How to See Who Viewed Your LinkedIn Profile

How to See Who Viewed Your LinkedIn Profile How to See Who Viewed Your LinkedIn Profile LinkedIn has become one of the most popular online platforms for social, career and job-related networking. Are you interested in knowing who has been checking you out on LinkedIn? The information you can find out depends on whether you have a free membership account or a paid, premium membership that comes with certain features. In either case, you must set your privacy settings to make your profile visible so that viewers can see your name and headline. This also allows the site to track information regarding people that have viewed your posted information. Heres how to adjust your settings to see who has viewed your LinkedIn profile. Free LinkedIn Accounts If you have a free account and elect to display your name and headline, youll be able to see up to five results of who has viewed your profile, the number of visits to your profile, and the number of times youve appeared in search results. The information you can see regarding people whove viewed you depends on how they have designated their own privacy settings. If they have set name and headline you should see their name, job title, and employer. If they have elected to stay partially anonymous then you can see limited information like title and industry, or company only. In cases where they have elected to be totally anonymous, you will see only LinkedIn Member or Someone from the United States. Premium LinkedIn Accounts Premium users get to see an unlimited number of people who have visited their profile and other information like trends in viewership and industry representation. However, premier users will still not see any additional information about viewers who have restricted access via their own privacy settings. Where to See Your Profile Views The information about who has viewed your profile appears in the section called Your Dashboard on your profile page. Up to 5 results of who has viewed your profileNumber of visits to your profileNumber of times youve appeared in search results You may start wondering who has checked you out on LinkedIn and what to do when someone views your profile. Should you message them or connect with them, or not? What, if anything, can you do to capitalize on those who have looked at your profile? It could be a hiring manager youd be thrilled to hear from, someone who could help you network your way to a new job at a desirable company, or an old colleague youd love to get back in touch with. When you see the connection and understand why they viewed yo or how they found your profile, youll have more information to help you decide if or how to respond. Should You Contact Someone Who Views Your Profile? Reaching out to viewers with whom you have a logical connection seems more natural than responding to a random person who has no obvious reason to look at your profile. For example, you might have graduated from the same college in the same time period or with a similar major. Maybe you shared a previous employer, although at different times or in different locations, lived in the same area, have lots of common contacts or belong to the same professional organization. If you reach out, you dont necessarily have to mention that they viewed your profile, and they may not even remember doing so, in your outreach communication. You can focus on your common bond and why you would like to connect with them. When Youre Not Sure Why They Were Looking Keep in mind the fact that viewers without an obvious connection may have accidentally clicked on your profile. Sometimes, as people search for someone, they may click on the profile of someone else with that same name, for example. Thus, if you have absolutely no professional or personal connection with the person, you might simply want to ignore them. However, if you see that they work for a company for which you have an interest, or if you find some other point of connection, you might want to message them. After all, typically the worst outcome is that they ignore you, so you have little to lose except maybe some of your allotted messages, depending on your LinkedIn account level. In your communication, make it clear why youd like to connect, including how you might be helpful to them. You can either reference their viewing of your profile or simply state your reason for reaching out based on their background. When to Reach Out You dont want it to seem like youre stalking people who check you out on LinkedIn, so take a breather and dont reach out immediately after a person views your profile. Waiting a day or two makes sense. If the person contacted you accidentally, they probably wont remember. If its a recruiter or hiring manager, you dont want to give the impression that youre desperate and immediately pouncing on everyone who views your profile. What to Say in Your LinkedIn Message If you do mention that the viewer has visited your profile, you might state something like, I noticed that you had stumbled upon my profile and as I checked out your profile I was intrigued to see that our careers have some interesting parallels. I would love to chat with you about… This way, you acknowledge a common interest between the two of you and provide a reason for possibly furthering the connection. If you do decide to reach out, review these tips for sending LinkedIn messages and invitations before you connect.