LinkedIn Premium Badge
LinkedIn is one of the social networking platforms that cater almost, if not, solely to over 740 million professionals across diverse professional careers.
The social network functions as a recruitment platform that allows job seekers to post their CVs and apply for suitable jobs posted by employers.
It also functions as a platform that helps professionals connect on a work level and have meaningful discussions that could lead to working together, sharing work and life tips, and much more.
One of the reasons why LinkedIn is as widely accepted as it is all over the world lies in the creativity and foresight of the creators in going the extra mile to provide options that grant registered users even more advantages and benefits.
One way they have done this is in the establishment of LinkedIn premium accounts that any professional can choose from depending on their career status/level.
For me, as a job seeker, LinkedIn Premium Career was a perfect fit as it gave me even better opportunities to connect with recruiters, and the gold icon or Premium badge pulled a lot of attraction to my profile.
While the attention is good for a job seeker it also meant that I had so much more inMails to read and respond to, such that I missed out on some opportunities that would have worked out for me perfectly in the multitude of the messages.
In trying to figure out the reason for the surge in messages and inMails, I realized that my premium badge, which every premium user gets, was the cause. The badge drew other registered users to my profile and this caused an increase in the inflow of inMails and messages.
I, therefore, decided to go about finding out if I could hide my LinkedIn premium badge from being viewed on my profile and I’ll be sharing my findings with you in this article.
What is LinkedIn Premium?
Before you can get a LinkedIn Premium gold badge you have to be subscribed to a premium plan or at the very least a premium free trial plan.
I will therefore give in this article a detailed explanation not only on how to hide your LinkedIn premium badge, but also the different types of premium plans that LinkedIn has to offer and their different perks and benefits so you can be sure that you are subscribed to the most suitable plan and/or so you can make an informed decision about what plan could come close to meeting your professional needs, and how to subscribe to a premium plan if you’re not already on one.
LinkedIn Premium is a paid account upgrade from the free plan, Basic, to the Premium plan on the LinkedIn social networking platform.
The LinkedIn Premium plans are on four different levels and cater to the different levels/types of careerists, recruiters, and sales professionals that are registered users on the platform.
The four types of LinkedIn Premium plans are Premium Career, Premium Business, Premium Sales Navigator, and Premium Recruiter.
What is the difference between LinkedIn Premium and LinkedIn Basic Accounts?
The LinkedIn Basic account is the first level account for any registered LinkedIn user. It is a free account open to everyone but can be upgraded to a premium account if so preferred.
A number of differences exist between the LinkedIn Basic account and the Premium account and some of these are:
- As earlier stated, the LinkedIn Basic account is free while the Premium account is paid for from price ranging from $29.99 to $130.33.
- The basic account allows you to see only the last 5 people that checked out your profile while the Premium account allows you to see all those who checked your profile in the last 90days.
- LinkedIn Basic users can only receive but not send inMail messages to other users while the Premium account users can receive and send a number of inMail messages using their inMail message credits.
- LinkedIn Basic users can see the top ten most viewed user profiles among their network/connections while Premium account users can see up to the top 100 and how they rank against all 100.
- LinkedIn Basic users have very limited search results while Premium account owners can get thousands of search results with several additional search filters.
- LinkedIn Basic account users don’t get an expanded search listing on their profile unlike the Premium account users whose profiles show more information when searched for.
- LinkedIn Basic account users don’t get the opportunity to use Linked Learning, unlike LinkedIn Premium users that have access to over 15,000 online courses that help them develop new skills and in their career development.
Types of LinkedIn Premium Plans
The first level on the LinkedIn Premium scale is the Premium Career. The premium career plan is the cheapest LinkedIn premium plan available and costs a sum of $29.99 for every month of use, or a sum of $238.88 if the billing is done on a one-time annual basis.
The premium career plan is the designated premium plan for job seekers or professionals looking for new roles with different companies on the platform. The plan allows job seekers to connect with hiring managers and recruiters better than is usually done on the LinkedIn Basic plan that is free for all. Other beneficial perks of using the Premium career plan for job seekers include:
- Getting resources that help you make your profile stand out to recruiters while also helping with any interview and recruitment process you might have scored.
- Being able to compare your profile with the profiles of other candidates applying for the same available jobs.
- 3 inMail message credits which allow you to send messages to other registered users that you’re not connected with on the platform with a guaranteed response from the user.
- Additional profile details on registered users that view your profiles.
- Information about jobs and salary potential available in your industry.
- Access to LinkedIn Learning resources and training.
- Increase in search results from 100(for the basic plan) to 1000.
- Premium search filter that allows you to search and sort according to certain filters like seniority, company size, interests.
The second level on the LinkedIn Premium plan is the Premium Business plan. The Premium Business plan costs a sum of $59.99 on a monthly billing plan or $575.88 on a one-time annual billing plan.
The Premium Business plan is for owners and founders of companies/startups and it allows them to connect with other business owners, potential partners, and investors, and allows them to promote their brands without limitations. Other afforded perks of this plan include:
- 15 inMail message credits which allow you to reach out to potential partners and investors.
- Advanced premium search filters such as groups, years of experience, job description/function.
- Unlimited search results in your network
- Extended insight and information about companies on the LinkedIn platform.
- Business insights and tips for companies such as human resource (HR), job role breakdowns.
The next level on the Linkedin premium plans is the LinkedIn Premium Sales Navigator. The Premium Sales Navigator plan costs a sum of $64.99 on a monthly billing plan and $779.88 on a one-time annual billing plan.
The Premium Sales Navigator plan is the perfect plan for individual sales professionals and allows them to generate lead recommendations based on their network and audience while also building a sales pipeline. In fact, the professionals on the Premium Sales Navigator plan are said to make 50% more connections than their counterparts.
Other available perks afforded sales professionals who use this plan include:
- 20 inMail message credit is given for every month.
- Prospecting opportunities on the platform.
- Spotlights on changes in other registered users’ profiles like changes in jobs or companies.
- Advanced search filters are extremely useful in sorting leads according to preferred keywords such as location, position.
- Saved leads and searches which make it easy for sales professionals to come back to and carefully generate leads from. Up to 15 searches and 1500 leads can be saved for later.
The LinkedIn Premium Sales Navigator plan also comes in a kind of multi-person plan called the LinkedIn Premium Sales Navigator Team. The Premium Sales Navigator Team costs a sum of $103.33 on a monthly billing plan and costs $1240 on a one-time annual billing plan.
The Premium Sales Navigator Team shares the same perks as those of the Premium Sales Navigator but other perks include:
- 30 inMail message credits for every month
- CRM integration that allows sales professionals to view their LinkedIn information at the same point where they follow their other sales activities on the platform.
- Usage reporting that provides information about your LinkedIn activities as well as sales activity.
- PointDrive presentations allow sales professionals to package and share information about their products.
- 25 out-of-network profile unlocks which allows sales professionals on the plan to increase their searches to registered users outside their network.
- An increase in the number of saved leads possible from 1500 to 500.
The last and highest level on the available LinkedIn Premium plans is the LinkedIn Premium Recruiter. The LinkedIn Premium Recruiter costs a sum of $119.95 on a monthly billing plan or $1,199.40 on a one-time annual billing plan.
The LinkedIn Premium Recruiter plan was put together purposely for recruiters and employers of labour, and this was done to ease the recruiting and talent hunting process.
Some of the perks offered to registered users on the plan include:
- 30 inMail message credits every month
- Advanced talent search and filter options, saved searches and notifications for qualified candidates
- Automatic candidate tracking
- Integrated hiring with a specific recruiting design.
Now that you know what all the LinkedIn Premium plans are and what perks and benefits the different plans come with, you should know that despite the premium fee, that might be considered exorbitant by some, the Premium plans are completely worth it.
They give you an edge over other registered users on the Basic account and give the opportunity to achieve your professional goals in less time and stress than other users.
How to Get LinkedIn Premium plan
If you’re new to all this and you want to make sure you are choosing the right premium plan, you can always take advantage of the premium plan free trial offered by LinkedIn.
The free trial can be used for only one premium plan and is valid for a period of 30days. You however can’t switch from one premium plan to another during the free trial and you won’t be eligible for another free trial until after at least a period of 12 months.
Simply follow these steps to upgrade your account to a premium account:
- Open the LinkedIn mobile app/website
- Tap on your profile icon/picture
- Tap on Account
- Tap on upgrade for free under Account
- Select the premium plan you want to try out
- Input your billing information and verify it
- Agree to the terms and conditions and then order the plan.
Once you’ve done this successfully, your basic/ free account will be automatically upgraded to whichever Premium plan you chose.
You should know that your registered debit card will automatically be charged once the 30-day free trial period is over and you can only stop the charge if you cancel the free trial at least a day before it expires.
You get the LinkedIn Premium badge ( 
However, don’t confuse the LinkedIn Premium badge with the general LinkedIn badge. The general LinkedIn badge is more of a graphic tag that can be posted on your website or blog and acts as a link for people to use when they want to visit your LinkedIn profile from your website/blog rather than have to search and sort through similar profiles before finding yours.
There are a number of reasons as to why people prefer to hide their LinkedIn Premium badge and for most, it could be because they find it hard very hard to keep up with the steady inflow of inMails, notifications, connections, and messages that keep popping up on their LinkedIn feed, and for others could be a simple matter of keeping some things private.
In the course of trying to find out how to hide my LinkedIn Premium badge I found the perfect tool, LiProspect, to help me manage my LinkedIn account in the best way possible. It would have been a great thing to know about the LiProspect LinkedIn automation and prospecting tool before hiding my badge but now I know and I’m letting you know too.
Liprospect is a safe cloud-based LinkedIn automation tool with a humanized algorithm that makes managing your account so much easier.
The LiProspect tool offers services of personalized messages of introduction to people you would like to network with or potential customers/clients.
The tool manages your LinkedIn messages inbox by providing an advanced service called Quick replies. You also get the advanced search service that allows you to get back as many search results as possible with as many relevant filters as possible available to you.
The LiProspect LinkedIn automation tool is also especially great for registered users on the Sales Navigator Premium plan as it also provides lead generation using the best B2B marketing and sales strategies.
So, using the LiProspect LinkedIn automation tool could be a better alternative to hiding your LinkedIn Premium badge. The reason for this is because a premium badge communicates to other people and potential contacts that you’re serious and intentional about your growth and network.
If you’d still like to go ahead with hiding your LinkedIn Premium badge then you can do so by following the steps below:
For Android Users
- Click the Me
- Select View Profile.
- Tap on the Edit icon
- Click on the Edit icon
- Beside the LinkedIn Premium Profile Badge tap on the toggle to the left to hide the Premium profile badge.
- Click the Save button.
For IOS Users
- Tap on your profile picture on the LinkedIn homepage
- Select View Profile.
- Tap the Edit
- Tap the arrow beside the gold In icon/Premium badge
- Tap on the toggle to turn your Premium Profile Badge off.
Rather than hide your LinkedIn Premium badge you can choose to use the LiProspect automation and prospecting tool, and you even get a one week 100% free trial to test-run all of the services the tool provides. Using the LiProspect automation and prospecting tool is definitely a better alternative to hiding your LinkedIn Premium badge.