How to accept digital credentials and manage your profile on Credly

By Ian Mark

Digital credentials are an excellent way to validate your knowledge, skills and abilities. Whether you’re a student augmenting your degree or a professional preparing for a new role, digital credentials show others that you’ve put in the time to learn and gain new skills.

However, all that time and effort you put into earning new credentials is lost if you don’t share them with your network and employers.

In just a few minutes, you can display your credentials on Credly and build a profile that showcases your full value to employers.

Follow these instructions to get started.

Accepting digital credentials

After earning a digital badge, you’ll receive an email from Credly to notify you. To ensure the message doesn’t land in your spam folder, add admin@yourclaim.com to your contacts. Inside the email, you’ll find a button labeled Accept Your Badge—click on it to begin.

If you’re already a Credly user, log in to your existing account to claim your badge. If you’re new to the platform, you’ll have to create an account. Simply provide your name, country, postal code and a password, then agree to the terms and conditions. Once you hit Create My Account, a confirmation email will arrive in your inbox. Complete the setup by following the instructions in that email.

Claiming digital credentials

After acceptance, you’ll decide how you want to manage future credentials. We recommend using auto-accept, which automatically adds new badges issued by the same organization to your account. Alternatively, you can choose manual approval for each one.

Next, decide whether your credential should be public or private. Choosing a public setting ensures that others can see and verify your badge, while a private setting keeps it visible only to you. We recommend setting it to public so that others can see your qualifications skills, but it’s up to you.

Sharing digital credentials

Credly offers multiple ways to share your badge, such as linking it to your social media profiles like LinkedIn, Facebook or Twitter. You may need to give Credly permission to post on your behalf — just follow the prompts to authorize this.

Other sharing options include embedding the badge on your website, downloading it as an open badge file, or copying the badge URL to insert into your resume or email signature.

Here’s a step-by-step guide to sharing your badge on LinkedIn for example:

Once your credential is claimed, you’ll land on the Share page.

Selecting Share will display all available options for sharing your badge.

If your LinkedIn account isn’t linked to your profile yet, click Connect. You’ll then need to log in to your LinkedIn account and grant Credly access.

After connecting, you’ll see the options to Add to Profile or Share to Feed. To add your badge to your profile without sharing it to your feed, uncheck Share to Feed. Alternatively, you can do the opposite to share only to your feed.

Note: When sharing to your feed, you can include a custom message, but it must be 1,100 characters or fewer.

Next, click Share to LinkedIn.

You can also watch this video walking you through the whole process:

For any issues or concerns, Credly’s support team is available to assist.

Build a strong Credly profile that highlights the value you offer employers

Accepting your credentials is a great first step, but after that, you’ll want to take a moment to ensure your profile showcases your full value to employers.

1. After logging in with the sign-in button at the top right of your screen, click the profile picture icon in the top right.

2. Click the edit button to update your profile.

3. Next, you can add key information to your profile, like:

A personal summary: All you need is a few sentences to describe what makes you a strong candidate and your career goals.
Your badges: Showing multiple badges helps show employers that you are committed to learning and development, which is a valued trait in today’s job market.
A link to your LinkedIn profile and other social media platforms: This is a great way for employers to learn more about your skills and see the latest updates on your career.
A picture: This helps to show you’re a real person and not a bot, building trust.
A link to your website: While not required, if you have one, this allows you to show off your portfolio website.
Professional skills: Your Credly profile could easily be your first impression on an employer searching for suitable candidates. Make a strong impression by listing relevant professional skills.
Occupation and company: If you’re in a relevant position, listing it can help employers understand your level of experience in your field.
Location: Giving employers a rough sense of where you are located, even if only by country or region, can help them understand whether you’re a fit for their open roles.

Don’t forget to make your profile publicly visible if you want to be found by employers! You can do this by toggling this switch on your profile as seen in the below picture.