LinkedIn is arguably the world’s number one business and employment-based social media platform. Signing up on LinkedIn can enhance your career and business growth. You can grow your network by connecting with people in your field of interest and interacting with them as well. Like with every social media, LinkedIn has some specific features one of which is “Private Mode”. You might be wondering, what is LinkedIn Private Mode: How does it work?
In this article, I will practically show you how to activate and deactivate the private mode feature. However, before that, I will explain to you what private mode is in LinkedIn, how it works, and its advantages and of course, its disadvantages. This will enable you to decide whether or not you will like to use this feature.
It is important to note that once you create an account on LinkedIn, you have authorized LinkedIn to share your profile information with other LinkedIn users. As a public user, people can view your profile, your posts, reposts, likes, shares, and every other information about you available on your LinkedIn profile. You will also get notifications when people view your profile, comment, and like your posts.
This is a good feature of LinkedIn as it enhances transparency. However, some users prefer to operate anonymously and this led to the introduction of the ‘Private mode’ feature on the platform.
What is LinkedIn Private Mode and How Does it Work
The private mode in LinkedIn keeps your profile anonymous. It enables you to view people’s profiles without them knowing you viewed their profile. In Private mode, your name, contact, and other profile details remain hidden. LinkedIn will simply indicate that an “Anonymous” member viewed you”. The perfect explanation to the question LinkedIn Private Mode: How does it work? is that the private mode on LinkedIn allows only you to view details about your profile.
LinkedIn has two types of accounts; Basic (free) and Premium (paid subscriptions). It is worth noting that the private mode is accessible by both basic and premium account owners.
However, there is a catch.
As a basic account owner using the private mode, you can view people’s profiles but you cannot see who viewed your profile. Quite the opposite for premium account users; they can view people’s profiles and as well see who viewed their profile within the past 90 days.
Irrespective of the type of account you operate (Basic or Premium), you cannot prevent private mode users from viewing your profile or revealing their identity.
Advantages of Private Mode
1. It Keeps You Focused
Staying ‘anonymous’ will enable you to remain focused and concentrate on your mission on LinkedIn. With private mode, you can network with people specifically tailored to your career or business interests.
2. Enhances Research
Using private mode as an employer can help you run background research on the profiles of job applicants without their knowledge. You can also use it to keep a close eye on the activities of your competitors.
3. Protects you from Unnecessary Connects
Public mode enables anyone to access your profile and send connection requests. In private mode, no one can see you won’t be getting unnecessary connection requests.
Disadvantages of Private Mode
1. Limited Opportunities
The fact that your account is in private mode keeps you away from the eyes of the general public who may want to network with you. This could hinder you from accessing good opportunities.
2. It limits your engagements
Using Private Mode can reduce the number of people who will engage in your posts. If you publish an article or start a campaign, you cannot ascertain your conversion rate as you can’t tell who viewed your profile.
3. It could drive off potential customers
If you’re a business owner and someone wants to reach out to you via LinkedIn, they won’t find you because your account is in Private Mode.
The disadvantages are a bit less for Premium account holders because they can see who viewed their profile.
How to Switch to Private Mode on LinkedIn (Using the Web)
- Open and signup/login to LinkedIn in your web browser,
- Click on the ‘Me’ section on the top right of the homepage menu bar,
- Next, you select the ‘Settings & Privacy’ option underneath the Account menu,
- Then select ‘Visibility’ and click on ‘Profile viewing section’,
- Finally, click on ‘Private Mode’.
Notice, you can also keep only your characteristics in private mode. This is called ‘Semi-Private Mode”
How to Switch to Private Mode on LinkedIn (Using the mobile app)
- Open the LinkedIn App on your device,
- Signup/Login to your account,
- Click on your profile picture,
- Go to settings,
- Under the settings dropdown menu, you will see ‘visibility’,
- Click on ‘Profile Viewing Section’ where you will see the three options: Public, Semi-Private, and Private Mode/
To switch back to public mode, you can navigate using the same steps and make the changes in the ‘profile viewing section’.
In summary, LinkedIn is a networking and connections social media for employers and employees, it is advisable to reduce your use of private mode unless the nature of your operation is discreet.