The blog “8 Reasons People Are Looking At Your LinkedIn Profile” is one of our most popular blogs of all time.
People are naturally curious about others, and it makes sense that people might want to know why others are viewing their profile.
We posted this blog recently on LinkedIn, and one of the responses was, “I’m always flummoxed why people view a profile in private mode.” So, here we are with the follow-up blog: “9 Reasons People Switch Private Mode on LinkedIn.”
THE 3 DIFFERENT MODES OF PRIVACY
Your name and headline
Private profile characteristics
Private mode



To give you an idea of what this would look like on my profile, it would be as follows, with only option 1 showing my profile photo:
Alex McCann – Social Media Trainer – Ranked Number 1 For Social Media Marketing in the UK on Freeindex / 700+ Reviews from Happy Customers
Someone in the Advertising Services industry from Manchester Area, United Kingdom
Anonymous LinkedIn Member
HOW DO YOU FIND YOUR PROFILE VIEWING OPTIONS
Click your profile photo top right
Settings & Privacy
Visibility
Profile Viewing Options
And here are the 9 Reasons People Switch Private Mode on LinkedIn
They Don’t Realise It Is Switched On
In our LinkedIn training, the most common reason is this one:
They don’t realise private mode is switched on.
They’re out there trying to promote their business, and we ask them to look at “Profile Viewers” and they realise the setting is disabled.
And that’s the flag that they have private mode switched on.
See the details above on how to change your levels of privacy.
They Are Job Hunting
Job hunting has changed since your parents found a job for life.
When people are job hunting, they feel private mode would be better so that:
Their current employer doesn’t know they’re job hunting.
Their future employer doesn’t know they’re researching profiles of people within the company.
You can find a lot of intel about a company ahead of an interview by simply looking at the business’s company page and its employees’ profiles and status updates.
Set yourself up for success by doing the research.
Optimising Your LinkedIn Profile
When you’re optimising your LinkedIn profile, you might put your profile into private mode for two reasons:
You don’t want potential customers to see a non-optimised profile.
You might be looking at local or national competition to see what they have or don’t have on their profile.
Whilst both of these reasons are valid, it’s important to know that optimising your profile can be done in 1-2 hours.
In our LinkedIn training, for instance, we can take a profile from 0% complete to 100% complete and optimised in under 2 hours.
This includes a competitive analysis of what your nearest competitors have on their profile and working out your USP.
Competitor Research
We touched on competitor research earlier while optimising your LinkedIn profile.
And we often say don’t obsess about your competition.
It causes paralysis in posting and can often detract you from your core social media strategy and marketing.
Naturally, it makes sense to be aware of what the competition is doing, so I’d recommend taking a look twice a year to see if they’ve changed anything recently that might cause concern or inspire you.

Building Leads List
LinkedIn has over 1 billion users on the platform.
Nearly anyone who is a potential lead for your business is on there.
But if you run a business that can work with a number of people, you probably need to build a lead list.
For instance, we have a list of 25-30 ideal clients that we work on a quarterly basis and then review.
Part of building that leads list is research on LinkedIn.
Now we do that publicly by viewing their profile and letting people see our professional headline: “Social Media Trainer – Ranked Number 1 For Social Media Marketing in the UK on Freeindex / 700+ Reviews from Happy Customers,” because we know that just looking at someone’s profile will pique their interest.
But we can understand why some people (particularly those with Sales / Business Development etc in their job title) will want to do this privately.
Stalking Their Ex / School Friends Etc.
This is often the number one reason people think others have private mode switched on.
And some people do do it.
Just as a name comes to your head and you look them up on Facebook.
People often do the same on LinkedIn.
School friends, the terrible ex, the one that got away, your work bestie you used to work with.
Admit it – you’ve done it at least once in your life.
Research Future Partners
Networking group organisers, podcast hosts, events organisers, collaborators, and so on.
Some people like to do their research in advance before getting in touch.
But I often feel you’re missing out by doing this in private.
If you’re using LinkedIn to the best of your ability, you should be proud for people to:
Look at your profile
See the content you’re posting
See the effort you’re putting into engagement
All of those things should sell you to future partners.
So why do it in private?
They Think They’re Going To Be Sold To
Sometimes people put themselves into private mode because they think they’re going to be sold to.
They think that someone will:
Spot their name
Connect
Send them a 4-paragraph sales pitch 2 minutes later
Add them to a lead list
Now, I won’t lie and say that can sometimes happen.
But it’s rarer than you think.
I’ve got over 11,000 connections on LinkedIn, and the number of people that directly try to sell to me is a very, very small percentage.
Privacy
And the last reason is simple:
Some people are just private people.
They don’t like people knowing their business and find that whole “Profile Viewers” a little icky.
And I get that if you’re of an age where you didn’t grow up with LinkedIn or social media.
But as a business owner, the upsides massively outweigh the downsides.
LinkedIn is an online networking meeting – you want people to know you exist and build relationships with you.

Should You Go for Private Option on LinkedIn?
You’re now aware of some of the reasons people might turn on a private profile on LinkedIn.
For 99% of readers, an open profile is the best option.
Not only do you get to see who has viewed your profile, but people also get to see your name, your photo, and your professional headline … and are hopefully inspired to check out your profile.
It raises your visibility.
Privacy mode is often like walking into a networking room with a bag over your head and no name badge.
You can connect with me on LinkedIn here
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Please call Alex on 07806774279 or email alex@altrinchamhq.co.uk