Turning off Your LinkedIn Activity Feed

Posted by Donna Serdula on Nov 22, 2011 in LinkedIn Groups, LinkedIn Status Updates, LinkedIn Tips, Remaining Anonymous | 0 comments

As a LinkedIn Profile Writer, my days are spent helping professionals optimize their LinkedIn profiles so they can put forth a professional and polished image that attracts opportunity like moths to a flame. Often I am asked by my client if it’s possible to cloak our edits so employers aren’t tipped off that changes are being made.

When you make changes to your profile, an update is sent out to your network alerting them that a change was made to your LinkedIn profile. These updates are a great way to stay top of the mind aware with your LinkedIn connections. In fact, I frequently tell clients to make edits to their profile at least once a month so they are assured placement in the weekly LinkedIn Update email that goes out to their connections.

LinkedIn Updates are sent out to your connections if you:

• Upload or edit your profile picture
• Update your profile’s headline
• Add a new current job position
• Add a new current school
• Add a new link to a website
• Recommend someone
• Add a connection
• Follow a LinkedIn company page
• Follow news
• Join a LinkedIn Group

Regardless of the benefits, there are times when you don’t want people to know you are making changes. Perhaps you are updating your LinkedIn profile in the quest to find a new job. It’s probably best your employer isn’t notified of such a change. Luckily, LinkedIn provides the ability to turn off your Activity broadcasts so you can make changes to your LinkedIn profile without alerting your connections.

Here are the steps:

Turning off LinkedIn Update Alerts

1. Open LinkedIn
2. Click on your name in the upper right hand corner of your screen , click Settings
3. Under privacy controls within the Account section, click Turn on/off your activity broadcasts.
4. Remove the checkmark from Let people know when you change your profile, make recommendations, or follow companies

Once you are finished making your changes, I highly suggest turning the Activity Broadcast Updates back on! All you need to do is follow those steps and put the checkmark back in place.

Group Broadcast Alerts

NOTE! Turning off your Activity broadcast updates doesn’t turn off the broadcasting of Groups you joined.

If you want to join Groups anonymously, I’d suggest deleting those updates manually.

Manually Removing LinkedIn Activity Broadcast Updates

1. Open LinkedIn
2. On the upper LinkedIn navigation bar, click Profile > Edit Profile
3. On the right side of the screen is your Activity box that contains all your recent LinkedIn activity.
4. Hover your mouse atop the activity you want to remove. An x appears. Click the x and that activity will be deleted.

If You Are Ever Confronted About Your LinkedIn Activity

It’s a new world out there and many people still don’t get it. If you are ever confronted by an employer for having an optimized LinkedIn profile or for being active on LinkedIn, it’s important to use this as a teaching experience. Let the person know that LinkedIn is above all else a professional networking site. LinkedIn offers a perfect way to connect with professionals, prospects, clients, vendors, business partners, etc… NOT JUST RECRUITERS! LinkedIn offers a visual, digital business card and career profile. By optimizing it, you are making sure you are found by the right people and are projecting the right, unique image which will reflect positively on your company.

I wish you the best of luck and if I can ever be of any assistance, please contact me!

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