LinkedIn Gives Users Free and Easy Access to Verification

LinkedIn has announced an updated verification that sees LinkedIn working with third-party verification partners to expand verification to more LinkedIn users.


Remember back in April, LinkedIn worked with the identity platform CLEAR to give users a way to get verified by providing their Government-assigned ID. This allowed LinkedIn users to add an impressive verification badge to their profiles, which, in turn, gives more assurance to profile visitors that you are who you say you are and not just some flaky troll.

Verification is becoming more important these days, with bots and trolls taking up valuable real estate on social platforms. Elon even introduced Premium on X, claiming it was his way to stop the proliferation of evil bots. Of course, you have to pay to help.

Well, LinkedIn's verification process won't cost you anything. Not a dime. Not even a penny. It does incorporate third-party confirmation, though, which makes it different from other platforms that do their own verifying. The big question is, is this a better way to do it?

This option was only available to those users living in the U.S., but LinkedIn recently expanded the service to users in Canada and Mexico, and by partnering with services like Microsoft Entra and Digilocker, they're hoping to expand into other regions quickly.

The big hurdle when relying on third-party partners is finding collaborators with local entities able to confirm ID documentation. And, of course, those partners will want to be paid, right? We all need to get paid, which could make it difficult for LinkedIn's regional expansion plans, at least in the short term or until they can find a way to monetize the plan themselves.

If you're a user in a region with verification available, lucky you! There are all kinds of cool reasons to covet this status. LinkedIn reports that verified users get 60% more profile views, 50% more comments and reactions, and 30% more messages than users who haven't been verified. Sounds like a good deal unless the messages are from random people saying happy birthday every year.

LinkedIn aims to have all users "verify at least one attribute of their professional identity," with a goal to have confirmed the identities of 100 million users by 2025.

They also plan to incorporate verification into "selected job postings" to give users a better feeling about the listings.

The big takeaway is that it's free, and since it's done by third-party partners, it's likely to go a lot further toward fighting off bots than X's brilliant approach, which requires users to link their credit cards and give Elon money. We'll let you decide.

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