If you read last week’s post about what a mistake it is to omit your email address from LinkedIn’s contact information section, you might be wondering:

“What’s the best way to show my email address on LinkedIn?”

Places to Share Your Contact Information on LinkedIn

The LinkedIn user interface gives you two primary sections to use to feature your email address:

Contact Info. About.

LinkedIn Contact Info — Your Email Address

Adding your email address here is easy:

Click your mini “Me” photo in the top, horizontal rail of your profile. Go to “Account” and click “Settings & Privacy.” Click “Account” on the top, horizontal rail. Click “Email Addresses.” Enter the email address you want to share.

Email Address Privacy

Now update your email address privacy setting:

From the same page as Step 5 above, click “Privacy” on the top, horizontal rail. Click “Who Can See Your Email Address.” Choose “Anyone on LinkedIn.”

If you’re in a job search, having an open email address makes it easy for recruiters to contact you. If you don’t have an open email address, they are forced to communicate with you via InMail unless you share your email elsewhere on your profile.

Also, if you have a Premium account that allows free inbound InMails, you’re OK. However most people would rather send a message than an InMail, even if they’re free.

While you might be concerned about spam by sharing your email address, I find the benefits well worth the minimal inconvience of unwanted emails.

New LinkedIn Contact Information Email Privacy Settings

It’s important to note that the ability to choose who can see your email address became available in LinkedIn’s latest update. Before that, you were forced to show 1st degree connections your email address.

Now you can choose from:

Only visible to me. 1st degree connections. 1st and 2nd degree connections. Anyone on LinkedIn.

Thus, it makes sense to check that your current setting is where you want it because LinkedIn has a history of making arbitrary changes to some privacy settings.

BTW, I don’t allow my connections to download my email address, which helps control spam. I leave that (also new) toggle switch on “No.”

Your Profile’s “About” Section

If you’re concerned about missing outreach from recruiters or other people, share your email address in your “About” section too.

Many recruiters only access LinkedIn public profiles via Google and don’t log in to the network. Thus they can’t click on “Contact Info” to find your email address.

Beyond that, many recruiters don’t know about the changes to email address visibility in “Contact Info” yet. Historically, it hasn’t been a fruitful place to find email addresses. Thus, many recruiters don’t bother with it. So, by adding your email address to the bottom of your “About” section, you make it easier for them to contact you.

BTW, if you want to write a gripping “About” section, check out this post, Three Stunningly Good LinkedIn Profile Summaries, from LinkedInsights.com pro, Andy Foote.

How to Find Other People’s Email Addresses

While this post has been about making yourself findable, I have another post that shows you how to find others:

3 Easy Ways to Find Company Email Addresses

Let’s Connect on LinkedIn

Please don’t hesitate to invite me to connect on LinkedIn. The more I know about my readers, the more relevant I can make my blog.

Image: Fotolia/tiko

Updated July 2019

© 2013 – 2019, Donna Svei. All rights reserved.