LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional networking platform with over 800 million members. One of the platform’s key features is allowing users to see who has viewed their profile. This visibility into profile views can be helpful for networking and making new connections. However, it has also led some users to wonder why LinkedIn enables this feature and what the rationale behind it is.
In this article, we will explore the main reasons why LinkedIn shows users who has viewed their profile. The key factors we will cover include:
Driving user engagement
Profile views are a core signal of engagement on LinkedIn. Showing users this information helps drive more activity on the platform.
Facilitating networking
Viewing profiles is often the first step to connecting with someone new. Enabling users to see who has viewed them helps kickstart relationship building.
Providing value to recruiters
Recruiters pay for premium LinkedIn accounts to get more insight into potential candidates. Profile view information is a key part of this.
Marketing premium account features
LinkedIn uses profile view visibility as a way to encourage users to upgrade to premium paid accounts.
We’ll explore each of these reasons in more detail throughout the article. First, let’s look at how you can see who viewed your profile on LinkedIn.
How to See Who Viewed Your LinkedIn Profile
LinkedIn has a feature that shows users a list of people who have recently viewed their profile. Here are the key things to know about accessing this information:
Requirements
To see who has viewed your profile, you need to have a LinkedIn premium account. The basic free version does not include this visibility.
Accessing the list
On desktop, profile views can be seen by going to My Network > Viewers. On mobile, tap on Me > Viewers from the menu.
Visibility
You will be able to see the name, position, and company of people who viewed your profile. Their photo will also be included if you are connected.
Limitations
The list only shows a sample of recent viewers, not every single profile view. LinkedIn says it shows around 90% of views but won’t provide an exact number.
Recency
The viewer list refreshes regularly and drops off after about 90 days. So you can only see relatively recent profile views.
Now that we’ve covered the basics of how profile view visibility works, let’s explore some of the main reasons why LinkedIn decided to enable this feature.
Driving User Engagement
At its core, LinkedIn is a social network and engagement platform. Like all social platforms, high levels of user activity are critical to LinkedIn’s success as a business. The more users that visit, interact, and spend time on LinkedIn regularly, the better able the company is to carry out its business objectives.
Showing users who has viewed their profile is a smart way to drive more visits and time spent on the site. Here’s why:
Creates a feedback loop
When you receive notifications that prominent people in your industry have looked at your profile, it peaks curiosity. You’ll be more likely to reciprocate by viewing their profiles and continuing the cycle.
Provides social validation
Knowing professionals you respect have taken an interest in you is flattering. It creates a sense of social validation that makes you feel more engaged with the platform.
Motivates users to enhance their profiles
Seeing the types of people interested in you motivates users to improve their profiles to attract more high-quality views. Better profiles result in more visits.
Triggers regular check-ins
Users get into the habit of frequently checking who the latest viewers of their profile are, leading to more site visits. It forms a habit loop.
In summary, by leveraging core human social tendencies like reciprocity, validation-seeking, and curiosity, LinkedIn’s profile view feature successfully increases site stickiness and activity.
Facilitating Networking
Beyond driving general engagement, LinkedIn’s profile view visibility has a more practical purpose – facilitating networking between professionals.
Viewing someone’s profile is often the first step users take before connecting with them. Enabling users to see who has viewed them greases the wheels of the networking process in several ways:
Surfaces relevant people
The viewer list automatically surfaces professionals who took an interest in you, saving you the effort of finding them yourself.
Sparks conversations
Once you see someone has viewed your profile, it’s natural to reach out and strike up a conversation about shared interests or goals.
Identifies reciprocal interest
If you have also viewed someone’s profile, that mutual interest can be the basis for initiating a connection. The profile views surface that commonality.
Motivates users to connect
When people see high-value connections viewing them, they’ll be more motivated to send an invite in hopes of linking up.
Shows users how they found you
For Premium users, LinkedIn shows the source of profile views (e.g. search results, mutual connections, etc.). This provides helpful context when networking.
In summary, LinkedIn is in the business of connecting professionals. By giving users more insight into who is interested in them, the site empowers users to more actively build their networks.
Providing Value to Recruiters
Recruiters and talent acquisition specialists are among LinkedIn’s highest-value customers. LinkedIn generates significant revenue from recruiters using the platform for hiring and sourcing candidates. A big part of how LinkedIn appeals to recruiters is by offering additional insights and analytics not available to regular users.
The ability to see who has viewed and interacted with a candidate’s profile is hugely valuable to recruiters evaluating potential hires. Here are some of the benefits:
Lets recruiters gauge candidate interest
Active profile viewership by a candidate shows genuine interest – a strong signal they would seriously consider a job opportunity.
Surfaces qualified leads
Heavy recent profile activity automatically brings quality candidates to the top of a recruiter’s search results.
Provides context on search patterns
For Premium accounts, recruiters can see what searches led candidates to view a profile – extremely helpful sourcing context.
Shows who candidates engage with
Who a candidate interacts with is telling. Recruiters can use this social graph to expand search results.
Encourages Premium purchases
The additional visibility motivates recruiters to upgrade to Premium accounts that unlock more analytics.
In summary, profile view data powers recruiter workflows and is integral to LinkedIn’s value proposition to talent acquisition teams. Enabling this feature allows LinkedIn to command premium prices from its high-value recruiter customer base.
Marketing Premium Products
Aside from the inherent value profile views provide, LinkedIn uses the feature strategically as a way to market and upsell Premium paid account offerings. Here’s how:
Drives desire for full viewer data
By only displaying a partial list for free users, LinkedIn creates demand to upgrade to see the full details.
Lets users sample Premium features
The core viewer list gives non-paying members a taste of the additional insights available to Premium subscribers.
Makes Premium more attractive
Members who find the profile view feature useful will perceive greater value in the paid Premium offerings.
Increases willingness to pay
When users get direct value from a feature, they become more willing to pay for a premium version of that feature.
Lowers purchasing friction
Making users familiar with the benefits of profile views lowers activation energy needed to subscribe.
In summary, granting limited access to an engaging Premium feature helps market LinkedIn’s paid products. It’s a smart customer acquisition and monetization strategy.
Conclusion
While some LinkedIn users question the rationale behind enabling profile view visibility, there are clear benefits that motivate the company’s decision:
Drives greater platform engagement
The feature creates positive feedback loops that lead to more site activity and addictiveness.
Facilitates relationship building
Knowing who has viewed you activates users to expand their networks by surfacing relevant connections.
Provides value to recruiter customers
Premium view data powers recruiter workflows and is a huge value-add for talent acquisition pros.
Allows sampling of Premium features
Granting free users limited access helps market LinkedIn’s paid account upgrades.
In summary, profile view visibility is core to LinkedIn’s value proposition as a social network, recruiting platform, and premium service. Disabling the feature would actively undermine LinkedIn’s core business model. That is why LinkedIn has doubled down on view visibility despite some user misgivings.
Frequently Asked Questions
Here are answers to some common questions users have about LinkedIn’s profile view feature:
Who can see my LinkedIn profile views?
Only you can see who has viewed your profile. It is not public information visible to others.
Can I turn off profile view visibility?
No, there is no setting to disable profile view visibility. This data is always visible to account owners.
Does LinkedIn show all profile views?
No, LinkedIn says it only shows around 90% of views to conserve server resources. The exact viewership number is never revealed.
Why don’t I see every viewer?
To save space, LinkedIn curates a sample of representative viewers instead of every single one. Premium accounts can see more data.
Can I see who viewed me anonymously?
No, anonymous profile views are not shown. You can only see views by members who are signed into a LinkedIn account.
Does viewing profiles anonymously work?
LinkedIn still records and uses anonymous profile views data, but does not reveal them to account owners.
The Bottom Line
While LinkedIn’s profile view visibility causes some confusion and privacy concerns, the feature plays an important role in driving platform stickiness, enabling networking, serving premium subscribers, and marketing paid products.
For the majority of members who find value in knowing who has taken an interest in them, the benefits outweigh the downsides of limited visibility into exactly who is viewing their profiles. This is why profile view transparency will likely remain a core part of the LinkedIn member experience for the foreseeable future.