LinkedIn is a popular professional social networking site with over 810 million members worldwide as of 2022. When you share content on LinkedIn, such as posting an article, photo, or status update, you may wonder exactly who will be able to see it.
Your Connections
The default setting on LinkedIn is that your connections in your network will be able to see posts you share. These are first level connections – people you are directly connected with on LinkedIn.
When you share a new post, it will appear in the feeds of your connections. They will be able to like, comment on, and reshare your posts to their own connections. You have the option to select which groups within your connections are able to see the post (such as choosing to exclude certain companies or subgroups you are connected with).
How Many Connections See Your Post
The number of connections who will potentially see your post depends on how large your network is. For example:
- If you have 500 connections, your post will be visible to those 500 people.
- If you have 5000 connections, your post will be visible to a potential audience of 5000.
- With 50,000 connections, a maximum of 50,000 people could see your post in their feeds.
Of course, not every connection will necessarily see your post right away, as their feeds also include many other updates. But it will be available for your full network to view.
Your Connections’ Connections
In addition to your own first-level connections, your posts may also become visible to their connections, extending the potential reach. There are a couple ways this can happen:
Reshares
When someone in your network reshares your post to their own connections, it extends the visibility of your post. Their connections will now be able to see that post in their feeds. If those people further reshare it, the reach grows. A post can spread rapidly across LinkedIn networks this way through reshares.
2nd and 3rd Degree Connections
LinkedIn allows you to extend the reach of your post beyond just your 1st degree connections. In your sharing settings, you can enable your post to be viewable by:
- 2nd degree connections – these are people connected to your 1st degree connections.
- 3rd degree connections – people connected to your 2nd degree connections.
Activating these additional levels of visibility can significantly increase the potential size of your audience. However, keep in mind it also exposes your posts to people you may not know well (or at all).
LinkedIn Groups
Another way to expand the visibility of your posts is by sharing to LinkedIn Groups that you are a member of. Groups allow members with similar professional interests and backgrounds to interact. When you post directly to a Group, all members of that Group will see it in their feeds.
For example, if you are a member of the Digital Marketing Group, which has 100,000 members, posting there would allow your content to be viewed by those 100,000 people. Groups can greatly amplify the distribution of your posts.
Selecting Specific Groups
You can choose which specific Groups you want the post to be shared with, rather than automatically posting to all your Groups. This lets you target particular audiences by only selecting Groups relevant to the post topic and content.
Public Sharing Settings
You also have the ability on LinkedIn to make a post completely public. This means it can be viewed, reshared and found by anyone on LinkedIn through search engines and social media channels.
Public posts have no limits on reach and visibility. However, you generally would only want to make a post public if it contains content you are comfortable being widely distributed outside of your professional network.
Page Followers
If you have a Company Page or Showcase Page on LinkedIn, any followers of that Page will see your posts in their feeds. This can provide another way to extend the reach if you have built up an audience following your Page.
Other Factors That Impact Reach
While your settings control the possible audience, there are other factors that impact real world reach and engagement on your posts:
- Post Content – Posts with content that is highly relevant, interesting and engaging to your audience are more likely to be seen and shared.
- Post Interactions – Early likes, comments, reshares all signal to LinkedIn a popular post to boost.
- Follower Interests – LinkedIn’s algorithm shows your posts to followers most interested in the topic.
- Post Frequency – Frequent posting makes each individual post less likely to be seen.
- Follower Volume – You reach a smaller % of followers as your follower count grows into the thousands.
So while your sharing settings control the possible visibility, the actual reach depends on having compelling content and an engaged audience.
Profile Visibility Settings
It’s important to note that your general profile visibility settings can also impact how many people are able to see your posts and network with you. For example, you can configure your profile to be:
- Public – viewable by anyone on or off LinkedIn.
- Visible only to your Connections.
- Visible only to your 1st degree Connections.
More restrictive profile settings limit the visibility and distribution of the posts you share. An open public profile grants the widest possible reach to your content.
Posts vs. Advertising
While you can potentially reach a large audience through your connections, groups, and post settings, uncontrolled organic reach has limits. To reach very targeted audiences or scale content to extremely large numbers, paid advertising on LinkedIn provides more options:
- Choose demographics like job title, industry, company size.
- Broad targeting by region, age, interests.
- Pay only for people who actually see your ad.
- Get detailed statistics on ad performance.
Advertising on LinkedIn is a cost but provides control over precisely who sees your content and the ability to reach millions of people. For most brands, an integrated strategy of organic posting plus paid social ads is optimal.
Optimizing Your Sharing Strategy
Here are some best practices that can help maximize the impact when sharing content on LinkedIn:
- Post consistently to stay top of mind but avoid excessive posting.
- Monitor analytics to identify best posting days/times for engagement.
- Reshare older evergreen content to new audiences.
- Use visual media like images, video, and SlideShare.
- Write compelling headlines and descriptions to draw interest.
- Interact with your audience by liking, commenting, sharing.
With a thoughtful sharing approach and mix of paid/organic activity, LinkedIn can be a very effective platform for extending your professional reach and engaging with your target audience.
The Takeaway on LinkedIn Post Visibility
When sharing content on LinkedIn, the visibility of your posts can extend through multiple degrees of connections and be amplified by reshares, groups, and pages. But actual reach depends on content relevance, audience engagement, and your overall posting strategy. Optimizing both organic and paid efforts is key to success on LinkedIn.
Connection Type | Description |
---|---|
1st Degree Connections | Your directly connected network members. |
2nd Degree Connections | People connected to your 1st degree connections. |
3rd Degree Connections | People connected to your 2nd degree connections. |
Group Members | Members of LinkedIn groups you post to. |
Page Followers | People who follow your LinkedIn Company or Showcase Pages. |
Reshares | Connections of people who reshare your posts. |
Using the various options strategically allows you to tap into LinkedIn’s large membership base and get your content in front of relevant audiences. As you establish your presence and build connections, your potential visibility on the platform will continue to expand.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does everyone see my LinkedIn posts?
No, the visibility of your posts depends on your sharing settings. By default, your 1st degree connections will see your posts in their feed. You can extend reach to 2nd and 3rd degree connections, groups, and Company/Showcase Page followers. But some settings keep it narrowed only to connections or yourself.
Can I choose who sees my LinkedIn posts?
Yes, you have options to select which groups, connections, and individuals can view your posts. You can exclude specific connections or share privately to just yourself. Settings when posting let you customize visibility.
Do all my connections see my posts?
Not necessarily. Although your default connections can see posts, LinkedIn’s algorithm selectively shows them to connections most interested in that topic. So only a subset may see any individual post based on relevance.
Can anyone see my profile if my posts are public?
No, your profile visibility settings are separate from post visibility. You can have public posts but still restrict general viewing of your full profile. Keeping profile access narrowed while enabling wider reach for posts is common.
Should I always use public sharing?
Public sharing maximizes potential reach. But for most professional networking purposes, sharing with your own connections and groups is preferable. Public posts should contain content you are comfortable being open and accessible to a wide general audience.
How do I increase the reach of my posts?
Ways to extend reach include enabling 2nd/3rd degree connections, actively posting to relevant LinkedIn Groups, getting reshares, using multimedia content, and paying for LinkedIn advertising. High quality content that spurs engagement also improves distribution.
Can I reuse my old LinkedIn posts?
Yes, re-sharing or repurposing your past posts with good engagement is an effective tactic to reach new audiences who may have missed it. Older evergreen content often performs well when recirculated.
Conclusion
LinkedIn provides a variety of options for controlling the visibility of your posts – from limited to fully public. Understanding these settings allows you to strategically reach your target audiences. Organic and paid methods together can expand your professional network and amplify content distribution. With the right approach, LinkedIn is a powerful platform for engaging your connections.