How valuable do you find LinkedIn’s ‘Who Viewed Your Profile’ feature to be?

Some say that it’s a great way to make connections, and facilitate interaction, while others find it to be a point of interest, but not overly beneficial.

We decided to put the question to the SMT community, and here’s what we found.

As you can see, based on 1,000 votes, the majority of respondents say that they’ve never made any valuable connections as a result of LinkedIn’s profile viewer insights.

Then again, 43% of people have, so it’s not like it’s a useless tool. But either it’s not as valuable as many would hope, or people are not using the feature as best they could, in terms of it being a jumping off point for reaching out to possible connections as a result of them taking a look at your info.

Which is what LinkedIn expert Brynne Tillman advises in her usage of the option, relating the WVYP listing to caller ID. If it’s someone who you would call back, send them a message, and a request to connect, and if not, you can just ignore it and move on.

As explained by Tillman:

“If it’s a first degree connection, you can send them a simple note thanking them for stopping by your profile and asking ‘what brought you to my profile today?’. If they aren’t a connection yet, and you think you may want them to be, send a connection request with this message: ‘Thanks for dropping by my profile. I had a chance to look at yours and I’d love to connect. If you agree, kindly accept this invitation. P.S. may I ask how you found me?’”

That could be a great, simple way to get the conversation started, so while most people haven’t gained any valuable business connections as a result of the option as yet, it could just be that both parties are waiting for the other to make a first move to initiate a conversation, which may well lead to more opportunities.

Which is really what these results suggest. Maybe people are reaching out to those viewing their profile, and they’re still not getting any real, beneficial response. But my guess is that most people aren’t looking to make connections as a result of the feature.

It could be worth taking the initiative, and being a bit more bold in sparking a discussion – and really, the worse case is that the person says that they were just browsing, like in a store, or they don’t respond at all.

Nothing lost by reaching out, and potentially, a lot to be gained by taking that first step.

Worth considering in your approach.