When was the last time you searched yourself on LinkedIn? Do you know if you have multiple LinkedIn profiles? Of the 2500 or so professionals that we work with annually, I would estimate that nearly 500 of them have multiple LinkedIn profiles. Some of them are not even aware of it until we point it out!
If you’re one of these folks, let me first reassure you that it happens to the best of us. You probably forgot the profile that you spent 5 minutes on 7 years ago and so you set up a new account and walked away from your computer feeling accomplished. We have seen it time and time again.
The good news is that LinkedIn is making it easier than ever to merge accounts! Let’s take a look at this 3-step process:
First, you’ll need to visit your “Settings & Privacy” link, found under the “Me” tab.
In Settings & Privacy, the information to merge acccounts is under the Account tab:
Once you’ve clicked on “Merging LinkedIn accounts, LinkedIn will show you the account that you’re already logged into and ask for the login info for your additional profiles. This is much easier than the old process of submitting a help ticket and exchanging multiple messages with someone on the LinkedIn Help team.
The trick with this feature is that you will have to know the login information for your other account(s), which is sometimes the biggest challenge of all. But at least this feature allows you to submit your request and be done, as opposed to the old method.
Take a few moments and search yourself on LinkedIn to see how many profiles come up for you. It’s important to remove these duplicate profiles so that others can 1) find you easily and 2) find the profile that you have developed and want people to see and not the one that you started before a meeting 5 years ago that is outdated and incomplete.