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LinkedIn
LinkedIn private mode: What it is and when to use it
Christina Miranda
June 14, 2024
|
7 min. read
Christina Miranda
LAST UPDATED
June 14, 2024
READING TIME
7 min.
Letting someone know you’ve seen them on LinkedIn has many benefits, but sometimes you may need to turn on that ninja mode.
Luckily, LinkedIn also allows turning on a Private mode so you can research some leads privately before letting them know you’re interested in them.
In this guide, we’ll tell you all about LinkedIn's private modes and how to use them correctly.
LinkedIn’s viewing modes
There are three main modes in which you can view other profiles. Public, semi-private, and private.
These viewing modes allow users to control how they appear to others when viewing profiles and are primarily designed to balance privacy concerns with professional networking needs.
Choosing the appropriate viewing mode depends on your networking goals and preferences for privacy.
Public mode is generally used when you want to openly network and engage with others, while private and anonymous modes are suitable for more discreet or exploratory profile viewing.
LinkedIn public mode
By keeping your viewing mode public, viewers will be able to see exactly who visited their profile and may be notified too.
Your LinkedIn profile characteristics, such as industry and title, may also be visible to them.
When you select public mode you can also choose what information will be visible, like your last name (ex. Jane Doe or Jane D.)
These are the other details you can edit in your public profile visibility:
Access this in Settings → Visibility → Edit your public profile.
Visiting profiles in public mode offers several benefits too, such as:
Increase your visibility when your viewers receive a notification that you viewed their profile
Initiate contact without directly sending a message out of the blue
Show active interest in their background or professional updates
Demonstrate transparency to build stronger relationships
Showcase active engagement
With lemlist, you can include a profile visit as a step in your sequence!
LinkedIn semi-private mode
This mode is also called “private profile characteristics”.
None of your personal information will be revealed, but the viewer will be able to see your job title and industry.
This is particularly useful when you are researching specific profiles for your company, but you don’t really want your personal information to be revealed, nor do you want to be contacted.
Other situations where LinkedIn's semi-private mode can be beneficial are:
Networking with new connections without revealing your full identity
Discretely gathering information when looking for a new job
Conducting competitive analysis
Researching market trends without alerting the owner your specific interest
Semi-private mode strikes a balance between anonymity and providing enough information to facilitate meaningful networking and research activities on the platform.
LinkedIn private mode
When you choose this mode, LinkedIn will not reveal any information about you to the person whose profile you viewed.
They will only see that an anonymous LinkedIn member viewed their profile.
This mode can be very useful and your best ally in the research process.
Essentially, you will be able to visit the profiles you need without leaving your fingerprints behind.
When to use LinkedIn private mode
LinkedIn’s private mode can be very beneficial in many scenarios when you wish to maintain your privacy.
However, we do not recommend sticking to the private mode permanently, as the main goal on LinkedIn should be to grow your network and build relationships. Therefore making your name be seen is important.
So, when should you be using private mode on your profile?
Researching competitors
Businesses can get very competitive and staying ahead of the curve is crucial so that your business is relevant in your industry.
This requires a bit of research to know what your competitors are doing, and check how it compares to your own business.
Now, don’t get ahead of yourselves, we’re not implying you should copy your competitors’ work! But it is useful to know what their clients like about them and what they don’t so you can also set strategies to make adjustments to your own business.
Take inspiration from what you or their clients like.
Obviously, in this regard, you want to be discreet, so keeping a low profile when you research competitors is imperative.
What could your strategy look like?
Turn on private mode
Focus on relevant profiles
Gather insights on job histories, skills, endorsements, mutual connections, and activity updates.
Always stay ethical!
By using LinkedIn private mode effectively, you can gather valuable competitive intelligence while maintaining confidentiality and professionalism in your research approach.
Did you find any interesting clients in your competitor’s network? See how to reach out to them!
Preliminary research of your leads
Building your list of leads for your outreach campaigns is tricky business.
You can’t just select every lead you see out there, you also want to segment them accordingly. A lead that is not a top priority for your current campaign may be perfect for the next, so you don’t want to blow your chances.
Conducting preliminary lead research with LinkedIn’s private mode guarantees anonymity so you don’t alert them too soon that they’re under your radar, this will ensure that you can contact them at the perfect time.
Additionally, getting insight into your leads will allow a deeper personalization when the time comes to craft your outreach messages.
Once you have researched and selected your leads for your campaign, be sure to use the lemlist Chrome extension.
Selecting candidates for recruitment
Similar to researching for leads, when you’re looking through a list of candidates for a job position, you want to keep a low profile so as not to alert the candidates of the research process that’s going on behind closed doors.
You also don’t want to give them false hopes.
Researching candidates in private mode guarantees an unbiased evaluation and a discrete screening of candidates based on their professional backgrounds, skills, experience, and mutual connections.
This also gives you a chance to see their network, identify shared connections or affiliations that may provide additional context or references.
As a recruiter, if you need some inspiration to reach out to your candidates, we’ll leave you with 5 recruiting templates!
Looking for general inspiration
In order to stand out on LinkedIn you need to have an optimized profile.
To make sure that you’re keeping up with current LinkedIn trends you may want to research some thought leaders in your industry or other LinkedIn influencers.
However, you’ll want this process to be discrete, so turn on your private mode to do your research.
This will give you inspiration for posts, headlines, summaries, etc. You’ll also be able to redefine your LinkedIn content strategy by looking into other profiles.
Let’s walk through the steps to set up your Anonymous mode together.
Step 1
On the top bar, click on the “Me” section and go to “Settings & Privacy”
Step 2
Once you’ve accessed your settings, go to “Visibility”.
To change your viewing mode, click on “Profile viewing options”. As you can see, the set one, in this case, is “Your name and headline”, in other words, public mode.
Step 3
At this point, you can choose your viewing mode.
You can choose between “Your name and headline”, which is the public mode. As seen in the image. However, don’t forget you can customize the information that will be available.
You can also pick “private profile characteristics”, which is the semi-private mode, where the people whose profiles you’ve visited will simply see your job title or area of expertise.
And lastly, you can pick “private mode”, where others will only be able to see “Anonymous LinkedIn Member has viewed your profile”.
Key takeaways
Every aspect of LinkedIn is a component of your LinkedIn strategy.
And visiting people’s profiles is definitely one of these components. So you want to make sure that you use LinkedIn’s private mode when you don’t want to alert others that you’re working behind the shadows!
FAQs
Is LinkedIn private mode really private?
Yes. When you visit someone’s profile with your private mode turned on all they will see is that “Anonymous LinkedIn member” has visited their profile. None of your information will be revealed.
How do I know who viewed my profile without a premium account?
Go to the analytics section by scrolling down in your profile.
You will be able to see who viewed your profile during the last 90 days.
Although you will not be able to see personal information, you’ll see their company. To gain more viewer insights you’ll need a premium account.
Should I keep my LinkedIn private or public?
It depends on what your searches are for at that time.
If you want to do some background checks or general research, it’s best to turn on private mode. But if you want to let someone know you’re interested in them, make sure they can identify you easily by turning on public mode.
Can someone know when you search for them on LinkedIn?
When you search for someone on LinkedIn they will receive a notification.
The amount of information they receive about you will be dependant on your privacy settings. Turn on private mode to remain completely anonymous.
Christina Miranda
Content creator and translator @ lempire
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