LinkedIn keeps updating its best practices to keep the network clean and free from suspicious activities so that professionals can connect smoothly and hassle-free. In an effort to maintain professional standards, LinkedIn has recently limited your ability to send invitations. Now a user can send only 100 requests per week!
Those who are not aware of this change have been getting warnings or put into “LinkedIn Jail” if they’re sending too many requests in a short time.
If you’ve received such warnings by LinkedIn or don’t want your account getting flagged during an outreach campaign, this read has all the info you need to know to browse safely on LinkedIn.
Why do I get LinkedIn invitations when I don’t have an account?
There is a reason for that. LinkedIn allows users to send invitations to their present contacts asking them to join LinkedIn. When a user selects this feature, it sends a connection request to the users in their email contacts with a LinkedIn account. But it sends an invitation to join LinkedIn for the contacts who don’t have a LinkedIn profile.
This allows LinkedIn to expand its user base and also allows users to expand their connections.
How many connections can you have on linkedin — actual LinkedIn invitation limit?
LinkedIn offers 3000 invites for each user, and there is no official limit for a day. However, LinkedIn has imposed a weekly limit of up to 100 invites recently.
Technically speaking, it’s possible to send 100 invites in a day, but this can cause a warning on your LinkedIn account. If you send 100 invites in a week, you will receive an automated message stating:
“You’ve reached your invitation limit. Connections will benefit you more when you know them personally. So this weekly invitation restriction promotes better networks.”
This means you have used your invitation limit.
Further Reading: How to bypass linkedin connection limit.
Send 100 invitations a week may not seem like much, but it’s important to wisely choose who you invite to make your network spam-free and engaging.
What Is meant by LinkedIn Jail?
When your LinkedIn accounts get restricted or banned, it means being in LinkedIn Jail. In other words, LinkedIn has flagged or suspended your profile for breaking the set rules.
Mostly, the limitations are temporary but still affect your outreach campaigns and lead generation. Besides, some violations can result in a permanent ban, so it’s advised to stay safe and follow LinkedIn’s guidelines while using the platform.
Join the LinkedIn Jail club? You’re not alone, so don’t panic. The good thing is that most limitations are lifted in a short time. So, have patience, and try again after a couple of days.
What To Do When You Reach Your Invitation Limit?
You cannot increase your invitation limit. So you need to wait for the next, and after a week, you will get limits again. This also means that your outreach campaign will be paused when your weekly limit gets ends.
Even if you are using LinkedIn premium subscription or withdraw pending invitations, you will not get invites again.
However, LinkedIn offers an InMail facility that allows you to reach out to others even if your limit has been reached. So, this is the only way to continue your campaign efforts.
Reasons: Why Do People Get an Account Restriction?
There can be many different reasons why LinkedIn restricts your account. However, two main reasons that cause restrictions regards to invites are the following:
You have sent many invites in a short span of time:
Your LinkedIn profile is always under monitoring. The officials monitor your activity along with its speed. If the officials detect too much activity in a short time, LinkedIn can place a temporary ban on your profile as a warning.
These restrictions can reduce the number of invites, or in some cases, you cannot send invites altogether for a specific time.
You have numerous invitations pending:
If you have too many pending requests or invitations, this also works as a red flag for your account and makes it suspicious. To avoid this situation, clear out all the invitations that are not accepted within two weeks.
When Does the Weekly Invitation Limit Renew?
There is no official statement by LinkedIn when the weekly limit will be renewed for users. However, as per experts, you will often receive new invites on Mondays if your limit is reached. So, Monday can be a lucky day.
Can I Remove Restrictions From my LinkedIn Account?
Yes, you can. But the best approach is to wait for up to ten days and don’t take any action to unblock your account. Usually, your account will be reinstated automatically and back to normal after a few days.
However, if your account is not unblocked, you can reach out to LinkedIn customer service and consult the matter with them.
How to Identify if Someone’s Marked Your Message or Invite as Spam?
This one is serious. If someone had marked your invite as inappropriate or spam, your account could be flagged, and limitations will be imposed on your account. So, to check if any of your invites are marked as spam, follow these steps.
First, click on an invitation that you want to check.
If it is possible to resend or withdraw the invitation, it has not been marked as inappropriate or spam. It means the connection has not seen or taken any action on your invitation.
If you are unable to resend the invitation, it means that the connection has hit the “ignore invite” button but has not marked the invitation as junk.
If you can’t resend it or withdraw it, it means the recipient has marked the invitation as spam.
This is why you need to be careful and a bit picky when sending invites. In our opinion, it would be safe and wise to send invites to your warm connections or people within your community, as these users will not see your invites as spammy.
How to Prevent LinkedIn Account Limitations?
In simple words, follow the best practices. But this is a lot more difficult than it looks. Luckily there is another way to tackle the issue. To keep your LinkedIn account compliant with the best and valid practices, you can’t use any extension-based software. There is an option of doing all the work manually or opting for a cloud-based software like Closely.
How to Maximize Benefits from Your Invites?
Sending invites demands vigilance and a bit of your time. Below are the best tips to maximize your connection success rate:
Personalize your invitations/messages:
Mostly, generic or traditional messages on LinkedIn get ignored. This is because others can easily identify the traditional cold pitch. In other words, such messages don’t hit the mark as they should and gives a poor impression.
On the other hand, personalization works best for your outreach message. So, it is recommended to use the recipient’s name or anything you have in common such as your workplace, industry, any project or task, a mutual connection, and others.
Try not to use LinkedIn’s recommendation list:
Although LinkedIn has invitation restrictions, but they do recommend a list for you. If you wish, you can send the invite just by clicking on the “invite” button on the recommended list.
However, this generic invitation might not work for you, and you cannot personalize your messages and invitations. It is also seen that LinkedIn’s AI often gives poor recommendations.
Visit their profile
If you want to add a person and don’t want to go deep into personalization, we will advise you to visit the user’s profile. In the user’s profile, identify a few things that you can include in your invitation to make it a bit personalized:
Some examples are:
- I see your work regarding…
- I loved the recent post that you wrote for…
- We have the same expertise, and it would be great to talk about …
- I saw you attended the seminar about…
People will likely appreciate your efforts. Plus, they will remember the personalized invites more than the generic messages. So, personalization is the key.
In the End
It’s easy to stay safe and avoid LinkedIn Jail. All you have to do is create personalized invitations for only your best connections. This will keep your network engaged and effective and helps you to avoid any negative outcomes.
Follow the steps and practices mentioned in this read and see what change it brings. Your new invitation strategy may take some of your time but will result in exponentially more followers than ever before. Happy networking!
