Should I have two profiles on LinkedIn?
I am often asked “Why can’t I have two profiles on LinkedIn?”
There are a few dimensions to this:
Firstly, it breaks LinkedIn terms of service, and hence you risk both profiles being removed!
Secondly, there are implications for you:
1) That great network that you have now, how do you migrate that and its access and impact onto another profile? Are you going to invite those connections to connect to both of you? How confusing will that be for people?
2) You must have a lot of spare capacity if you want to increase your workload by maintaining two profiles! Two lots of posting, two sets of connections to manage, two sets of digital reputation and more. You also need to bear in mind that you cannot migrate any recommendations you receive into another profile!
Twice the work basically!
Thirdly, there are implications for others:
1) Which profile is the one they should be looking at or engaging with and how do they know? Whilst in your mind you might have articulated why the split, if someone searches for you by name (the most common search), there are now two of you – but which one is right? This causes confusion to the viewer and doubt about why two profiles – which one is real – and due to this will limit success.
In real life there is only one of you and LinkedIn wants the same – just one of you.
Increasingly we wear multiple work “hats” and, instead of having two profiles, focus on the one profile and the two foci, the two roles, addressing both through your profile with appropriate updates, building your personal reputation and network to enable both “hats” to get the success they deserve over time.
12 July 2022
