How to Protect Your LinkedIn Account
Is your LinkedIn profile fully protected? 🔐 Beefing up your LinkedIn security is key to protecting what you've worked so hard to build.
Too many experts take unnecessary risks when it comes to sharing their passwords, allowing other people to log into their accounts, using prohibited apps, or neglecting to regularly change their passwords.
Don't let that be you!
In this Mondays with Mindi episode, we talk about how to keep your account as safe and secure as possible, while also learning how to delegate and outsource effectively when you have other obligations and priorities.
I share my top five tips and tricks for LinkedIn security and a few cautionary tales for those who think that they can "hack" their way to the top!
P.S. Have you ever encountered LinkedIn security issues? I'd be curious to hear more about your own experiences in the comments.
“It’s LinkedIn’s Job to Protect My Account”
Many people assume that their LinkedIn account is safe no matter what they do, who they give access to, or whether they decide to hook up Chrome plugins or other third-party applications.
The thing is that it pays to pay attention to how secure your LinkedIn account is at any given time because you likely have already invested months, years, and maybe even more than a decade plus of effort.
It’s not as sexy to talk about “security” because most of us are more interested in growth, leads, and new connections.
But you must protect your LinkedIn account, just as you would anything else in your life.
You wouldn’t drive a car without insurance, would you? Let’s gloss over the fact that you must have insurance per the law, but even if you took every measure to drive carefully, you still want to be sure you’re insured regardless.
There are sometimes things outside your control that you may not be able to protect against.
When you value your LinkedIn presence, network, and connections, you understand the value in protecting what you’ve worked so hard to build.
I’ve worked with a number of experts over the years who have had their LinkedIn accounts compromised through either some app that triggered LinkedIn’s warning system or gave out their LinkedIn password to someone who was not trustworthy.
Let’s just say that it took a LOT of troubleshooting to get their accounts back to where they were prior to the breach.
Today, we’ll talk about some very simple ways you can keep your LinkedIn account secure along with best practices when you’re delegating aspects of your LinkedIn program to someone else.
Why Should I Worry About My LinkedIn Account Security?
As far as we can tell, LinkedIn does its best to protect our LinkedIn accounts from hackers and people who may misuse our information.
But, the responsibility does not rest 100% on the LinkedIn team to keep our accounts safe. As active users, we must understand our role in LinkedIn security or risk the consequences.
For example, one of my long standing clients decided a few years ago that she was going to “hack” her way to the top by using an automated “profile viewing” plugin that promised to evade LinkedIn’s detection and start viewing 100+ profiles per day of her ideal prospects.
Can you guess what happened? Within two weeks, her account was restricted by LinkedIn because they detected the suspicious activity happening on her profile.
It took about seven business days for her profile to come back online, and during that time, she was very worried about her credibility because her prospects could not find her on LinkedIn because she “disappeared” completely.
No more automation apps doing inauthentic, non-human activities on her profile!
The learning here is that LinkedIn is meant to be a place for humans to connect with humans. When you try to shortcut that process and outsmart the platform, you are compromising LinkedIn’s user agreement.
Any time you breach the agreement, you put your account at severe risk because LinkedIn has the power to restrict your account for any of these types of activities.
If you have never read through the user agreement, be sure to give it a look to ensure that everything you’re doing on LinkedIn is above board. You don’t want to mistakenly do something that will get your hand slapped by LinkedIn!
But if you ever do get caught by LinkedIn for doing something either intentionally or unintentionally that is against the user agreement, apologize profusely and promise never to do whatever it was again. Then, act in integrity, of course.
As long as you are not a repeat offender, your LinkedIn account will likely be restored, but not without a very stressful week or so of waiting and hoping things right themselves.
Now, what about those of you who want to delegate and outsource activities on LinkedIn? That’s where things can get a bit more risky if you’re not careful.
Thinking About Sharing Your Account Information?
Let’s talk about the different reasons you may want to share your LinkedIn account information with other people.
You hired a LinkedIn profile writer (like me) to rewrite and update your LinkedIn profile to make it look awesome!
You are outsourcing some of your LinkedIn connection sending to a virtual assistant to build your network
You have a content writer who’s handling all of the content posting to your LinkedIn account
You are on vacation and need your assistant to keep an eye on your LinkedIn inbox while you’re away.
If you fall into any of these categories, you want to be sure that you 100% trust the individual you’re going to let into your account.
Someone who has access to your LinkedIn account can do just about ANYTHING while they are inside your account.
You must take this seriously because if you just hired a new person on your team and give them unfettered access, this could cause a major problem down the road without strict protocols in place.
A lot of people prematurely jump into outsourcing on LinkedIn, and I have heard a good number of horror stories about how an assistant sent hundreds of spam messages and tarnished someone’s personal brand or posted something controversial to their profile that cost them their job!
Again, please be very careful whenever you give temporary or ongoing access to your LinkedIn account.
On that note, this can be a huge warning sign to LinkedIn if you have multiple, suspicious logins to your account.
Technically, only the owner of the LinkedIn account is supposed to be accessing their LinkedIn account, so you want to be thoughtful about giving anyone else access to your account.
A good best practice is to only have one person logged into your account at a time.
That means you set specific hours around who logs into your account and when, and if you’re concerned about more than one person being logged in at the same time, you communicate via text or Slack when someone is logging in or out.
Keep in mind that this practice can still put your account at risk when you are logged in from multiple locations, but it does decrease the risk to some extent.
The safest way to protect yourself is to never allow anyone to log into your account, but sometimes it’s just not feasible or practical. Take precautions when you need to delegate or outsource.
5 Tips to Mitigate Security Risks on Your LinkedIn Account
If you want to succeed on LinkedIn and actually grow your business, get to that next rung in your career, attract your potential customers, get a book deal or land a spot on that interview show… you must learn how to protect your LinkedIn account whether you manage your account yourself or outsource some elements of your program.
That starts in knowing a few basic best practices that you can easily implement right now.
#1 - Use a Password Manager
Everyone should use a password manager to store their passwords because it ensures that you never forget your password AND that it’s stored safely for the long-term.
I use LastPass to store my passwords, and I can share my password selectively with my virtual assistants without anyone actually knowing what my password is.
This protects my assistants because they don’t have to be responsible themselves for storing my passwords securely. It also protects me because I can revoke access at any time or update/change my password without causing any hassles.
You can also use a tool like OnePassword or others to share (and unshare) passwords.
If you haven’t yet, sign up for a password manager now. Every professional who does any work online should have a good password manager.
#2 - Change Your Password Frequently
Always change your password from time to time. I like to use LastPass to remind me to change a password when it’s been a while.
Changing your password is a very easy and simple process, especially when you use a password manager.
Remember, never use the same password across multiple sites, as this can cause problems if your password or identity is compromised online.
I like to update my passwords every 6-12 months, depending on the types of information I store on a site. If there’s a lot of private information, I like to go on the shorter end.
You should NOT be able to remember your password by memory, as that means it’s likely a weak password. Go for 12-16+ characters and use a mix of capital letters, lowercase letters, numbers, and special characters.
#3 - One Login at a Time
Like I mentioned before, you should only be logged into one LinkedIn account at a time on your device.
If multiple people use the same computer or device in your household or at the office, be sure to log out of LinkedIn when you’re finished.
Also, if you do permit an assistant to log into your account, be sure that you each have specified hours when you each log into the account. If there are logins outside that time period, be sure to have clear communication with each other about logging in and logging out.
If you ever switch browsers or internet providers or travel/relocate to a new location, be aware this may trigger a LinkedIn security code at the next login attempt.
Be sure that whomever is logging in after this transition has made you aware of the move, so you can anticipate a security code being triggered.
#4 - Password Sharing with Caution
Ideally, we would all be able to manage our own LinkedIn accounts without having to share passwords, but we all face the reality of prioritization and making sure we reach our LinkedIn objectives.
Be sure that you vet anyone you plan to share your password with carefully. They should be a pro when it comes to password sharing and encourage you to share your passwords with them in a secure way, and they should notify you when they log in and when they log out.
For my LinkedIn profile clients, I usually recommend that they share their login information with me securely in LastPass or OnePassword, and if they share it in another format, I store inside LastPass.
Always change your passwords immediately if you stop working with someone or if it was a temporary assignment. This protects you and protects them as much as possible from anything going wrong if they (or you) are hacked.
#5 - Never Use LinkedIn Automation Plugins or Apps
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. No matter who reaches out to you and promises to skirt around the LinkedIn rules to get you results fast by “hacking” things on LinkedIn (like automatic profile viewing, automatic connection requests, automated messages, etc.) run the other way!
As soon as LinkedIn detects you are using something like this, they will restrict your account. At the first infraction, it will likely be a small warning. If you are repeatedly breaking this rule, they could permanently restrict your account.
Keep in mind that this is one of the most dangerous things you could do on LinkedIn!
On this note, if you have a free LinkedIn account and have recently decided to “up your game” with viewing a lot of profiles and sending dozens of connections requests all at once, you may trigger LinkedIn to temporarily restrict your account.
LinkedIn pays attention to your activity over time, but one way to ensure you don’t get restricted is to upgrade your account to a Sales Navigator account. This signals to LinkedIn that you are playing by the rules and doing this type of activity with the right intentions.
When you give LinkedIn your money, they also prioritize your customer support tickets if you ever run into any issues! LinkedIn wants to keep their paying customers happy. It’s just good business.
So there you have it! Five steps you can take right now to protect your LinkedIn account while also reaching your lead generation, networking, thought leadership, and marketing goals.
If you’re ready to get started with growing your business on LinkedIn and take the next step to optimize your profile once and for all, so you can start getting new leads or land your next opportunity in 2023, get on the waitlist for The LinkedIn Accelerator happening later this month!
We have a very special masterclass-livestream happening next Monday that you won’t want to miss. Feel free to leave questions or comments below - and my inbox is open if you want to message me directly! :)
What additional questions do you have about keeping your LinkedIn account secure? Leave them below in the comments or shoot me a private message. I’m happy to answer them👇!
