One of the greatest features of LinkedIn over other social networks is that it’s professional and isn’t made up of all cat videos, photos of people’s kids getting toilet trained, and political arguments. It’s also the ability to see “Who’s Viewed Your Profile.” This is an awesome feature for professionals and networkers alike. Recruiters have even made placements with this feature.
When someone sees you’ve reviewed their profile, the initial reaction is “Why?” From there, they are likely to review your profile. If they find something interesting, perhaps they’ll ask you to connect. Maybe you both like kayaking or sky diving, perhaps you’re in the same industry; there are lots of reasons. I’ve even seen a few recruiters use it as candidate baiting, with the tag line, “If I looked at your profile, I have a job for you.” Not bad marketing with such a simple feature.
For anyone who recruits people, you should always opt-in for this feature. Yes, stop opting out.
Why might someone want to opt out of such a useful feature? What can you gain by being “Anonymous LinkedIn User” or “Someone with the title Manager” or the absolute worst” “Someone with the job title Recruiter”!
Recruiter?! You must be mistaken. A recruiter is supposed to be about networking, relationships, and bringing people together. How can you do that hiding yourself from the simplest and most effective feature on LinkedIn for all those purposes, effectively hiding yourself from the world?
If you’re a stalker, which I apparently have a few of, you know it. You have a little shrine in your closet, and perhaps you have your LinkedIn profile set to anonymous.
I’m really trying hard to think of reasons why someone, especially a recruiter, wouldn’t want someone to know they looked at their profile. Maybe if I was stealing from them. Taking their ideas and peddling them at work as my own?
From my perspective, this is a feature you should always have on. There’s a reason you review someone’s profile and unless it’s a creepy, should-possibly-get-a-restraining-order reason, I can’t think of a single time you should be anonymous.
Help me out here. Why do you or would you have your profile on LinkedIn set to anonymous or even worse, semi anonymous? What is that other than a tease to the person who’s profile you reviewed? For example, someone with the job title Recruiter, who are you and what do you want from me?