LinkedIn Open Profiles: What Are They And How To Find Them? 2024

Have you encountered the term “LinkedIn Open Profiles” and wondered what it means?

LinkedIn Open Profiles is a feature that allows users to be more accessible on the platform.

But how do you identify these profiles, and what benefits do they offer?

Open Profiles are a great opportunity on LinkedIn because you can send them free InMails.

Unfortunately, no Open Profiles filter exists on LinkedIn search or Sales Navigator.

no open profile filter on linkedin sales navigator

You can still use some techniques to identify Open Profiles among your LinkedIn Sales Navigator search results to get these leads on LinkedIn.

Today, I’ll uncover for you:

  1. What are LinkedIn Open Profiles?
  2. How To Find Open Profiles on LinkedIn?
  3. How To Turn on Open Profile on LinkedIn?
  4. How To Filter Open Profiles on LinkedIn Sales Navigator?
  5. How To Leverage LinkedIn Open Profiles?

What Are LinkedIn Open Profiles?

LinkedIn’s Open Profile is a Premium feature that allows users to message Premium members without charges, even if they aren’t directly connected.

what are linkedin open profiles

All members can view the complete profiles of those with Open Profile enabled.

To use Open Profile, you need a Premium subscription.

How To Turn on Open Profile on LinkedIn?

You can activate Open Profile on LinkedIn by clicking your profile picture, selecting ‘View profile’, and then the Edit icon.

turn on open profile

Next, click the Dropdown next to the gold Premium badge.

Finally, turn on the Open Profile’ toggle, allowing any LinkedIn member to message you freely, regardless of connection status.

activate open profile linkedin

Should You Turn on Open Profile on LinkedIn?

Activating the Open Profile option is a good idea if you want to have more conversations on LinkedIn.

Disabling will reduce unsolicited messages but might also prevent potential leads, candidates, or partners from easily reaching out to you.

Who Can See Your Open Profile on LinkedIn?

Any LinkedIn user can view the full profile of Premium members with the Open Profile feature enabled.

image

This lets them contact these Premium members without charges, regardless of connection status.

How To Find Open Profiles on LinkedIn?

You can find open profiles on LinkedIn or Sales Navigator using a manual technique.

That is an interesting opportunity to generate leads on a small scale.

1. Find Open Profiles on LinkedIn

To find Open Profiles on LinkedIn, you must visit the profiles, click More, then Message.

If you see the Open InMail messages box mentioning “Free Messages,” it means you found them on Open Profile.

find open profiles linkedin

So the first step is to visit the profile and click “More”.

Then, a dropdown will appear; click “Messages”

identify open profiles linkedin

After clicking on Message, a message box will appear, which means it’s an Open Profile.

2. Find Open Profiles on Sales Navigator

It used to be easy to identify Open Profiles on Sales Navigator because there was a sign “OPEN” on their profiles in the top right corner.

find open profiles linkedin sales navigator

LinkedIn deleted that feature.

Now you must click on “Message” and check if the mention “Free to Open Profiles” appears.

search open profiles linkedin sales navigator

These techniques are efficient if you have a small list of profiles to check.

But how do you proceed if you have hundreds or thousands of profiles to check?

Let me show you how to do that.

How To Filter Open Profiles on LinkedIn Sales Navigator?

To filter Open Profiles on LinkedIn, you can:

  1. Search on LinkedIn Sales Navigator
  2. Export your search into CSV with Evaboot
  3. Look into the column “Prospect is Open Profile”

1. Search on LinkedIn Sales Navigator

This technique won’t allow filtering Open Profiles using Sales Navigator search filters but will help you detect if there are Open Profiles among your search results.

Indeed, the LinkedIn search engines don’t have “Open Profile” in their search options, which could lead to spammers harassing open profiles.

search open profiles on linkedin sales navigator

The first step is to search on Sales Navigator as usual using filters like current job title, company, years of experience, etc…

Sales Navigator doesn’t allow filtering on Open Profile because too many people use it to send messages to them.

Not giving the filter is a way to protect them from spam.

You can use LinkedIn Boolean search to make your results even more accurate.

2. Export your search into CSV with Evaboot

You must use a scraper to determine whether a LinkedIn member has an open profile.

That information is hidden on the LinkedIn profile code.

Not every LinkedIn Sales Navigator scraper gets this information, but Evaboot does.

To export your LinkedIn Sales Navigator lead list into a CSV, install the Evaboot Chrome extension and click the “Extract with Evaboot” button at the top of the Sales Navigator search page.

It will extract many profile page data like experience section, degree connections, profile URL, etc…

export open profiles from linkedin

Just wait for the scraper to get the information, and then you can identify Open Profiles.

3. Look into the column “Prospect is Open Profile”

Once the leads have been extracted, you can click on the download icon to get the CSV file.

download open profiles linkedin sales navigator
Open the CSV file and look for the column “Prospect is Open Profile”:
  • If you see TRUE: the prospect is an Open Profile
  • If you see FALSE: the prospect isn’t an Open Profile
filter open profiles linkedin

If you use Google Sheets or Excel, you can use filters to get all the open profiles in your list in a few clicks.

  1. Select your headers
  2. Click on the filter icon on the menu tab
  3. Click on the filter icon in the header
  4. Select TRUE only
filter open profiles googles sheets

Boom. You now have a list of Open Profiles waiting to be contacted.

create list open profiles linkedin

If that is not enough for you and you want to get contact information from your Sales Navigator search, you can also do that with Evaboot.

How To Leverage LinkedIn Open Profiles?

Open Profiles can be used to:

  1. Save connection requests credits
  2. Send unlimited InMails
  3. Get contacted by recruiters

1. Save connection request credits

Once you can filter open profiles in your lead list, you can separate your outreach campaigns into 2 lists:

  1. One list of Open Profiles who will be contacted through Sales Navigator InMails
  2. One list of typical profiles who will be contacted through connection request

Given a weekly limit on connection requests of 100-200 per week, this technique is a great opportunity to save your “connection request credits”.

2. Send unlimited InMails

There are 3 techniques to contact people without being connected to them on LinkedIn:

  1. Identify Open Profiles
  2. Contact LinkedIn group members
  3. Contact LinkedIn event attendees

By identifying open profiles, you can send an unlimited number of InMails to contact 10 times more people than your competitors.

If you need to contact many people quickly, sending InMail to open profiles is the way to go.

Having unlimited InMail credits is not a reason to send spammy messages.

Even if you can leverage the quantity of messages you can send, keep focusing on the quality.

You only have 50 InMail credits per month, so it’s important to follow InMail best practices.

If you scale bad practices, you will scale bad results.

To improve your InMail reply rate, you can check these LinkedIn prospecting message templates.

3. Get contacted by recruiters

If you are subscribed to LinkedIn Premium Career, you can activate the Open Profile setting to help you in your job search.

As a job seeker, having a premium account can be an efficient strategy for allowing potential employers to contact you more easily and for getting a new job.

linkedin premium career

By activating the Open Profile option on your LinkedIn account, you can signal that you are open to job opportunities.

open to work linkedin



It’s much better than displaying the Open To Work badge on your profile photo. That’s making you look needy in the eyes of hiring managers. Don’t do that.

So, if you are looking for your new work experience, getting a LinkedIn premium profile is worth it.

LinkedIn claims Premium Career subscribers get hired at an average of 2X as fast.

Conclusion

You’ve seen that activating Open Profiles and learning to find leads on LinkedIn can generate many business opportunities.

Receiving and sending more open profile messages is an efficient way to advance your business or your career.

So, don’t wait a second and start implementing these strategies right now!

FAQ

What is the open profile message on LinkedIn?

The Open Profile feature allows LinkedIn members to send you free messages without using InMail.

To enable this feature, first turn on your Premium Profile visibility. Then, you can adjust your Open Profile messaging settings.

Can you search for open profiles on LinkedIn?

LinkedIn and Sales Navigator don’t have a search filter for Open Profiles. However, with some insider knowledge, you can identify Open Profiles.

These profiles often enable Open Profile Messaging, allowing you to send free InMails.

In addition, engage with content and posts from Premium members, as they are more likely to have Open Profiles.

Can people see you have an open profile on LinkedIn?

If you make your profile public, anyone on LinkedIn can send you a message, regardless of your connection status.

Although it’s not obvious to all LinkedIn members, those who use Sales Navigator will see a small green icon on your profile indicating that it’s open.

How do I enable or disable an open profile on LinkedIn?

To enable or disable an open profile on LinkedIn:

  1. Click the Me icon at the top of your LinkedIn home page to view your profile.
  2. Click the Edit icon in the Introduction section.
  3. Click the drop-down icon next to the gold LinkedIn Premium Profile badge in the Edit Intro pop-up window.
  4. In the dropdown, move the toggle to the right under Open Profile to allow anyone on LinkedIn to contact you directly for free, even if they’re not connected to you.
  5. Move the toggle to the left to disable Open Profile.
  6. Click Save at the bottom right.

How useful was this post?

Click on a star to rate it!

Average rating 5 / 5. Vote count: 37

No votes so far! Be the first to rate this post.

As you found this post useful...

Follow us on social media!

We are sorry that this post was not useful for you!

Let us improve this post!

Tell us how we can improve this post?

subscribe youtube evaboot
try evaboot