LinkedIn Restriction?
This morning, I found out that I got banned by LinkedIn to send invitations without providing emails. It says that some recipients have claimed that they don't know me and the number of them has reached the threshold. I already removed the restriction by declaring that I understand the policy. Has this happened to anyone before? Can I do remove the restriction for unlimited times?
EDIT:
I really wasn't sure why people here started scolding me for cold inviting others. I started the thread to ask if someone here has been in the same situation and how she/he dealt with it. Looking at the comments, some people mistakenly made the assumption that I sent invitations to strangers with the default message. It just shows that some WSO users never read the original post and base their understanding of a thread on the comments of others.
In for answers. That sucks, because I also cold invite a ton of people on LinkedIn.
It's happened to me before. If you continue they will ban you. This is something relatively new from LinkedIn to block spam and bots.
Happened to me. Sucks cuz a lot of times you want to cold invite them. I find a better solution may be to just email them using standard email formats
Why would you add people you don't even know? Talk about making a really bad first impression . The restriction is there for a reason.
I'm with hhodik on this one.. Man the people that cold invite me on linkedin really surprise me. Sometimes there is not even a message in the invite other than the standard one. Sure enough, every time they have invited also at least one colleague or friend.
Usually I just shake my head and ignore them.
cold invite someone without a short personal text is not networking. If you two are from same school, say that in invitation. if you used to work in same company, say that too. if you have same certificate/volunteer or even major in college, you can mention that. Try to find some common things between you two.
generally I think it is a bad idea to network with someone with no common things. I always complain cold invite except alumni of school/company or hot chicks (yeah, good linkedin photo works)
Don't be the guy that goes to the first event and ask if they are hiring.
Quit being a creep.
Just try to make a personal message when sending an invite on LinkedIn.
Don't cold invite people. It's annoying and gives you a bad reputation. Really solid candidate we had on the docket this summer was axed because he cold invited nearly the entire group and sent a baseless message to everyone. Stuff like that gets around.
InMail exists for a reason; if you really want to "network" on LinkedIn, use it. Better yet, get an email address.
To reiterate the above: I would not recommend sending LinkedIn connections to random people. In my opinion it is weird. I don't want to be "connected" to random people, especially someone that adds no value.
If there is a common connection, ie someone that went to my undergrad/grad school, I'd be more than happy to talk to them. Way less so if its just some kid that wants to break into the industry with zero ties to me.
What I'd recommend is using your schools alumni directory and reaching out to people directly via the email address they provide. Even after making a connection I wouldn't really add someone to LinkedIn after a one off call where the someone is doing me a favor.
Basically, ask yourself what is the point of being connected to someone you don't know. Its not like they are going to help you get a job or serve as a reference. This is a classic case of less is more.
+1 SB
If I remember correctly, LinkedIn permits sending a maximum of 3000 invitations (the number might have changed since I last saw). When you're sending an invitation, LinkedIn shows a message along the lines of "always send invitations only to people you know. Click here to know why." When you click on that link, it gives the details regarding the blocking policy specifically to prevent someone from sending mass invites, which includes a cap on the number of invites that you can send.
To those sending out cold invites on Linkedin- Remember that the reason you are doing it on that site is the same reason everyone else is as well, namely that it is easy. Differentiate yourself and find a way to network in a more personable fashion when possible.
I'll chime in because I've hit that X a lot more recently than in years past. I'm pretty easy to find if you know my name (my email and direct phone number are on the internet on my team's website, along with my picture, blood type, loft on driver, and favorite color), so I consider a cold invite on LNKD really really lazy. if you're not sending them to people whose emails are public, be a little more targeted in your approach. maybe just message them instead of asking for a connection.
bottom line, I know what you're trying to do, but linkedin is an introductions tool so it's important to guard whom you let in your network (unless you're one of those bloggers who wants to be connected with literally everyone). In my case, I'm connected to clients, money managers, friends, Patrick (I guess you qualify as a friend), and prospects, no one else. no other brokers, no random open networkers, no broker recruiters, none of that crap. we use LNKD to try to draw connections between friends & clients to people we want to meet and also for people who are looking to see who we know (for example, estate planning attorneys, CPAs, etc.). for what you're talking about, taking some time to figure out email conventions is a better strategy. you can find email conventions both here and by looking at the companies' IR & press release pages.
tldr: don't do this, it's creepy and ineffective.
I'm glad to know LinkedIn is banning people for this activity. Now I will start identifying spammers as people I don't know instead of just ignoring the requests.
very informative thread.
Happened to me once when I first started my LinkedIn (maybe around a year of having it). 99% of the time I was sending invites to people that I "knew" or had met and had a brief conversation with once. A few exceptions but I have since unconnected from the totally random people. Problem for me getting flagged (part of it at least) was I might remember meeting that VP at Anybank that went to my high school, but is he going to remember me, the random 19 year old he met a few months later who sends a generic linkedin invite? Maybe, but I would bet not.
Another problem for me (someone told me firsthand they rejected me because of this). My official first name starts with a different letter than the name I go by, and he told me he wasn't even thinking about my last name.
Now I always send a little note before the generic "I'd like to connect with you...", just to jog their memory of how we met or our last conversation.
Don't do this... it will just piss me off. If I do happen to remember you, I'll remember you as the jerk that cold connected without bothering to even change the default message.
My first question when I get an invite is "Where do I know them from?" If I can't answer that, I will hit the reject button and I always use the [I don't know them] button.
For what it's worth, I strongly discourage cold LinkedIn invitations. I find them far less palatable than a cold email.
Ive gotten all my interviews and job offers through cold connecting. Don't where I'd be without it. Just be selective.
My company had a social media guy who was helping each employee get more friends/followers/connections. I had no idea he was cold inviting people on my linkedin account--hundreds of people--hundreds. I got warned by Linkedin. I was pretty pissed when I found out.
I thought I read an article once that claimed you could contact LinkedIn customer service and beg for forgiveness and have them restore your account. Not sure if that's accurate or not, but probably worth a shot.
What is going on here? Telling people to not cold invite?! That is exactly what networking is. I pray many of you don't go to ACG events and just sit there because introducing yourself would be rude.
What not to do
1) Don't cold invite a million people.
This is the same principle as not hitting on every girl in the bar. They will see you as a shark and you'll just waste ammo. Add a couple people here and there, slow and steady. Reach out to them, personalize the message, try and find alumni first.
2) Don't use just Linkedin
Alumni networks from your school, email people on equity research reports, go to ACG/TMA events.
3) Provide some value.
People should be connecting with you also. Also, don't collect linkedin connections. They should be people you can reach out to and they should be within your field of work.
As for being banned, I got that restriction also I think way back when. It happens when people click that they don't know you. When weirdo's connect with me I simply ignore it because I respect their game and I am not a dick.
Man, some real miserable fucks on here. I've tend to believe that they people who HATE cold networking emails or go out of their way to be a dick about it are usually self important cocksuckers. Like wow, someone is trying to get a head in this world, thought you would be worthwhile to talk with or ask for help and you shit on them because they don't know you. Yeah, real short sighted approach. I sure as fuck hope I never get asked for help by someone who rocks this perspective in life. Take the stick out of your ass and try helping someone. Maybe they will do well and be able to return the favor one day.
Karma, smart networking, being nice, call it whatever you want. I call it being a finance professional and a human being.
The cold invites I get have the standard LinkedIn invitation note. That's not something I feel compelled to respond to. I assume they hit the invite button inadvertently.
If some kid wrote a nice note stating why they wanted to get in touch, I would likely respond. I would much rather they emailed or called me though, instead of sending me a LinkedIn invitation.
Dude, my bad. I meant to give you a SB. I'll give you two on other posts.
Edit - Looks like I didn't give you shit after all haha
Much appreciated
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