Don’t Try and Game Your LinkedIn NAME Field

Emails, Mobiles, Symbols, Extra Information (other than Suffixes) are NOT  permitted on the Name Field on LinkedIn – it can and will compromise your account and how you are searched and found.  DONT RISK IT!

We all want to be clever and increase our  visibility on LinkedIn.  But trying to be a bit of a marketing smart-ass and adding  extra information in the  NAME field (apart from appropriate suffixes) just wont do you long term favours.  Having email addresses, your tagline, slogans, headline info phone number etc is just NOT clever as they are :

➡️ Not allowed by LI Policies

➡️ Reduces search-ability (significantly)

➡️ Risks LI suspension

➡️ Can appear as being desperate / smarmy

➡️ Overwhelms the whole profile 

➡️ Looks noisy/salesy in the News feed

Now I am a lover of brand elevation and doing things differently.  BUT there is a line between powerful and over-kill (apart from the policy element).  So do use your Banner real-estate  to fly your  Branding, emails  and extra information.   

Remember of  course the top 2 lines in your profile summary  are critical – especially now with the new profile layout display has changed on Desktops in 2018 (still remain the same on Mobile devices)

LinkedIn Official Name Policy & Suffix Links :

https://www.linkedin.com/help/linkedin/answer/28422

https://www.linkedin.com/help/linkedin/answer/6545?query=suffixes /

A few snippets include : “We believe that any information other than first and last names in the name fields undermines the professional nature of our site and services ”

” We also discourage members from entering additional information in these fields, especially email addresses’. 

Sloganeering masquerading as nicknames is also just plain tacky.  Nicknames are allowed (but I think they look unprofessional nonetheless).  But hey nicknames are not slogans.

So be very creative, amazing and unique on LinkedIn BUT only in the areas where they are designated. Just don’t risk a negative experience and push back with manipulating your LinkedIn NAME field.