Should You Verify Your LinkedIn Account?

LinkedIn keeps nudging us to verify our accounts but does it really matter?

If you’re on LinkedIn regularly, you’ve probably noticed LinkedIn’s not-so-subtle nudges to verify your account. According to LinkedIn, it’s to help us ‘build mutual trust’ but is it really?

The truth is, LinkedIn has a problem. It’s seen as the most trusted social media platform but it’s also awash with fake profiles.

For a while now, I’ve been banging on about the importance of being careful with whom you connect. Even if you share dozens of mutual connections, that doesn’t automatically mean someone is bona fide.

So, to help combat the problem LinkedIn introduced Verification as an attempt to clean things up by asking us to prove we are who we say we are.

So are people verifying their account?

To find out, I ran a poll on LinkedIn asking: “LinkedIn Verification: will you, or won’t you?” and over 140 people voted as follows:

✅ 35% – Yes, got the badge

🤔 21% – Still thinking about it

🙅♂️ 37% – No not sharing my info

🤷♀️ 8% – What’s LinkedIn verification?

So whilst over a third of us have taken the plunge, an even larger proportion are either resisting outright or still weighing up whether it’s worth it.

What stops people from verifying their account?

Some of the most common reasons for not verifying included:

• Privacy concerns: the fact that verifying your account requires a 3rd party platform meant, understandably, many were not comfortable sharing their personal ID.
• Name mismatches: this is a particular problem for women where often the name on their profile did not match with the one in their passport. I had this example, as I call myself Judy on LinkedIn but on my passport, I’m Judith.
• Technical challenges also came up as an issue. Again, something I experience when I verified my account. It’s a bit of a faff and it took a few times for it to work and I almost gave up!
• Then there were other practical reasons such as having an out-of-date passport or not having a passport at all.

But it wasn’t all negative. As someone pointed out, “we give the same data to airlines and hotels without a second thought.”

The Good News: Verification is 100% optional

Regardless of where you stand on the whole LinkedIn verification question, the thing to remember is that you DON’T have to verify your account

There’s no penalty, no reduced reach, no algorithmic slap on the wrist if you don’t. It’s entirely optional.

The other thing is that LinkedIn is also rolling out company page verification, so for employees this should be a whole lot easier as you can verify yourself using your company email address.

But whether you choose to verify or not, there are a few things you should absolutely do to stay safe on LinkedIn:

✅ Always do your due diligence before accepting connection requests

✅ Turn on two-factor authentication (2FA) to protect your account

✅ Use a strong password because LinkedIn accounts do get hacked

I use a tool called Bitwarden to test the strength of my passwords. It shows you how quickly a password could be cracked. If yours is weak, switch to a pass phrase (a series of words with spaces) instead.

My take?

Ultimately, LinkedIn’s value lies in trust. Trust in the platform, trust in the people we connect with, and trust in the conversations we’re having.

But verification is just one piece of that puzzle. Whether you choose to do it or not, the bigger focus should be on building a genuine network, being authentic and staying safe on LinkedIn.

Another question that came up for me does it make a different in terms of connecting with someone. Would it make you feel more confident connecting with someone if you knew their profile was verified? 🤔

Need more support with LinkedIn?

💥 If LinkedIn isn’t working hard for you or you’re not sure where to start with using LinkedIn, email judy@judithparsons.com or connect with me on LinkedIn to chat about how I can help.

Or book a virtual brew here and let’s make LinkedIn work for you . . . ⭐

I run regular LinkedIn LoveIns which are short 30-minute learnings over lunch, often with guest experts to help improve LinkedIn results. If you’d like to be notified of new events why not join my LinkedIn LoveIn group. You can also find the recordings of previous LoveIns as well as tips and updates here.