The Unofficial LinkedIn FAQ: 20 Answers By Andy Foote

1. What's my 'Public LinkedIn profile'?

Your Public LinkedIn profile is what people see when they search for you on Google (and other search engines) and they're not logged into LinkedIn. LinkedIn lets you decide how much of your LinkedIn info you want to share in your 1 page Google version. I've opted to share absolutely everything because I'm going to make it as easy as possible for folks to find me and read my LinkedIn stuff. I recommend you do the same.

2. Should I add my birthday to my LinkedIn profile?

No. You are providing personal information which is irrelevant to your professional objectives/success on LinkedIn. Someone knows your birthday and gets an additional data point on you and your online accounts. See #8 below. 

3. How important is my Headline?

Extremely important. It's not just your Headline, it's also your calling card. When you are active on the LinkedIn commons i.e commenting on a post or listed on it as a group member or in a search result, there are only 3 identifiers that people see:

1. Your Photo
2. Your Name
3. Your Headline

Would your current Headline persuade readers of that post/viewers of that list to click on your profile to find out more about you? If the answer is "I don't know" or "No" you may be in need of a change. I'm a devotee of the 'slogan' headline because if done well, this kind of headline captures attention and builds profile traffic. I know this because people who contact me often mention my Headline. I wrote about the 3 different kinds of LinkedIn Headlines here: What Are You Doing With Your LinkedIn Headline?

4. Can I just copy n paste my CV on LinkedIn?

You can. I recommend you copy and paste the relevant text from your CV to the Experience section of your profile, it's a good way to get started, you can then tweak and perfect each entry, adding bullets for those data supported achievements, telling the reader not about the organization but what you specifically did while you were there. You should never copy and paste anything from your CV to the Summary section though since this key area of your profile is your only chance to engage, tell your professional story and spur action. You have to satisfy the busy speed reader here and entice them to scroll down and find out more about you. Copying and pasting that yawn inducing, mind numbingly boring CV summary (if you have one) would be easy, but it would also be a mistake. I would advise against adding your CV as Rich Media on your profile, because technically it's not 'rich' and you'd probably want to update/customize it before giving it to a decision maker, right? 

5. Is it possible to know when I connected with someone?

Yes, on their profile, click on 'See contact info' and scroll to the bottom, you'll see the exact date you 'Connected' with that person. I think it would be awesome to have a reminder of who sent who the connection request but just knowing the date is helpful, kinda. It's also possible to find the date you joined LinkedIn. Click on 'Me', 'Settings & Privacy' and you'll see 'Member since [Month Day, Year]'. Now you can celebrate your LinkedIn Birthday, no - that's not and hopefully will never be a thing.

6. Why is my Home feed full of irrelevant crap?

Because you didn't train it and because you connected with a lot of random people. You can teach your Home feed to serve more relevant content (by hiding, unfollowing, improving your feed) but if you've got a large network that would take years off your life. And even if you took the time to do this, you'd still have to contend with other stuff you don't want to see ('Promoted' LinkedIn ads).

My advice is to ignore the Home tab and focus on Notifications instead. LinkedIn have begun to introduce a bunch of different actionable notifications which can be fine-tuned (click on the small three dots) helpfully providing a short cut to taking action (click on the blue box).

My hope is that LinkedIn changes the Home feed to a mix of data rich insights (for example: viewer composition/relative content performance etc.) which will do more to attract the casual user, because I personally don't want to see ads anywhere else on LinkedIn.

7. How do I find out if someone has blocked me?

If you know for sure that someone is registered on LinkedIn and you can't see them (you get this graphic when you search on their name).

You have been blocked. This simply means that you won't be able to see their profile or their content and they won't be able to see your profile/content. The only time you'll be able to see their name is when you've been tagged along with them (in a post or in a group) and their name will be black (non-clickable) instead of blue (clickable). 

8. Why are there fake LinkedIn profiles?

There are a number of different capers favored by criminals (and some totalitarian Governments) who love to lie/cheat on LinkedIn because it is a target-rich environment.

1. Phishing - sending emails purporting to be from reputable companies in order to induce individuals to reveal personal information, such as passwords, social security numbers and credit card numbers
2. Spear phishing - sending emails ostensibly from a known or trusted sender in order to induce specific individuals to reveal confidential information
3. Cat fishing - scammer spends a long time to build trust in an attempt to get money/other benefits, they are not who they say they are
4. Profile hijack - your LinkedIn profile gets hacked, taken over because you had an easily cracked password, scammer then uses the profile as credible cover to ask victim's network for money (the lost wallet while on vacation, please send money ploy) or as a recruiter trying to elicit key personal data to be sold on the dark web
5. In-Mail virus - scammer sends an In-mail from a hacked/fake account which looks legit with a url link (shortened, so difficult to know what it is), you realize too late that the link downloaded a virus to your computer

See this post for how to spot fake LinkedIn profiles, with 3 real life examples (pictured below) 3 Stunningly Good LinkedIn FAKE Profiles

9. Is there a list of the people I've blocked on LinkedIn?

Yes. Don't worry though, only you can see that list. Click on 'Me', then click on 'Settings & Privacy', select the 'Privacy' tab and click on 'Blocking and hiding'. Click 'Change' next to 'Blocking' and you'll be able to see the full list of people you are blocking currently. You can block a maximum of 250 people at any one time. You’ll have to wait 48 hours before re-blocking the same user after unblocking. You can't block anyone who is in the same LinkedIn group as you, so yes that's a chore - having to leave, block and re-join a group just because Steve was an ass...

10. Why do I get the option to 'Report' after I ignore a connection request?

Some people are 'super connectors' and will connect with as many people as possible because they want to build a large network quickly. They don't care a whit about who you are or what you do, you are just a number to them. The 'Report' (that you don't know the person who sent the connection request) declaration is designed to deter and stop the super connector. If enough people click on Report, the super connector loses the ability to connect for a period of time. Crowd sourcing to combat spammy looking connection requests - what's not to like?

11. I've seen SSI mentioned on LinkedIn, users talk about this and their score. What is SSI?

It's the acronym for 'Social Selling Index', designed to get you thinking about your ongoing performance in 4 specific areas (brand, people, insights, relationships). LinkedIn believes that these 4 are critical when trying to fully leverage LinkedIn for selling products/services. I personally don't spend any time at all tracking or worrying about my SSI, I'm more focused on adding value, helping others and being consistent on LinkedIn. Here's a slightly deeper dive on SSI (how it evolved, how it's perceived by some sales pros) What LinkedIn’s SSI (Social Selling Index) REALLY Measures

12. How many recommendations do I really need?

I'm so glad you said need, because that's the crux of the matter as I see it. I think a good rule of thumb is to have 2 or 3 recommendations for each role you've held. Most of my clients have an average of 10 total. I simply don't see the point in having an abundance of recommendations, I've seen people with hundreds! Giant waste of time, they'll never get read. Gilding the lilly!

You should be aiming for high quality testimonials from senior professionals who are respected and well known in your industry. It used to be possible to move recommendations up or down but now they're ordered by date added, so if you're getting recs now, save your best until last, ensuring that your strongest supporter statements are the most visible. When you ask an ex-colleague for a recommendation on LinkedIn, send them suggested text - not only does this make it easy for them and encourages a faster turnaround, you then get to shape your professional brand via your recommendation section.

13. I've recently noticed a new tab 'interesting views' appear in my viewer history page. What's that?

Like a lot of new features on LinkedIn, they suddenly appear minus explanation. This is one of them. As far as I can tell, this is an attempt by LinkedIn to highlight certain profile browsers by category. The categories I've observed so far are:

1. XX is a senior leader in your industry.
2. XX is a senior leader in another industry.
3. XX works at Y, a company you follow.

So few categories and I question the usefulness of putting some browsers in these buckets. So what if Robert is a senior leader in another industry? How does having this vague info help me? Also, I've come across one 'senior leader' who has clearly stated on his profile that he is an Intern, so the algorithm got it wrong. Context is important on LinkedIn and it's not as if there's a lack of data! I'm hoping that users will get additional categories like 'XX is highly endorsed for Y by your connections' or 'XX got Y engagement on his/her content recently'. In the meantime I'd encourage you to pay more attention to how people found you (via Homepage, LinkedIn Profile, My Network, Messaging) since this shows which path your profile visitors have chosen to get to you and crucially - which of your activities are generating the most profile views.

14. What is a customized LinkedIn url?

https://www.dhirubhai.net/in/linkedinsights is my customized LinkedIn url, it used to be something like this https://www.dhirubhai.net/in/andyfoote03418449. Customizing your url is a smart marketing move since you're branding the clunky LinkedIn provided url and making it yours. You should put it to good use by adding it anywhere it will get clicks (email signature, blog, other social media platforms etc.). If someone already grabbed your customized url name, don't add a number (www.dhirubhai.net/in/jimbeam04) Why? Because adding a number just tells everyone that you were too late and can't be bothered to find a creative version. You could for example use www.dhirubhai.net/in/mrjimbeam or www.dhirubhai.net/in/thejimbeam or www.dhirubhai.net/in/jimxbeam, you get the idea.

15. What are ‘Search appearances’?

Every week LinkedIn will provide a summary to premium members via notification saying 'You appeared in XXX searches this week'. If you click on that notification you'll be taken to a summary of those stats listing where some of your searchers work, what some of them do (job title) and some of the keywords used to find you.

This information is of limited value in my opinion because it fails to tell you why those searches were made and therefore doesn't help you with your LinkedIn strategy going forward.

The weakest part of the viewer analysis for my profile has consistently been keywords (not shown below). Unfortunately LinkedIn has failed to provide me with information I can learn from or use. As I said before (#13), the missing ingredient necessary to make sense of our profile data is context. This is why you will never see me talking/writing about optimizing your LinkedIn profile for keywords; there simply isn't enough contextual data to leverage keyword search techniques on LinkedIn. LinkedIn trainers who talk about keyword optimization failed the exam.

16. Who are the best LinkedIn trainers out there?

You mean apart from me? There are many LinkedIn practitioners who know the LinkedIn platform inside out, keep up to date with the constant changes and delight their clients. But if I list the folks who I rate highly, I'll be sure to miss a bunch of respected consultants who I personally don't know.

I'll change the question and hopefully get the same result: What are the hallmarks of a great LinkedIn trainer?

I'd look for someone who's been doing it for years rather than months. I'd pay close attention to their All activity section, especially the engagement they're getting on their content (Posts) and the stuff they've curated. Having a large network with low engagement on their Posts is a red flag, it suggests they connect with anyone and everyone but don't have an actual following. Look at the content they produce; are they pushing out self promotional garbage or consistently providing value/insights and generating interesting/dynamic brand centric, professional, relevant discussion? Do they have a blog/website? Are you impressed by their global online presence (LinkedIn, blog, facebook, twitter etc.). Look for signs of breadth and depth on LinkedIn. For example, I run and currently manage 12 LinkedIn Groups with 44,000+ members and I wrote an article about LinkedIn summaries in 2013 which has been read by 2.8m people. Don't just look at how they brand themselves, look at what they've achieved and how they've done it. Ask to see who they helped (and look at their Recommendations for client testimonials) and look at those profiles, this will give you an outsider's glimpse of how that trainer writes, thinks and presents his/her clients on LinkedIn.

17. Why can I send some users and not others, free InMails?

Some premium users switched on the OpenLink (now called Open Profile) feature on their profile which in effect means that any user can send InMails to them for free. LinkedIn used to allow members to advertise that they had OpenLink by displaying the OpenLink symbol on their profile. These days no one knows you have enabled free InMail messaging via Open Profile until someone tries to send you an InMail and they're then told it's free. I think LinkedIn should allow Open Profile members to once again easily advertise (as they once could) the fact that they have opened their door to (free) communication via InMail.

18. What's the best way to get engagement on my posts?

I think the short answer as far as engagement is concerned is to find topics which are (a) widely relevant and (b) opinion trawlers. Before you write a post ask yourself if lots of people on LinkedIn will be interested in reading it (does it have intrinsic content value?) and crucially - whether it will spur discussion from some of those readers. A high value post that is read in silence, with little to no engagement will not be distributed by the LinkedIn algorithm. Sometimes, it's as simple as asking a (good) question. It's imperative that you persuade the reader to click on and read your post. A technique I and many other authors use is to write posts with an opening 2 line hook, here's an example. 

A word of caution, don't just write for the chattering classes. It's nice to get engagement around a popular topic of the day but how are you adding value? If all you're doing week after week is acting as a lightning rod for vociferous water cooler discussions, how does that help/advance your brand? Being the moderator on LinkedIn, isn't as valuable as being on the panel.

Also, don't get too hung up on views, they're not that useful or relevant. They're impressions, not clicks - so your post may have been one of many scrolled by in the home feed. I pay very close attention to comments, because the only thing that truly matters on LinkedIn is and aways will be, engagement.

19. Should I ever have anything other than my photo as my picture?

No. Apart from breaking the LinkedIn User Agreement, you won't get taken seriously. LinkedIn users expect to see your face. Not a logo, not a dog, not a cartoon character, not your Wife & Kids, not a celeb. It should be your likeness. Litmus test: would someone recognize you by looking at your LinkedIn pic, when you walk in the room?

20. What's the best connection strategy?

I look for commonalities, for example connecting with people in my city, the same profession or with those who share a similar background to me. But there's also a strong compunction to connect with other LinkedIn members who prima facie don't have anything in common mainly because if you don't connect, you could miss out or close a door on opportunity (a good example for most users would be a recruiter). I think many people are building their networks in this way and it results in having a 'telephone directory' rather than a 'rolodex' of LinkedIn contacts. I've amassed close to 7,500 1st Degree connections and I only stay in touch with a handful. But having a large extended network can be useful, for example, last Wednesday I reached out to 18 Kiwi connections (who I really didn't know) to ask them to help a job hunting friend who had recently moved from Chicago to Auckland. 5 responded within the day and suggested 3 additional people (not in my network) who were both local to my friend and highly relevant to her job search. So the large, ever-extending network of networks can certainly provide advantages/benefits on LinkedIn. I wrote about connection strategy in I AM THE ONE WHO KNOCKS On LinkedIn, my view on LIONs has not changed. Don't do this folks.

Hope you found this article useful. If you did please share it, thank you :)

Could your LinkedIn profile do with some TLC? (Transformative LinkedIn Consulting)? Contact me to learn more about my advanced LinkedIn strategies: [email protected]

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