Having an open profile on LinkedIn that anyone can view without needing to connect can be beneficial in some cases but risky in others. There are pros and cons to having an open LinkedIn profile that should be weighed carefully when deciding whether to make your profile public or limit access.
Pros of an open profile on LinkedIn
Here are some potential benefits of having an open LinkedIn profile that anyone can access:
- Increased discoverability – An open profile means recruiters, potential clients/customers, business partners, and others can easily find you and learn about your background and experience without needing to send a connection request first.
- Showcases your capabilities – With an open profile, you can highlight your skills, accomplishments, recommendations, and other details to impress those who come across your profile.
- Expanded networking reach – People you don’t know can see your profile and reach out to connect with you if they are impressed by your background and interests.
- Builds your personal brand – An open profile gives you another platform to build your personal brand and presence on the web.
- Comes across as approachable – Having an open profile signals that you are open to connecting with new people organically without barriers.
- Increases engagement – You may get more profile views, connection requests, messages, and other engagement with an open profile.
In summary, an open LinkedIn profile can help you be found more easily, showcase yourself, network, build your brand, and engage with more professionals in your industry.
Cons of an open profile on LinkedIn
However, there are also some potential downsides to having a completely public profile on LinkedIn:
- Privacy concerns – With an open profile, anyone can see your photo, current job title and employer, education history, skills, accomplishments, interests, and more.
- Stalkers and spammers – Scammers and other bad actors can more easily target you if they have full access to your profile.
- Profile views from irrelevant people – An open profile means you may get profile views and messages from random people you have no interest in connecting with.
- Unvetted connections – It can be harder to control the quality of your connections if anyone can request to connect with you.
- Increased noise – Recruiters, salespeople, marketers, and others may contact you more frequently if they can easily access your profile.
- Less exclusivity – There is less incentive for someone to connect with you if they can already view everything about you and message you without connecting.
The lack of privacy and exclusivity, increased noise, and chance of attracting unwanted attention are factors to consider with an open profile.
Best practices for open profiles on LinkedIn
If you do decide to have a public profile on LinkedIn, here are some best practices to follow:
- Customize your public profile URL – Choose a customized URL like linkedin.com/in/yourname to make your profile easier to share.
- Use a professional profile photo – Pick a high-quality, polished headshot to showcase yourself.
- Optimize your headline – Summarize your value proposition and areas of expertise in your headline.
- Showcase your background – Highlight key skills, achievements, recommendations, publications, volunteer work, courses, languages, and other details you want public visitors to see.
- Give a glimpse into your personality – In your summary and experience descriptions, reveal a bit about your work style, passions, and personality.
- Tailor your experience to your goals – Emphasize the parts of your background most relevant to your career goals and target audience.
- Promote your open profile – Proactively share your profile URL on websites, resumes, business cards, email signatures, and anywhere else that makes sense.
- Engage your visitors – Reply to messages and invitation requests from open profile visitors to build relationships.
Tactics like these can help you maximize the benefits of an open profile while minimizing the risks.
Who should consider an open LinkedIn profile?
Here are some examples of professionals who may benefit from an open LinkedIn profile:
- Active job seekers – Job seekers who want to be easily found and contacted by recruiters and hiring managers.
- Freelancers/consultants – Freelance professionals who want to be discoverable to potential new clients.
- Entrepreneurs – Entrepreneurs who want to get their personal brand and company in front of prospects.
- Networkers – People focused on networking and expanding their professional connections.
- Personal brand builders – Professionals focused on building their reputation and personal brand.
- Thought leaders – Executives, consultants, authors, and academics aiming to establish thought leadership in their field.
Essentially, those who are more focused on self-promotion and expanding their reach may benefit most from an open profile.
Who should avoid an open LinkedIn profile?
Here are some examples of professionals who may want to keep their LinkedIn profile more restricted:
- Currently employed passive job seekers – Those not urgently looking to change jobs and concerned about their employer seeing an open job-hunting profile.
- Professionals concerned about stalkers – People worried about being targeted by abusive exes, harassers, or other dangerous individuals if profile details are public.
- Licensed professionals – Doctors, therapists, lawyers, and other licensed pros who need to maintain confidentiality and ethical standards.
- Celebrities/public figures – Famous people and public figures aiming to limit unsolicited outreach and attention.
- Introverts – Shy professionals who are unlikely to want to engage with most cold outreach resulting from an open profile.
- Already well-established people – Executives at large companies whose reputation precedes them and have little to gain from an open profile.
Individuals who prioritize privacy, confidentiality, and exclusivity tend to benefit from a more restricted LinkedIn profile over an open one.
How to control profile visibility settings
LinkedIn provides granular settings to control exactly who can view different sections of your profile. Here are the steps to configure your profile visibility:
- Go to your LinkedIn profile
- Click “View profile” to view your public profile view
- In the top right, click the “Me” icon and select “Settings & Privacy”
- In the left sidebar under “Privacy,” select “Profile viewing options”
- Configure the following sections:
Section Who can see Your public profile & URL Set this to “Everyone” to have an open profile. Other options: “Connections only” or “Only people who you’ve approved” Your connections Choose whether connections are public or private Profile visitors Select whether visitors can see who viewed your profile - Scroll down and customize visibility for other profile sections like experience, education, skills, etc.
- Click “Save changes” when done
Following these steps allows you to choose exactly which profile sections you want public and which to only share with connections.
Conclusion
Having a completely open and public LinkedIn profile has both advantages and drawbacks. The increased visibility and personal branding opportunities of an open profile come with less privacy and exclusivity. Professionals who are more active in self-promotion and expanding their networking reach tend to benefit most from opening up their LinkedIn profile. However, more introverted professionals or those concerned about privacy may want to limit public access to parts of their profile. LinkedIn provides detailed settings to control profile visibility and find the right balance for your personal situation and professional goals.
