Who’s Viewed My Profile?

Would you like to know who has viewed your profile?  LinkedIn gives you that information, but it has several limitations.

For those of us with a Basic Account (free), we can see five of the last people who viewed your profile.  If you check it often, it might not matter, but if you want to see more than five you will have to upgrade to a Paid Account.

The next limitation is LinkedIn only tells you what the viewer chooses to tell others when they view profiles, and gives you the following three options:

1. Show my name and headline
2. Only show my anonymous profile characteristics, such as industry and title
3. Don’t show users that I’ve viewed their profile

The default is #2 – “Only show my anonymous profile characteristics, such as industry and title”.  Of course there are good reasons for any of the three choices, but most people are not aware they have a choice so with their setting is the default and all you get to see is “Someone at XYZ viewed your profile”.

Here are my thoughts:

• If you are in a small organization, there’s no reason to leave your selection set to the #2 default choice because it’s obvious who you are anyway.
• If you are building your network, and want to extend your reach into new organizations or groups, you might consider letting them know you had an interest in them.  I’ve had several great contacts invite me to join their network after they saw that I had viewed their profile.
• Consider that it’s a compliment to view other’s profiles, even if you aren’t interested in connecting, why not let them know something in their headline, status, answer, or even a discussion posting sparked your interest in them.
• If you are viewing a competitor’s profile, or just don’t want anyone to know you viewed their profile, you should probably choose option #3 so they won’t be guessing who you might be.

 

In Summary, why choose the default, either tell them exactly who viewed their profile, or don’t let them know you’ve even looked!  I show my name and headline to everyone when I view their profile.  If you choose to show your name and headline, it’s important to be sure your headline is (1) attention-getting, (2) tells them who you are, and (3) why they might be interested in you!

Here’s how to See who’s viewed your profile:

1. In the Right column of your Home Page, under “Who’s viewed my profile?, Click on either the “See more>>” at the bottom, or on the sentence “Your profile has been viewed by x people in the last x days.  Yesterday, you appeared in search results x times.”
2. Click on each one of the five selections.

 

Here’s how to Change what you want to be seen by others when you view their profile:

1. Click on “Settings” at the top right hand side of your LinkedIn Page (it’s next to Help & Sign Out)
2. In the right column, under “Privacy Settings”, Click on “Profile Views”
3. Click on your selection (choices above).
4. Click on Save Changes