Silent treatment? How to tell if you’ve been blocked on LinkedIn

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I’ve certainly seen the need to block people on LinkedIn. And also have been blocked on LinkedIn by others. I can tell you why I blocked them, but I’m not sure why specific people blocked me at times.

Either way, in this article, I share:

• how to tell if you’ve are blocked on LinkedIn
• why you might block people
• how to block people on LinkedIn

How to tell if you are blocked on LinkedIn

When somebody else blocks you, you don’t get notified of that. Nonetheless, there are ways you can tell.

Their profile disappeared

If you have a hunch that somebody specifically blocked you, search their name on Google. You may have to search their and the company’s names where they work. If they appear on the Google search results page, they certainly have a LinkedIn account.

Now click on the link while logged into LinkedIn. If they’ve blocked you, the LinkedIn page looks like this, and the person’s profile won’t appear.

No messaging

If you’ve recently messaged each other on LinkedIn, their name will now have changed to “LinkedIn member.” That looks like this:

When might people block others on LinkedIn?

I love how social media lets us connect with people around the world. But sometimes, we also connect with people who are:

• Rude
• Annoying
• Obnoxious
• Offensive
• Etc.

Mostly, I think these are things to consider blocking somebody. Ultimately, blocking is a personal (or brand) decision.

Blocking on social media means we are now disconnected, and they can’t see your updates. If you’re focused on growing your audience, especially on platforms like TikTok, you might consider services to help increase your reach, such as boosting your Tiktok follower count

On many networks, once you block somebody, you can no longer see their posts. So, that’s something to consider.

I do enjoy the discussion and even debate on social media. I don’t mind when people disagree with me. But I do follow when people are rude or try to have the same argument with me repeatedly.

Didn’t we already talk about this? How many times do we have to do this? Yet, we STILL have different opinions.

Also, I get that people judge each other and their opinions, but when that judgment becomes an attack, that’s not cool, and I will likely block those attackers.

Other steps

Blocking isn’t usually my first step to not having to listen to somebody’s rudeness. LinkedIn also allows you to unfollow somebody if you don’t want to see their posts. Finally, blocking basically disconnects us on that network.

Yes, we want engagement and learning from each other on social media, but negativity can drain the energy out of us and also our communities.

One way to preserve the energy of a shared story (even when we disagree) is to eject members who are causing an unproductive disruption.

Some people will argue with that, of course, because they claim it undermines the purity of the community. “All opinions and behaviors should be accepted.” But that’s not how any community works offline, either.

Communities have rules, and somebody enforces them.

The only difference on social media is that many tiny communities now are often very visible. And people can go in and out of different communities.

Rules

So the rules for my community – the one I choose to be part of – include:

• It’s okay to debate
• But it’s not okay to keep rehashing the same thing over and over
• Don’t be rude
• Stop belittling other’s opinions
• Don’t be  obnoxious
• No attacks

There are likely others, but these are my overarching points that, if they happen, will get me to block somebody.

Brands – especially brands of more than one person – might be wise to write down their own rules of engagement. Once you block somebody, you may have to explain why publicly. Maybe publish your rules of engagement out of the gate.

Blocking is a good technique at times. And what’s great about social media is that you can define your own rules.

Ultimately, you can’t block too often because you need people to be connected to make social media work, but block when it’s the right thing to do – for you and your community.

How to block somebody on LinkedIn

Go to their LinkedIn profile to block somebody and click on the “more” button. Then click report/block.

 

Can someone block you if you already blocked them?

In short, no. They won’t be able to find your account, so they can’t designate it to be blocked. Even if they have a direct link, they won’t be able to access your account.

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Try not to take it personally if somebody blocked you; definitely don’t chase them down and ask them about it. If they wanted to have a discussion about it they probably wouldn’t have blocked you to begin with.

 

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