All LinkedIn Activities Are Public to Your Connections

Did you know that there are virtually no secrets on LinkedIn? Almost all your LinkedIn activities are connected to your personal brand. Everything you post, like or comment on in LinkedIn^® is broadcast to your connections.

Specifically, did you know that all your LinkedIn^® activity, virtually everything you like or comment on LinkedIn^®, is broadcast to your first-degree connections and is on your profile for all first and second-degree connections to see. Most people don’t realize this, and it is potentially costing them business.

LinkedIn Activities are Public Information

Here’s a recent example. I knew that I would be seeing a connection of mine at an event where I was speaking. I went to his LinkedIn profile to catch up with what he’s been up to and to my surprise, seven of his top ten things in his activity feed were of scantily clad women where he had liked each photo. I thought one of two things might be true: 1) either his LinkedIn account had been hacked, or 2) he was a bit of a pervert.

Because I deliver social selling training and coaching, I actually thought there might be a third reason – he has no idea that I – and everyone who is a first or second-degree connection – can see all of his LinkedIn activity.

So, before I met with this connection, I let him know what I saw on his profile. I got back a one-word response from him: “Oh!!!”

And, then we got together in person and I learned that he has a connection who owns a woman’s brassiere company. He wanted to help support this friend by liking all her LinkedIn posts. He admits that he didn’t read them. He was simply doing what he hoped others would do for him by showing support for her work.

Great intention – except he had no idea that all these likes showed up on his LinkedIn profile – with thumbnail pictures from those posts. To say that would be inappropriate for his job and his company would be an understatement. He immediately went back once I showed him and he unliked those posts so they would no longer appear on his LinkedIn activity.

His customers, his prospects, his peers, and his competitors, are all looking at his profile before they meet with him. And while I knew my connection wasn’t really a pervert, others may not know the same story I do. Others would likely make an immediate decision based on what they saw in his LinkedIn profile, just like they will make a decision about you based on what they see on your LinkedIn profile.

Risk of Political Comments on Your LinkedIn Activity

Another one of my LinkedIn connections is constantly posting political comments, often negative things about our current president. While he seems to be getting much engagement, with many posts getting several hundred comments and 1000 or more likes, many of the comments are people telling him to stop posting about politics on LinkedIn and to take it to Facebook, in addition to many who have said they refuse to do business with any company he supports or works with. That’s not counting the many people who will say nothing out loud but who will quietly take their business elsewhere because they do not want their brand associated with his brand.

Are either of these ways of using LinkedIn beneficial to your business? Do they make you more sales? Do you want your employees to be seen as perverts or as cutting out half of your available audience?

Let’s look at my recent LinkedIn activities:

When you click ‘See all activity’ you will be taken to a page where you can see my LinkedIn activity sorted by Articles, Posts and Documents. That means people can see articles I have authored about sales, posts that I have shared about events and relevant content for sales leaders, as well as the comments and interactions I’ve had with my network.

These are in line with my brand as an expert in sales and LinkedIn, and do not give anyone a reason to question whether or not I will damage their brand if they choose to work with me. This is what your profile can look like once you realize there are no secrets on LinkedIn, that all the activity you do is visible by first and second-degree connections.

I am not telling you to never like another post on LinkedIn. In fact, I am suggesting that you purposely, intentionally and with a strategic vision, think about everything you do on LinkedIn. All your LinkedIn activity should align with why you do what you do, and who you do it for. Understand that if it can be misconstrued, it will be. If you’re not sure, don’t post it, don’t comment on it, and don’t like it.

5 Rules of Engagement for LinkedIn Activities

Before you click like, think about these 5 things:

1. Is this someone I want every one of my connections to think I endorse?
2. Is it obvious why I thought this was of interest to all my connections?
3. Does this reflect my business interests?
4. If someone were to take a screenshot of this, would I want it to be on the big screen in the boardroom?
5. Is it possible someone could misconstrue this post and thus choose not to do business with me or my company because of it?

Do you want to leverage LinkedIn and all its features? Make sure to learn the difference between a LinkedIn Free vs. LinkedIn Premium account and how it allows you to grow your revenue.