What are your thoughts on the question of LinkedIn profile updates – make them public or not?

Many of my clients tell me that they don’t want their connections to see the changes they’re making in their profile. There are plenty of reasons not to let your connections see these changes. Then again, there can be value in letting your connections know when you make an update to your profile.

Typically, I don’t make my profile updates public. However, recently I added a volunteer leadership role in my Toastmasters club to my profile.

For several reasons, I decided to allow my connections to see this change. For the most part, I’m glad I made this change public, but there were some downsides.

 

Value of Making an Update to Your Experience Section Public

  • Your connections will see that you are doing something new or different.
  • You give visibility to the company where you took a new job or got a promotion. Your association with this company could be a good PR move for the company. People may be more apt to buy services and/or products from this company.
  • If you add a role in a non-profit organization, you draw attention to the group. It is possible that people might be more apt to donate money or volunteer.
  • Also, if your new role is with a membership organizations, perhaps more of your connections will become a member.
  • People familiar with your involvement might write you a recommendation. You must list a position under the Experience section for connections to recommend you for it.

 

Challenges with Making an Update in Your Experience Section Public

  • If you’ve already held this position for a while, your connections might be confused about why you’re adding it now.
  • You need to decide whether to respond to all the well-wishers congratulating you for your new position. Responding to these notes can be time consuming.
  • You might choose to use the responses that LinkedIn offers in the way of buttons, such as “Thanks” or “Thank you” for most of them and then write a more personalized note of thanks for a few.
  • When you add a “side” gig or a leadership role in a volunteer organization, your connections might think that you’ve left your main work position. I had one person ask me if I was still doing social media tutoring and training now that I am the VP of Education for my Toastmasters club.
  • You might want to post a clarifying update, as I did, to let people know that you didn’t leave your main work position.

 

What About You?

What has been your experience with allowing your LinkedIn connections to see the updates you make in your work experience section?

 

About Joyce

Joyce Feustel helps people, especially those age 45 and up, become more effective using social media, especially Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and Twitter. She provides social media tutoring and training to business owners, business development professionals, authors, speakers, coaches, business consultants, job seekers, and many others. Find her at www.boomerssocialmediatutor.com.