UPDATE: LinkedIn changed the design of their social ads and posted a clarification to their policy. See below for the updated details.

Oh, how I love LinkedIn! I often speak and write about LinkedIn, as well as provide a great deal of training to help others get the most out of the most powerful professional networking site online. As much as I also adore Twitter and Facebook, LinkedIn is still the one place to get started building your brand and career online. While some say Google+ may steal some of the professional spotlight away from LinkedIn, it is much too early to know if this will ever come to pass. For now, my statement stands: LinkedIn is the place to start when you’re ready to tell your branding story the way you want it to be told.

All that said, I’ve got to say that LinkedIn was wrong in this latest move. Sadly, those of us who live our lives online have become accustomed to hearing that we’ve been opted-in to sharing information we had no intention of making available to our friends, to applications or to advertisers. Facebook has a track record of irking its members in this area on a seemingly regular basis. But, LinkedIn? Surely they didn’t do this? Or did they?

Spoiler Alert: They did.

Solution Alert: Here’s how to fix it in 5 clicks. I can hear you thinking that 5 is a lot of clicks to opt-out of anything regarding privacy. You’re right, but here’s exactly what to do, step-by-step.

1. Hover your cursor over your name. You will see a drop-down menu. From here, click on Settings.
2. Click on Account.
3. Click on Manage Social Advertising.
4. You will then see a small box enabling Social Advertising. Click to uncheck that box.
5. Click Save.

You’re done.

This change was announced via a blog post on LinkedIn on June 23 of this year. How do you feel about how this change was implemented? Would you like to see future privacy changes on LinkedIn communicated differently?

UPDATE (8/11/2011): LinkedIn just announced a new approach to social ads today. I’m very happy with this new design and applaud them for their quick response to member confusion and frustration. 

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