I always recommend that you use a business email address as your ‘Primary’ address on LinkedIn. This is the address that will be visible (if your settings allow) to your visitors and is much more professional than having something like ‘Bubblegum66@aol.com’ on your profile.
Also, when someone allows LinkedIn to search their email contact list to make connections, LinkedIn looks only at EMAIL ADDRESSES (all addresses that are linked, not just the primary), not names. So if you are in your friend’s database as Sarina VanHooven with a gmail address, LinkedIn will not ‘see’ your profile, even if it has the same name, unless that gmail address is linked to your profile.
A second address can be very helpful if, for any reason, you are no longer able to access the first address. Maybe you change jobs or email service providers. Having two addresses associated with the account can help you maintain access to your profile.
It is ideal to have all of your email addresses linked to your LinkedIn account. To do this, go to your name, in the upper right hand corner of the LinkedIn page and click on the little triangle next to your name. Then click on ‘Settings’ on that drop down.
Then click on the ‘Account’ tab on the lower left hand of the next page and the ‘Add and change email addresses’ link
The next page you are taken to will be a list of all the addresses that are linked to the account. There will be a box to add new addresses. Insert the address and click ‘add email address’. LinkedIn will send a quick email to the account you want to add (so be sure you have access to the account!) to verify you have access to it. That email will contain a link – once clicked, the email address will be added to the list.
Note that once an address is added to this list, you have the option of making it ‘primary’ and also have the ability to ‘remove’ it.
Keep this in mind if you ever want to delete an address, after changing jobs or losing access to an old account.
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