The Dashboard on your LinkedIn profile is a source of information, to which only you are privy. It provides you with information on three main areas: Who viewed your profile, Post views, and Search appearances. When I discuss the LinkedIn profile in my workshop, many people are unaware of the Dashboard. This area of your profile should be visited often.

Below the aforementioned information, you can also benefit from three features: Career Advice, Career Interests, and Salary insights. I will address these features next week.

Who viewed your profile

The information you’ll see first when you click on Who viewed your profile is the trend of visits you’ve had in the past 90 days. As you can see, my percentage of visitors has dropped 9 percent in the past week.

You can also see that the number of visits was highest in March and hasn’t reached that number since. I’m also on a disturbing downward slope. Must do something about this.

 

Below this graphic you’ll see LinkedIn members’ head shot, name, and a partial view of their headline. For basic members, such as myself, you’ll see the most recent five people who’ve visited your profile. (Incidentally, four of mine are named “LinkedIn Members.”)

LinkedIn kindly gives you the option to upgrade to a premium account (of course they do) so you can see beyond the most recent five visitors. You’ll see everyone who viewed your profile in the past 90 days.

Well, this is partly true. You will not be able to discern the identity of visitors who select “private profile characteristics” or “private mode” in their settings to view your and other profiles. If you hoped to break through these two privacy settings, you’re out of luck.

Post views

LinkedIn shows you how many people viewed your latest post. This gives you a good sense of how many people are paying attention to what you posted. If the number is high, it’s time to rejoice. On the other hand if it’s low it means that the content is not what your audience is interested in. Below is a screenshot of one of my latest post which was one day ago.

 

Posts can include anything from an article you shared; a question you asked; some great advice you gave; a photo with a caption; a video you created for LinkedIn; a quote you appreciated; and, in my case, an announcement of what’s going on in your organization.

Search appearances

This is the most interesting information, in my opinion. Here is were you’ll see who’s searched for you based on companies, what your searchers do, and the keywords they used to find you.

I find it intriguing that LinkedIn employees are searching for me. Could it be that I’ve offended them? Might they be looking to hire me? It’s most likely the former. For job seekers this can be exciting news if the companies looking at you are the ones you’ve targeted or have applied to.

Also of interest is that authors and online marketing managers round out the top two occupations interested in me. Again, you will strive for people in your industry and at higher levels. Recruiters might show up as people who viewed your profile, which is a good thing.

In terms of keywords, I get every one of them except for Edit.com. Could someone explain this to me? What’s important is that hiring authorities are searching for words that are in your branding strategy. LinkedIn is obviously a word I want people to use when searching for me.

Lastly, I appreciate LinkedIn’s advice on how to improve my profile, but keywords alone won’t increase your visibility. You must also develop a focused network, as well as engage with your connections on a daily basis.

These are three areas of information your dashboard provides. Next week I’ll go over  three features your dashboard provides.