An article in Forbes titled “The LinkedIn Settings Mistakes Most People Still Make” reminded me of one LinkedIn setting that you may want to change. As the Forbes article points out, especially “if you are working on your profile in a condensed period of time and don’t want LinkedIn to report every change immediately.”
It’s not necessarily a bad thing to have LinkedIn broadcasting some changes, like when you follow a new company or make a recommendation. But if you’re taking some time to work on or update your profile and making several changes at one time, do you really want your network to be notified about every little change you’re making to your profile?
If you don’t ask LinkedIn NOT to share this through the activity feed, they will. Your ‘Activity Broadcast’ settings need to be changed to stop these notifications from going out.
That said, there is value in having some of your Activity Broadcasts (not profile changes, usually) appear in the activity feed, especially if you’re not posting content somewhat regularly. Having your name appear in the activity feed when you make recommendations or follow a company brings your name and face to mind and reminds your connections that you’re in their network, thus helping to build name recognition.
If your name and face never appear in the activity feed, you’re missing a golden opportunity to remind your network that you’re alive and well, and presumably looking for business.
To change your Activity Broadcast settings either permanently or for a short-time while you’re working on your profile, follow these steps:
- Login to your LinkedIn profile.
- Scroll over your profile photo in the top right corner of your LinkedIn profile page to reveal the drop down menu.
- Click on the ‘Privacy & Settings‘ link.
- Click on the ‘turn on/off your activity broadcasts.’
- Turn on or off your activity broadcasts (LinkedIn default is ‘on’).
- Save your changes (and remember to reverse the process if you are only making this change while you make edits to your profile).
If you’re anything like me, you’ll periodically review your profile. And, sometimes in the space of 30 minutes you might make several small changes. Do you really want all of these posted in the activity feed? They won’t say exactly what the changes are but they will note each area you’ve made a change in.
Of course, if you’re changing your job that’s a different story. Remember that unless you want everyone in your network to know of the changes, don’t broadcast them. This is particularly important if you’re job hunting and your employer or other employees in the company you currently work for are connections. Think hard before you change anything that could create a problem for you.
To read the full Forbes article on LinkedIn settings mistakes click this link: “The LinkedIn Settings Mistakes Most People Still Make”