Two LinkedIn Security Settings You Must Set
by Stuart Crawford, Ulistic, Inc.

LinkedIn is one of the industry leading social networks and online communities in use today across multiple businesses and industries. LinkedIn's focus on business-to-business networking and facilitating the sharing of ideas and strategies has won the trust of business professionals globally. Not unlike many of their counterparts, LinkedIn does have privacy challenges according to many CEO level executives. Many organizations are now reviewing their policies related to LinkedIn and how information propagates through this business social network.

More and more business professionals are turning to LinkedIn because of its overall effectiveness in the marketplace. However, many are unaware of the apparent risks to corporate contacts when setting up their LinkedIn accounts. There are many settings that are on automatically allowing for browsing of contacts and also leaving a trace of who visited another profile. Many organizations as part of their social media acceptable use policy are now requiring specific changes to LinkedIn privacy settings be made ensuring business contacts and information are kept confidential.

LinkedIn is built on a community and like many other online networks; they embrace the sharing of information and contacts. How do businesses balance the foundations of LinkedIn with the compliance and confidentiality measures of business today?

The following recommended key privacy settings guidelines ideal for organizations leveraging LinkedIn to make sure a certain degree of privacy remains in place. These settings are accessible through the SETTINGS menu in the top right corner of your LinkedIn page.

►The "Connections Browse" option allows your contacts (those connected directly to you) to browse your LinkedIn connections. Disabling to enable this feature will prevent your connections from seeing who you are directly connected too. This will make sure key vendors contacts and clients connected through LinkedIn remains confidential.

► Profile Views - This setting controls the "breadcrumbs" you leave behind when you visit another persons LinkedIn profile. Engaging this setting will leave information about you when visiting a profile on LinkedIn, your information becomes available to that member. Turning this off disables this information from being left. You can choose to leave your full details; your job industry and title only or simply leave no trace that you were there.

Privacy online is important across many organizations large and small. These recommendations can protect your key contacts and keep your LinkedIn network confidential from those looking at harvesting your contacts line. In addition, you also will protect your identity when viewing the profiles of others.

Stuart Crawford is a strategic online communications and IT marketing professional with Ulistic. Ulistic focuses on empowering small business owners globally through education and training. Stuart has worked in the managed services arena for over 15 years as a service professional. Recently changing gears to focus on coaching and mentoring his peers on the strategies he employed as a technology professional. You can learn more about Ulistic at http://www.ulistic.com/