As one of the most effective online platforms for professionals, LinkedIn is visited every day by people who want to expand their network and strengthen their connections. This includes professionals, marketers, entrepreneurs, and people working in a vast number of different industries.
However, most users don’t tend to make the most out of LinkedIn because they don’t understand certain aspects of it. For example: LinkedIn messages. People are not sure whether or not their messages are private. This is very important given that messaging is one of the core functions of LinkedIn. In a word, yes, LinkedIn messages are private. Want to learn how to simplify your prospecting through these messages on LinkedIn? Check out Kennected, the #1 Sales Enablement Platform for growing your business. Before making a decision, you still may want to know more about how it all works, so let’s dive right in!
Typically, you can only send LinkedIn messages to your 1st degree connections. This refers to people who sent you an invite or received an invite from you. You are connected with the people who accepted your invite, as well as those whose invites you’ve accepted.
There are three other ways to use the platform’s messaging function including:
- InMail
- Open Profile Messages
- Sponsored Messaging
Here we will discuss all the methods of messaging other users and whether or not those messages are private.
The Privacy of LinkedIn Messages
LinkedIn messages are totally discreet and private. This means that only the sender and the recipient can view the messages sent through LinkedIn. There are four types of messages on LinkedIn, and you might want to learn the differences between each one. The good news is that all four types are private.
- Direct messages are the ones we just talked about. These are conversations between LinkedIn account owners who are in the same network. Premium and free users have the ability to access this type of messaging
- Open Profile Messages are DMs that allow LinkedIn users to message Premium members that have activated the Open profile designation, whether or not they actually know sender. All LinkedIn users can send a message to other users who have this feature enabled. Just like DMs, these are also private
- InMail allows users to directly message other people on LinkedIn even if they are not connected. You can either pay to be able to send InMail, or you may receive a certain amount of InMail by upgrading to a Premium LinkedIn account. The number of InMail you can receive depends on what type of Premium account you have
- Sponsored messages are the fourth and final type of message that can be sent, and we’ll give into greater detail on those in the next section
Sponsored Messages
Finally, paid direct messages (or, sponsored messages) are a paid advertising option that allows users to send ads to specific avatars on LinkedIn. This is used by corporations and businessmen and women who are looking to grow their companies. Sponsored messages may have call-to-action buttons, image banners, and optional forms to generate leads, but even sponsored messages are private on LinkedIn. All four types of messages are private and cannot be received or opened by anyone other than the recipient.
If you are a member of a LinkedIn group, you can send direct messages to other members—those messages are also one hundred percent private. However, group admins and managers have the option to start a conversation with group members, and messages sent in a group chat format are not completely private as other members can be mentioned or tagged in the messages as well.
The same thing applies to multiple recipient messages, which are not private. One message of this type can mention up to fifty other users. That being said, only the specified recipients will be able to receive and see the multiple user message.
Similar to Facebook, LinkedIn has “read receipts” that lets the sender see if the recipient has viewed their message. Read receipts can be turned off so that the sender will not be notified whether they have read the message or not.
To disable these read receipts,
- Navigate to the top of your LinkedIn profile and click the Me icon
- Under “Settings & Privacy“, choose “Communications“
- Click “Change” once you’ve navigated to the “Preferences” section and turned off the “Read Receipts and Typing Indicators“
Privacy is an important topic on all forms of social media, and LinkedIn is no exception. LinkedIn users want to protect their data and make sure their interactions with their contacts remain confidential.
To make lead generation even easier, use a high quality Sales Enablement Platform like Kennected. Kennected lets you send personalized messages and simplifies your outreach. Kennected helps you find the ideal clients for you. Try Kennected today and say goodbye to empty inboxes. Start focusing on what really matters for your business.
