How to merge LinkedIn accounts

Do you have more than one LinkedIn account? Maybe you established a profile at an old job and then started another one later. Or, perhaps you created two profiles – each to promote very different skill sets – only to realize that having two accounts just confused people … and you. 

Fortunately there is a simple process to combine multiple profiles into one. I’ll explain, but first let’s discuss why you should only have one account and what you gain and lose when you merge accounts.

Why should you only have one account?

• LinkedIn only allows one account. Having more than one puts you in violation of its rules
• Having two accounts confuses people. They don’t know which one of “you” they should connect with
• Having two accounts has likely confused you too. Most people I know who have two accounts rarely use LinkedIn because they don’t want to deal with the two-profile mess they created
• You CAN and should make one profile work for you even if you want to spotlight diverse skill sets, display two current positions, search for jobs while employed, or promote your own business while working for a company. I’ll explain how in a future article.

What you will gain/lose when you combine accounts

• All of your connections will be transferred and combined into your one good account and unnecessary duplicate connections will be removed.
• Your work history will not transfer, so before you merge accounts, copy/paste your work history into the good account.
• Your written recommendations will not transfer, so email each of the people who recommended you to ask them to recommend you again on the good account. Make it easy for them to comply by copy/pasting their original recommendation text into the email message you send them and by letting them know the URL (web address) for your correct account. (You can find that link right under your picture at the top of your good profile. Simply copy that address (Control C)  and paste it (Control V) into the email.  
• Your group memberships will not transfer, so rejoin the groups on the good account. Find them by typing the group names one at a time into the search box.
• Your skills and endorsements may not transfer*, so write down the skills that you had listed on the bad account, as well as the people who endorsed you for each skill. (Learn the names by scrolling to your Skills & Expertise section in Edit Profile mode and clicking on the blue number to the left of each skill. A box will pop up listing each endorser). Type the new skills into your good profile and then ask the same people to endorse you again by going to your profile, scrolling to the Skills and Expertise section, hovering over each skill until a blue plus sign appears, and then clicking the plus sign.

* I searched, but could not find an answer as to whether skills/endorsements transfer. If you know definitively, please comment.

How to merge your LinkedIn accounts

 

• Log on to LinkedIn. Visit the LinkedIn Help Center by clicking Me > Open Quick Help.
• Type “Merge Accounts” into the Help Center search box. Click the Merging or Closing Duplicate Accounts article from the list. Follow the prompts. 

Merge your LinkedIn profiles! Doing so can help people find your one and only (and hopefully very impressive) profile on LinkedIn. – Kathy

Is your profile not pulling for you the way you want? Do you want more recruiters or customers contacting you? Then check out WiserU to learn ways that we can help.

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