Recruiters spend their lives on LinkedIn looking for people to hire. When they find and like you, they want to move ASAP. Thus, completing the LinkedIn Contact Information section on your profile helps them.
The Biggest LinkedIn Profile Mistake
*Failing to provide contact information.*
Yep, that’s the biggest mistake I see job seekers make on LinkedIn.
While you might think, “Oh, they can send me an InMail,” many recruiters don’t use InMail because:
- It has a sucky response rate.
- They have to pay for it.
- They know prospective candidates don’t like InMails.
Places to Share Your Contact Information on LinkedIn
So, hopefully, you’re convinced you’ll benefit from sharing your contact info.
LinkedIn gives you 2 good sections for sharing your email address:
- Contact Info
- About
LinkedIn Contact Info — Your Email Address
First, let’s talk about how to use LinkedIn’s “formal” location for contact information.
You see it as “Contact info,” just to the right of your location on your profile.
Click on “Contact info” to add your personal email address. Use a private address so:
- You don’t generate emails from recruiters to your work address.
- You don’t get locked out of LinkedIn if you lose your work email address.
Then, adjust your privacy settings to allow people to see your email address:
- Click your mini “Me” photo on your profile’s top horizontal rail.
- Then, click “Settings & Privacy.”
- Next, click “Visibility.”
- Then, click “Who can see or download your email address” and select your preference. I like “Anyone.”
- Then, click “No” on allowing people to download your email address. That keeps spam to a minimum.
LinkedIn Contact Information Email Privacy Settings
The option to choose who can see your email address in Contact Info became available in 2019.
Before that, LinkedIn forced members to show their email addresses to 1st-degree connections.
Now you can choose from:
- Only visible to me
- 1st-degree connections
- 1st and 2nd-degree connections
- Anyone on LinkedIn
So, because the system changed without notifying you, it’s a good idea to check your setting.
Your Profile’s “About” Section
Moving on, the 2nd “informal” place to share your email address is in the About section of your profile. Use it.
Why?
Because many recruiters search LinkedIn profiles via Google. They have to log out to do that; thus, they can’t click on “Contact info” to find your email address.
Historically, “Contact info” hasn’t been a fruitful place to find email addresses. So many recruiters don’t bother to look there.
Add your email address to your “About” section to make it easier for recruiters to contact you.
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Updated January 2023
© 2013 – 2023, Donna Svei. All rights reserved.
Donna Svei, an executive resume writer and former C-level executive, retained search consultant, and CPA, authors all of AvidCareerist’s posts.
She is a Fast Company Contributor and has written for and been quoted by 100+ business and general media outlets, including Forbes, Inc., Entrepreneur, CNBC, the New York Times, USA Today, Time, US News & World Report, CBS, the BBC, Lifehacker, Social Media Today, IT World, and Business News Daily.
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Comments 9
Thank you for the information. It was quite helpful!
I have another LinkedIn question for you, if you wouldn’t mind answering it. As I was entering past job experience, affiliations, etc., some company logos “attached themselves” to my LI profile, and others – even though They showed up when I was typing in the company name – did not. Do you have any insight as to how to get a logo to show up on LI?
Thanks very much,
M. Jean Austin, CCMC, MS
Founder/Owner, Talents Presented LLC
mjeanaustin@talentspresented.com
414.617.7555
Hi Jean,
Thank you for your kind words. On your question, I’ve run into the same problem with logos. My Google research basically said, “LinkedIn is working on it.” If you get a better answer, or if anyone else knows a fix or a workaround, please share it!”
Donna
May 2019 Update: Outsmart LinkedIn’s Ugly Tombstone Logo Box
Donna,
Nice piece on updating contact info. When I went to edit my LinkedIn contact info (editing the business card) it only shows an email. I’ve had no luck determining if there is another place this info (phone, bday, IM) is initially entered. I’ve concluded that my page may not be loading correct; my next step is submit a help ticket to LinkedIn. I’ve also notice several other connections only have an email. Could this be all one gets (an email) with the free package?
Thanks
Rich
Hi Rich,
Thank you for your kind words. I don’t know the answer to your question. I’m guessing you’re right about paid versus free accounts. I hope you will circle back here and let us know if you find out anything from LinkedIn. Fortunately, it’s far more important to put your contact info in your summary than in the business card. Because the business card requires an extra click, it’s less likely to be seen.
Donna
Follow up to previous post about contact info not showing up in edit mode… after doing a little digging and getting some answers from the LinkedIn support team, I found that the reason for all the contact info not being editable is that I was using IE10. When I viewed the same info on IE8 and Firefox it was all editable. The LinkedIn support team told me that LinkedIn was compatable with IE9, but I still found the same problem. Other things that did not work on IE10 included the yellow submit button on adding endorsements and the unselect individual endorsments under manage endorsements.
Thanks,
Rich
That is really good to know Rich. Thank you for circling back and sharing! Donna
I just updated my Additional Info section where i never enetred anything and guess had huge loss.
Thanks a lot Donna
Hi Hafiz,
I’m glad this was helpful.
Donna
Hi Donna, thank you so much for nice post.
Quick question – As LinkedIn is/should professional networking site: What contact details should I put on my LinkedIn profile: Personal or Business?
Hi Jovita,
It depends on who you want to reach. Some people use their profiles to promote their company and/or its products and services. They should use their work email.
If you use your profile to benefit your career (recommended), then use a personal email address.
Kind regards,
Donna
Donna, this is a most informative article, written with great clarity. A fantastic tool for those checking out their options in the workforce. I will be sure to share it with my candidates in search mode
Brian Stutt, CPC
Brian,
Thank you. I know when I recruited that one of my greatest frustrations was not being able to find prospective candidates’ email addresses on their LinkedIn profiles.
Donna