Does LinkedIn Have Read Receipts? Find Out.

Does LinkedIn have read receipts? The answer to this question could change your LinkedIn strategy to a great extent.

Sending a message on LinkedIn is always exciting. You can end up making a new connection. You can connect with people you have not spoken to for a very long time. But there is no way of knowing whether the person you are messaging has read your text. You don’t even know if they had had a chance to open it. If only there were a way to tell whether you had hit your mark when you sent a message.

Read receipts are your only indicator to know whether the person you are starting a conversation with has at all opened your message. It is a small and inconspicuous sign that you will find at the bottom right corner of the message thread.

If you are using a desktop, you can hover the mouse over the icon and understand if the message has been read.

There is an additional feature on LinkedIn that lets you know if someone you have a message to is typing. It gives you that exciting feeling of enlightenment. All your hard effort has finally been paid off.

Both the read receipt and typing feature are excellent tools if you want to create new connections and understand if this is going to be fruitful or you will remain in somebody’s inbox unread.

If you have started chatting with someone, you can still see whether they are typing to understand if they are engaged in the conversation or if there is no follow up to what you have said.

Let’s find out does LinkedIn have read receipts and how can you make your life easier when growing your network.

Does LinkedIn Have Read Receipts? How Do They Work?

In LinkedIn, the read receipt option is turned on by default. However, they are not activated. They can only work if you and the person you are messaging to have turned on this feature. If one of you has not enabled or activated this feature, you will not be able to see if and when this person has read your message.

There is a small icon at the corner of your message thread that shows whether your message has been read or not. Read receipts come with a timestamp feature as well. When the person reads your message, it will not only show that it has been read. It will also come across with the timestamp of when it was read.

There is, however, no date stamp, so you have no way of telling the date the person has opened your message. For that, you have to stay vigilant and regularly visit your LinkedIn profile to make sure you are updated on all the correspondence. This only works for the desktop site, so you would be able to see this from your laptop or computer but not from your mobile.

Who Needs LinkedIn Read Receipts?

Everyone. If you are serious about growing your connection and want to understand whether your prospects are interested in this connection or not, read receipts are extremely handy. If you are using other LinkedIn tools like LinkedIn sales navigator to connect with other people, this is an excellent way of looking at your message status.

Just because someone has not read your message does not mean they are completely uninterested. You might even have to improve your approach towards messaging or sales so you can connect with more people and get them interested in messaging you back.

If you are trying to see which messages you have opened, you can go to the Messages tab and see all the unread connections. These connections are shown in bold, and there is a blue number icon that will tell you how many unread messages you have sitting in your inbox.

Remember, these are people who might be waiting to see the read receipt as well. So, if you have some critical correspondence to complete, go through your message thread and make sure you catch up on all the conversations.

How Do You Turn On Or Off The Read Receipts On LinkedIn?

Although read receipts are an excellent tool for many people, they might not be perfect for everyone. It might give you extra pressure to reply immediately. It could also mean that some people avoid your messages altogether.

Know where to go to turn on or turn off the feature. The feature on your profile is enabled by default, and if you want to make any changes, here’s how you can do that.

Desktop Site

Navigate to the settings page on your LinkedIn. The settings are located at the top right corner of the profile page. From here, you can go to the communications tab, which is at the top of your profile. There are plenty of options available here along with notifications, which people can send messages to you, who can send connections to you, and your messaging experience.

You need to go to the messaging experience to change the read receipt settings. Scroll down to the section and go to the Read Receipts and Typing Indicators option. There is a simple button to change the setting from on or off as you see fit.

Mobile App

The process of turning on this feature is similar to that of the desktop. You have to click on the profile icon to go to the main page. In here, you will find the settings icon at the top left of the screen. Click on Settings and get access to the full menu.

On the top of the page, you can see four options. Here, you can go to the Communications tab at the bottom of the page. Here you will find the read receipts and typing indicators set. Simply click on it and turn them on or off, depending on your preference.

Is Turning On Read Receipts The Right Choice For You?

Suppose you have an average to a moderate number of followers or connections on LinkedIn. In that case, you are going to get plenty of messages from prospects and people willing to connect with you.

Sometimes, it can be challenging to manage all of them. You might get messages from all of your colleagues, friends, recruiters, and even some bots. Even if you start with the idea that you want to reply to every message later, the other person can see that you have decided not to respond to the messages immediately because of your read receipt setting, which is turned on by default. If you belong to an industry where this can add a level of tension or friction between your prospects, it can be intensely stressful for you because it is not always possible to respond to messages as you please. The other party might get a false impression that you are not interested in the interaction or value their connections.

If you are dealing with particularly eager people who also want to understand if you are typing to their messages, there will be even more pressure on not leaving them hanging.

Also, if you feel this is something you can cope with and the added stress of enabling read receipt is necessary for your Profile, keep it enabled.

If you are not sure that you can respond immediately or want some time to catch up with your connections with no hard feelings, disable the read receipts feature. However, remember that you will also not see the read receipt when you send a message to someone else.

How Can You Improve Your Chances Of Getting Red When You Send Messages?

There is no guarantee that the prospect you are messaging will see your message. In that case, the read receipt does not come in very handy. There is no guarantee how other people will behave, and all you can do is improve your actions so you can improvise your chances of getting responses. If you frequently use LinkedIn for marketing, you can do plenty of things to improve your chances.

Optimizing your profile is the best way to make sure people read and respond to your messages. There are some of the tips that will help improve the read receipt possibility.

Complete All The Fields In Your Profile

Consider the LinkedIn profile as your online resume. Whether you are looking for a job or not, you should spend some time to make sure your profile is complete and reflects your professional life to the best of your abilities. It should reflect all the accomplishments, qualifications, skills, and certifications that make you stand out from the herd. This means no getting away with halfhearted summaries and boring taglines. Spend some time and do your research on how professionals in your industry write their profiles.

Make sure to add a good quality image as well. It should be taken professionally with formal clothing, and you should have a decent smile to seem approachable, so people are willing to message you. This is not Facebook or Tinder, but you still want people to send you messages and connect with you.

Actively Engage With Your Audience

If you only message people when you need something from them, you will suffer the consequences later. If you are an active member of LinkedIn, this will increase your chances of getting read more often. This is the real spirit of LinkedIn. If you want to connect with your fellow professionals, you have to help them grow and learn.

Stay On Point

Whatever your interaction is, make sure it is to the point. Do not ramble on about your background and history. Your first line should briefly summarize the reason you are connecting with this person. Be friendly, open, and relevant.

Stop Selling

There has been a massive uptick in the number of people using LinkedIn to sell their products. If you are also trying to go down this path, your professional life will suffer. Professionals in the industry are not always interested in your halfhearted sales pitch and either block you or click on that I don’t know this person option.

If as few as five people click on the I don’t know this person option, and your profile can be barred from utilizing LinkedIn for an indefinite time. Save yourself the speeches for later when you have successfully created a genuine connection.

Be Professional

People are on LinkedIn for professional reasons. This is where people talk about business, ideas, thought leadership, white papers, etc. Your language and approach should reflect the best in your industry. You can improve the chance of engaging with your audience by meaningfully speaking to them and contributing to the conversation.

Keep Your Expectations In Check

Everyone is busy, and they might have multiple things to do at a time. Just because you have sent a connection request or message on LinkedIn does not mean you will get responded to immediately. Most people will access LinkedIn from their work or even do it after work if they have some time to spend.

While you are composing a message, keep it to the point. Even then, you might not get replies very often. This is normal. Try to improve your profile instead of randomly spamming people or going on a rant when people do not respond to you.

Contribute To The Platform

If you want to grow your sphere of influence truly, you have to engage with the audience actively and contribute something to the platform. Add connections that matter. If you want a potential employer to take notice of you, try to connect with someone working in the company or any other connections. Comment on the posts people are talking about if they are relevant to your industry.

If you can provide some relevant or helpful information, this will instantly make other people notice you are interested in connecting with them. LinkedIn can open up a lot of opportunities for people who want to grow in professional life and people who want to grow their businesses. People are not just inherently opposed to selling; you just have to pick your time and make sure you have the groundwork to base it on.

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