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How To Add Interests on LinkedIn: In 3 Easy Steps [Video]

If you are an ardent LinkedIn user, you may want to learn how to add interests on LinkedIn because, as it turns out, this is what connects you o both readers and recruiters personally.

In recent years, LinkedIn has grown to become the largest professional network in the world with a reach customer-base of over 690 million members with an estimated 310 million monthly active users.

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This growth can only be classified as substantial considering that the social network only came into existence in 2002.

Many have ascribed such unprecedented growth to the dynamism at work on LinkedIn. For instance, in 2016, the company announced that it had over 61 million high profiled influencers and 40 million important decision-makers in its database.

It is also the most widely used social media platform among the Fortune 500 companies, with millions of executives, actively using the service to hire regularly.

On the other end, over 87 million out of the 2 billion millennials on earth are actively on LinkedIn. This makes it the perfect ecosystem for employers and potential employees to interact with those who know how to add interests on LinkedIn, standing a higher chance of being seen by the right people than those who do not.

How to Add Interests on LinkedIn

How To Add Interests on LinkedIn
How To Add Interests on LinkedIn

Before we dive into how to add interests on LinkedIn properly, let us define what interests are so you can have a better grasp of what to do.

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Interests are information that contains Influencers, Groups, People, Topics, Companies, and Schools that you can easily follow and unfollow on the network.

Everyone following the same interest sections can easily interact with each other on LinkedIn. Secondly, the interests you follow reflect how others see you. People can take a close look at your interests to learn more about you, thereby leading to new connections and even potential job opportunities.

How to Add Interest on LinkedIn

Step 1: Visit the website

To begin, first, visit LinkedIn’s website and sign in using your login details. This will allow you access to your profile and the complete LinkedIn services.

Step 2: Use the search bar

Once you are signed in to your LinkedIn profile, navigate to the top of the screen, where you will find the search bar.

Next, type in the name of the person, company, group, Influencer, school, or topic you would be interested in and would like to add to your profile.

Step 3: Press the “+Follow” button.

Once you have searched and found what you are looking for, click on it to open their profile page. Just beneath the name or in front of the name, you will find the “+Follow” button, which you would need to click if you wish to follow them.

That is as simple as it gets, and while you can get it done using just these three steps, the job of adding interests on LinkedIn is never done.

For instance, you may discover that an interest you found very attractive in the past is sending connections away from you or bringing you the wrong connection after a while.

Hence, learning how to add interests on LinkedIn is important, but it is also essential to learn how to remove them.

How to Remove Interests on LinkedIn

Step 1: Log in to the website

As always, before you can get anything done, you will need to visit the website and access your profile.

To do this, simply type in the URL of LinkedIn on your favorite browser and then sign in using your credentials, such as your username and password.

Step 2: Open “Interests”

Once you are in your profile, keep scrolling until you find the section for “Interests,” then navigate further down to find “See All” and click on it to show all the Interests you are currently following.

You can also view your different interests in their respective categories as Influencers, Companies, Groups, or Schools.

Step 3: Click the “Following” icon.

Once you can find all your interests clearly displayed, you can easily unfollow any of the ones you now find unfitting.

To do this, simply click on the “Following” button in front of each interest. The button will immediately change into a “+Follow” to indicate that you are no longer following that interest.

You may also repeat the above process for any other interest you wish to stop following.

If adding interests tells people on LinkedIn more about you and prompts them to want to connect with you, removing particular interests is how you fine-tune that and ensure you only get the connections that serve you better.

Can I Hide My Interests on LinkedIn?

How To Add Interests on LinkedIn
How To Add Interests on LinkedIn

Yes, you can hide your interests on LinkedIn but only on your public profile and not your private LinkedIn profile.

Naturally, when you register on LinkedIn, you are given two profiles; a public one and a private one. The public profile is what people who are not on LinkedIn will see about you, while the private profile is the information that LinkedIn displays to other users.

And while you cannot hide your interests and other personal and professional information from your private profile, you can easily do it on your public profile.

It is even possible to choose not to use a public profile at all if that is what you want to do. Below are the steps to follow to hide your interests and other content on LinkedIn.

Step 1: Log in to the website.

To begin the process of hiding your profile, first log into LinkedIn’s website and head over to your profile, then click on it to find “Settings.”

Step 2: Edit your profile

Once you click on “Settings,” a menu will open with options of what you can do. Find Helpful Links” on that menu and click on it.

Then locate “Edit Your Public Profile” to see the options for hiding content. Next, navigate to “Make My Public Profile Visible to No One” if you want to hide all content and prevent your public profile from even being displayed.

Step 3: Select content to hide

However, if you wish to leave your public profile on but would like to hide interests and other information, click on “Make My Public Profile Visible to Everyone,” then commence selecting what you what hidden.

To hide any content, simply click on the box in the front to clear or uncheck it. You can hide anything from your interests and skills to education and past and current positions.

How Do I Make My LinkedIn Profile Stand Out?

How To Add Interests on LinkedIn
How To Add Interests on LinkedIn

Aside from knowing how to add interests on LinkedIn to woo viewers and potential recruiters, you can also learn how to make your profile stand out and make you more compelling on the network.

Below are some of the best ways to stand apart and be ahead of most LinkedIn users:

Get Over 500 Connections

The number of connections goes to inform any viewer how consequential or important you are on the platform.

People with very few connections tend to get fewer chances of getting more connections or opportunities. It has also been seen that LinkedIn users tend to discriminate between a user with 100 connections and another with over 500 connections.

People would gravitate towards you more when you have crossed the 500 connections benchmark. Because not a lot of users know this or put in extra work to achieve this, this will automatically put you ahead and make it even less pronounced for people to tell whether you have 501 or 5001 connections.

Always Include Any Contact Details

The primary purpose of this social network is to foster connections and bring offers, and contact information is essentially how people can reach you more easily.

Leaving out contact information is the same as preventing yourself from getting the opportunities that abound on the social media platform.

You can include contact details such as your email, phone number, Twitter handles, and website (if you have one) and make it much easier for people to reach you.

Post Content Whenever You Can

The last thing you want is a LinkedIn profile that is less active or has no presence at all. Because most opportunities do not come once and only happen after the viewer has been observing your profile for some time, you will want to make sure there is actually something to observe constantly.

You can post a few times a week and keep yourself in the minds of employers and people who can give you specific opportunities.

Just be sure to post what is most relevant to your interests and your connections to ensure you catch the right attention with every post.

Never Leave Your Details Blank

Nothing makes you look like a finisher like a duly completed LinkedIn profile. When you fill in every necessary detail, you set yourself up to appear in more searches and rank higher on LinkedIn.

This can even turn out to be something that some employers are looking for, and since not many LinkedIn users do it, it can easily make you stand out.

Always Use the Alumni Effect

While some people may not know you personally, they may be drawn to you because of the places you associate with.

Including the places you have studied, for instance, creates a time of circle that brings more people into your profile because of the alumni effect.

People who know any of the schools you have been to are more likely to think they have more in common with you and hence establish connections with you.

What Should You Not Include In A LinkedIn Profile?

How To Add Interests on LinkedIn
How To Add Interests on LinkedIn

In the above section, we have looked at some of the things you need to do and add to make you stand out on LinkedIn. The following section goes the opposite direction and teaches you things you should never include on your LinkedIn profile as it can send the wrong message of chase away connections.

Don’t Post What Is Unrelated to Work.

It is straightforward to get very personal quickly on social media. While you can sometimes do this on LinkedIn and even inculcate some personal bits in your profile and posts, you may want to keep things strictly professional for your good.

LinkedIn is more professional and is always out to discuss businesses or write and read about work-related matters.

It is inappropriate and unproductive to post personal, political, or controversial content and pictures, especially if they are unrelated to work and business.

Never Post Content With Common Mistakes

We do know that everyone makes a mistake now and then, but certain mistakes will ruin your reputation on LinkedIn.

For instance, spelling and simple grammatical errors that people in the professional world should not be caught making can drive the wrong impressions and inspire questions regarding your qualifications.

Consider reading the post at least three times before sharing to catch and avoid mistakes, as even the most superficial errors can sometimes hold very deadly consequences both for your careers and potential offers.

Never Bash People or Organizations on Your LinkedIn Profile

While you are free to say whatever you want on social media, you may want to control what you say or how you do it on LinkedIn.

This is because certain expressions can hint at a red flag for future employers. For instance, trashing your former employer or place of employment on LinkedIn may turn recruiters away from you even if what you had said is accurate and verifiable.

However, you can warn your connections about a toxic work environment, but you will need to do that in the most civilized and professional way possible.

Conclusion

LinkedIn is arguably the largest social media platform for professionals to connect, learn, and share content and opportunities.

And specific attributes such as interests help to make the process of connection easier and smoother. This is why a skill like how to add interests on LinkedIn is a crucial one.

For more content about other social media, check out the following posts:

https://tubevarsity.com/how-to-unblock-yourself-on-messenger/

https://tubevarsity.com/how-to-post-on-instagram-from-your-desktop/

https://tubevarsity.com/how-to-view-facebook-stories-anonymously/

https://tubevarsity.com/how-does-telegram-make-money/

 

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