The LinkedIn user agreement, did you read before agreeing to it?

Well if you are like me and everyone I have spoken to about this then the answer is very likely no. Well, recently the user agreement is in the news as LinkedIn are putting their foot down on people that obviously flaunt the rules, especially around the number of connection requests and also third party software.

There has been a limit on connection requests applied to LinkedIn accounts of 100 per week. This in my opinion is a very reasonable limit as I would struggle to talk with 100 people in a week that I wanted to send connection requests to, and again most people I have spoken with are of the same opinion.

I say “spoken” with, because one of the things in the user agreement is about only connecting with people you know, and this is one of the most broken rules. I very rarely connect with someone I don’t know, and the majority I have spoken with (Zoom call or events currently), or they are people that have been suggested to me by others, but again this is normally through an intro on LinkedIn.

This is also another reason to personalise your connection request when you send one, in fact, LinkedIn is rolling out a new stage on sending requests asking if you have met the person in real life or online (not exact wording). Not personalising is one of my pet hates and more often than not is greeted with a decline. I mean come on how long does it take to add a few lines to the request? If you can’t be bothered to do that then exactly how engaging are you going to be?

Now many of these unpersonalised or generic ones are by use of third party software and this is a no-no on LinkedIn anyway. These people will fall foul of this new limit and will alert LinkedIn when they try to do more.

The great thing in my book is that in a recent 6 month period I have been told that 37 million accounts were closed due to various breaches of the user agreement, I applaud this and hope it continues.

Sending out so many requests just is not good practice and in fact, what you do is build up a list of people that you sent to who have not responded. If this list grows in number and age then expect LinkedIn to drop you a line. You can check this vis

My Network

Manage

Sent

Have a look and see what yours looks like?

So my suggestion is that you grow your network with people you have met online or in person so they know why you sent the request to them, so they are highly likely to accept. As I mentioned getting referred is also a good idea, I and my network do this by doing a message group introduction. I do not send connection requests until I am happy that the person is Ok with it.

There is a limit currently on connections of 30,000 and if you were an early adopter some 18 years ago (launched may 2003) then that is an average of 32 a week every week, which is some going.

I am happy to grow mine at a steady rate, having spoken with them and personalised the connection request so they know why we are connected and then the relationship is on a solid base.

My call to action is to check those “sent” requests and sort out and ditch 3rd party software as you don’t want your account suspended or worse closed, do you?