How to Delete a LinkedIn Account – But Why Would You?!

It saddens me to see that ‘how to delete LinkedIn account’ and ‘how to delete LinkedIn’ are in the top five most frequently asked and searched for questions online in the UK that include the word ‘LinkedIn’ with 1,000 and 590 average monthly searches respectively, according to SEMrush.

WHY is this the case?!

Now I know I’m biased here; not only am I personally a huge fan of LinkedIn but I also make my living from it as a LinkedIn Trainer and, therefore naturally strongly advocate its usage. But it honestly baffles me why anyone would want to get rid of such a powerful business-to-business platform!

There are only 2 reasons that I can think of as to why people would want to delete such a valuable resource:

1. [Perceived] lack of time
2. Lack of understanding

1. Lack of Time

As we near the end of the year, many of you will be reflecting and pondering News Year’s resolutions. One of these resolutions may be to ‘de-clutter’ your digital life, unsubscribe from emails you no longer want to be bombarded with, cancel memberships to sites you never visit etc. However, I challenge you to instead make the New Year’s resolution to spend half an hour a day or so on LinkedIn.

It may appear that the people who are successful on LinkedIn spend all day on there, which you, understandably, can’t afford to do but, as I wrote in my blog post last week, if you’re smart about using LinkedIn the right way you can make your time on LinkedIn efficient as well as effective.

2. Lack of Understanding

In order to judge if something is worth having, you need to first establish why you wanted it in the first place. If your objective for having LinkedIn was to sell things then it’s no wonder you’re considering deleting it! Selling your product or services is a by-product of the relationship building and nurturing and networking and Connecting successful users do on the platform, which, over time and after a strategic and consistent effort, generates leads and opportunities that may eventually convert into sales.

LinkedIn is about helping people find you online and establishing your reputation as an expert in your field by posting your own valuable ideas and suggestions and actively engaging with other people’s content that interests you. Share the content of others but add your own unique insights. Comment on posts and join in the debates and conversations. Encourage and motivate others by endorsing and recommending them. You’ll soon learn an abundance of new things, and people will begin to trust in your knowledge and experience, thus buying into your brand and allowing your skills to speak for themselves.

As I’m an advocate for sharing insights on social spaces, especially on LinkedIn, I’ll indulge the enquiring minds posing the above — in the spirit of sharing information:

To Delete a LinkedIn Account, Simply:

1. Click the ‘Me’ icon next to your profile picture in the top right-hand corner and then select the ‘Settings & Privacy’ option from the drop-down menu.
2. On the ‘Account Tab’, if you scroll down, you’ll see an option right at the bottom called ‘Closing Your LinkedIn Account’.
3. Simply follow the ‘Closing Your LinkedIn Account’ steps but beware…you’ll lose all the valuable Connections you’ve spent time and effort building up, all your private messages on LinkedIn, and, most devastatingly of all in my option, you’ll lose all your endorsements and recommendations.

If you are considering deleting your LinkedIn account, I’d strongly recommend getting in touch with me. Not only do I offer LinkedIn workshops for beginners to teach people how to fully leverage the platform, but I also offer LinkedIn Consultancy and Coaching and LinkedIn Profile Writing services — perfect if you have a LinkedIn profile but aren’t sure what do it with it!