5 LinkedIn Privacy Tips Every Financial Advisor Should Know

LinkedIn is changing the way advisors do business in financial services. According to a recent survey by Putnam Investments, 75% of financial advisors are on social media and, of those, nearly 95% report LinkedIn being their network of choice.

What’s even more astonishing is the rapid rate of growth; the number of advisors using LinkedIn to build their business rose 61% in 2013 from 2012. Clearly, it has become an essential tool for advisors to network, prospect, and establish themselves as industry leaders.

Adopting social media as a business tool, however, creates questions and concerns in an industry that has historically placed a premium on privacy. So what does a financial advisor need to know to get on LinkedIn and be effective while also protecting their privacy?

As someone who works closely with many of Hearsay Social financial clients, I am happy to provide the following list of best practices for privacy settings from the perspective of being easily finable and growing your network. (All of the following settings are configurable from the LinkedIn Privacy & Settings Review.)

1. Your Public Profile

Your public profile is what people see when they view your profile and aren’t yet connected with you on LinkedIn. In order to grow your network, your primary objectives with a LinkedIn profile are to be more findable to prospects and to establish credibility before meeting someone new. The best way to reach these objectives is to share more information publicly that will better incentivize people to connect with you, so they can see how you will deliver value to their network. At the very least, I recommend that you show these fields publicly: your “basics” (Name, industry, location, etc.), picture, headline, summary and current position. 

2. Activity broadcasts

When you update your profile or make new connections on LinkedIn, you can optionally have that information shared with your own LinkedIn connections in their respective news feeds. If you are strategic about who you connect with (and you should be), this option is a good thing. Not only does it keep you top of mind with your connections, but it also alerts them to promotions and potential new shared connections you may have. This data will further reinforce your industry experience and act as a tacit referral. It is a good idea to share this information.

There is another feed setting in LinkedIn that controls who sees the thought leadership posts you are making. Again, sharing this information with everyone will demonstrate to your clients and prospective clients the value in connecting with you. At the very least, share this with your connections. 

3. Who can see your connections

A common fear I hear advisors express about making connections on LinkedIn is that their competitors will now have access to their virtual client list.  You should understand that even the most lax privacy settings will still only allow people you have agreed to connect with to see your connections. So the risk only exists if you connect with a competitor.