Should you keep your LinkedIn profile private?

LinkedIn has become the world’s largest professional networking platform, with over 722 million users as of April 2020. With so many professionals using LinkedIn to connect, build their personal brand, and find new job opportunities, it’s important to understand how to best leverage LinkedIn to achieve your goals.

One key decision in managing your LinkedIn presence is whether to keep your profile public or private. Both options have advantages and disadvantages depending on your specific situation and preferences. Here we’ll explore the pros and cons of a public versus private LinkedIn profile to help you decide which is best for you.

The benefits of a public LinkedIn profile

Having a public LinkedIn profile has several potential advantages:

• Increased visibility and reach. A public profile means you can be found by recruiters, hiring managers, and other professionals searching LinkedIn. This expands your professional network and opportunities.
• Showcases your skills and achievements. A complete, public profile highlights your background, skills, accomplishments, recommendations, and other credentials.
• Provides credibility and trust. Having a detailed public profile conveys transparency and can build your professional reputation.
• Generates opportunities. From job offers to speaking engagements to potential clients, a public profile lets others proactively reach out to you.
• Connects you to key contacts. A public profile makes it easier for colleagues, clients, industry leaders and others to find and connect with you on LinkedIn.

In summary, a public profile maximizes your ability to be found, connect with the right people, build your reputation, and take advantage of opportunities through LinkedIn.

The potential risks of a public profile

While a public LinkedIn profile has many upsides, there are also some potential downsides to weigh:

• Loss of privacy. Your employment history, education, skills, recommendations, and contacts will be visible to anyone.
• Unwanted contact or attention. Public access means anyone can potentially find and message you on LinkedIn.
• Security concerns. Scammers or cybercriminals could use info from your public profile for phishing schemes.
• Reputation management. Any negative content on your profile (poor recommendations, job gaps, etc.) will be publicly accessible.
• Current employer issues. Your current boss may not want employees publicly showcasing their background/skills.
• Job search challenges. Prospective employers could access details you don’t necessarily want to share, like your current salary.

In essence, a public profile means surrendering control over who can access your profile content and how it might be used by others.

Pros of having a private LinkedIn profile

Here are some potential advantages of keeping your LinkedIn profile private:

• Greater privacy and discretion. You choose who can view and connect with you on LinkedIn.
• Current job security. Keeping your profile private removes concerns about your current employer seeing you are job searching or open to new opportunities.
• Avoids unwanted outreach. Private settings allow you to avoid recruiters, sales prospects, and other unwanted contact through LinkedIn.
• Reduced security/reputation risks. Private settings make you less vulnerable to phishing schemes, misuse of your profile information, or online reputation risks.
• Maintain full control. You decide exactly who can see your profile and endorse or recommend you on LinkedIn.

Essentially, a private profile allows you to maximize control over your information and online presence on LinkedIn.

Potential disadvantages of a private profile

However, there are some potential tradeoffs of having a private LinkedIn profile to note:

• Reduced visibility and fewer connections. Many people won’t be able to find or connect with you on LinkedIn.
• Missed opportunities. Potential employers, clients, partners, and others are less likely to find and reach out to you.
• Harder to showcase your capabilities. You have less ability to display your background, skills, recommendations, and other credentials.
• Lower credibility and trust. Private profiles convey less transparency and may undermine your professional reputation.
• More work to connect. You need to be more proactive in finding profiles and sending connection invitations.

In short, maintaining a strictly private profile means you miss out on many of the networking and opportunity creation benefits of LinkedIn.

Should you keep your profile public or private?

Deciding whether to have a public or private LinkedIn profile depends on several factors:

• Your career status – Are you actively job searching versus gainfully employed?
• Your industry and profession – Are you in a field where networking is critical?
• How you use LinkedIn – To find jobs? Build thought leadership? Develop business leads?
• Your comfort level with sharing personal info publicly.
• Whether your employer prohibits public professional profiles.

Here is a table summarizing factors to consider when choosing between a public or private LinkedIn profile:

Ultimately, it’s a personal decision that depends on your specific priorities and situation. Here are some recommendations on when to keep a private profile versus make it public:

• Keep your profile private if:
  • You are happily employed and not looking for new jobs
  • Networking is not important for your profession
  • You are uncomfortable publicly displaying profile information
  • You want to avoid recruiter spam and unwanted outreach
• Make your profile public if:
  • You are actively job searching and want to be found
  • You work in a field where networking and visibility are critical
  • You want to showcase your background and capabilities
  • You are comfortable publicly displaying your professional information

Tips for balancing privacy and visibility

For many professionals, the best approach is to maintain some privacy settings while still making parts of your profile public. Here are some tips to balance privacy and visibility on LinkedIn:

• Customize your public profile URL to make it harder to find your exact profile
• Select settings that allow only 1st degree connections to message you directly
• Customize visibility for your email, phone number, and birthdate fields
• Hide your current salary information and customize who can see your past positions
• Expand privacy settings for groups, interests, education history, and other fields
• Be selective in accepting connection requests to maintain control over your network

Balancing privacy and visibility allows you to maximize the networking benefits of LinkedIn while reducing spam, security risks, and oversharing of your professional information.

Conclusion

Deciding whether to keep your LinkedIn profile public or private depends on your specific career status, goals, comfort with sharing information, and other factors. Here are some final best practices:

• Keep your profile private by default as you establish yourself on LinkedIn.
• Gradually expand public access as you want to widen your professional network and opportunities.
• Customize privacy settings and content visibility to control what is shared publicly.
• Review all your profile content through the lens of professionalism, privacy, and security.
• Leverage LinkedIn privacy tools and account settings to find the right balance for your needs.

With over 722 million users, LinkedIn is an invaluable platform for networking and career development. By understanding the tradeoffs between public and private profiles, customizing your settings, and actively managing your online presence, you can maximize the benefits of LinkedIn for your professional goals.