will stop sending notifications to your network about any profile changes. You can update to your heart’s content without bombarding your connections!
Customizing Notifications
If you don’t want to disable notifications entirely but want more control, you can customize which profile changes send notifications. Follow these steps:
1. Go to your profile page and click “View profile.”
2. Click the “Me” icon at the top and select “Settings & Privacy.”
3. Click “Communications” in the left sidebar.
4. Under “Profile updates,” click “Customize.”
5. Toggle off notifications for any updates you don’t want broadcasted. The options are:
- Current position
- Past position
- Education
- Location
- Industry
- Profile photo
- Cover photo
- Featured
- Accomplishments
- Interests
- Skills
- Supported languages
Important Considerations
Here are some important things to keep in mind about LinkedIn notifications:
- Disabling notifications means your connections won’t see major career updates like a new job or education. Use judiciously.
- The “Notify your network” setting under profile visibility acts as a master switch that overrides your customized notification preferences.
- Changes made to your LinkedIn profile through your company’s Career Pages will still generate notifications, even with notifications turned off.
- You can’t disable notifications for just a single update – it’s all or nothing when customizing.
- Notifications are only sent the first time you add a new position, education, etc. Editing existing items won’t re-send notifications.
Notification Frequency
In addition to turning off notifications, you can control how often you receive email digests about LinkedIn notifications.
To adjust the frequency of email notifications:
1. Click the “Me” icon and choose “Settings & Privacy.”
2. Click “Communications” in the left sidebar.
3. Under “Email preferences,” click “Change” next to “Email frequency.”
4. Select your desired frequency: Daily, Weekly, or Monthly.
Limiting the emails to Monthly means you’ll get one digest per month rather than a bunch of individual notifications cluttering your inbox.
Conclusion
Updating your LinkedIn profile is important, but constant notifications after every change can be annoying. Luckily, LinkedIn provides controls to customize or turn off notifications from your profile updates.
To disable notifications entirely, simply uncheck “Notify your network” under your profile visibility settings. For more granular control, customize which updates generate notifications under your communication settings.
Consider your network and how you use LinkedIn when deciding on notification settings. Thoughtfully managing notifications allows you to maintain an up-to-date profile and meaningful connections, without bombarding people with unnecessary updates.
