from AskMyDaddy

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A LinkedIn connection of mine, who I know personally and have done business with, has requested me (very politely) to change the appearance of my LinkedIn profile by removing my email address and LIONs affiliation from my Last Name placeholder. The reason for this is that my name is being forced to the top of his LinkedIn connections list and he feels that it makes me look like a spammer to people who look up his profile ( I assume he has received comments to this effect), and he believes this defeats the visibility effect that I was trying to achieve by including email and LIONs mentions.

Presumably any Last Name placeholder in the LinkedIn profile containing (, [, or ! symbols are forced to the top of any connections list in LinkedIn.

Should I remove my email address from my LinkedIn name?

MyLinkDaddy writes

More promotion

Are there business people to whom you wouldn't give your business card? If you answered no, then read on.

A basic LinkedIn profile is an excellent start to promoting yourself and your business. But it doesn't have to stop there. Most members want to make it easy for other members to find them to initiate contact, send a connection invitation, or ultimately to do business.

One of way of doing that is to include not just your web site or phone number in your profile, but also your email address.

Last but not least don't forget to promote yourself in MyLink500 ... with your LinkedIn link and optionally your address.

Where and how to post on LinkedIn

There are many places and ways to post your email address. You can use one or all of these methods. The following list arranges them in order of increasing visibility and correspondingly decreased objection by others who might object.

• Coded address. Post a coded version of your email address so that it's not picked up by web search engines. By doing so you force your fellow LinkedIn members to manually (and hopefully correctly!) edit and correct the address. Example, instead of posting "a@b.com", use "a @ b . com" or "aATbDOTcom"

• Contact only. List the address not directly in your profile but in your Contact Settings ( https://www.linkedin.com/secure/settings?req= ) where it's displayed only when members send you an Introduction or InMail.

• General profile. List the address in your profile in Additional Information where it's seen only if people read your entire profile.

• Summary. List the address in your profile Summary where it's seen by anyone reading your profile.

• Headline. List the address in your profile in your Headline where it's seen in search results.

• Name. List the address in your name at the end of your last name, like "Marc Freedman [Marc@MyLinkDaddy.com]". This is what I do. Be aware that this approach can cause issues for external programs, such as email and contact management. When these programs store, print, and send email to people it will include the address as part of the last name.

• Top of the list. Use punctuation at the beginning of your first or last name, such as "!!!!! John Smith". This method places your name at the top of displays where there is an alphabetical listing - your connections display, connection browsing, contacts display, connection selection for updates, etc. It can cause problems with external programs that play poorly with punctuation.

LinkedIn policy and practices

LinkedIn frowns on posting email addresses as it shortcuts the network's purpose of using trusted connections to initiate contact and develop strong relationships. However many thousands of members do this. The practice is tolerated as of the time this article was written.

LinkedIn does have a process that it occasionally runs that removes the email address if inserted in the member name.

The downside

There are various issues that may result if you openly post your email address.

• Internet spam. Depending on your profile settings and where you post your address, it may be visible on the Internet and open to spammers who harvest it through web searches.

• LinkedIn spam. It is rare but there are a few LinkedIn users who find or otherwise obtain your address to add you to marketing lists without notice or contact.

• Complaints. LinkedIn members may complain, refuse to connect, or otherwise be uncooperative because you openly post your address.

• Image. LinkedIn members may have a negative image of you as an unfair, inappropriate, unprofessional, or too aggressive member based on their own personal networking philosophy and preferences.

Recommendation

Other member issues are valid and should be taken seriously. If you post your address, you will get more visibility and connections. At the same time there are some opportunities that you will miss.

The bottom-line - do whatever is consistent with your own networking philosophy and works best for you and your own personal and business success.