LinkedIn connections have been a hot topic among the platform’s active users ever since the major LinkedIn connection limit to 100 invites per week back in 2021.
The fall from over 1000 LinkedIn connections per week to merely 100 struck many users’ businesses, especially those who almost solely rely on the platform for prospecting and LinkedIn lead generation.
LinkedIn didn’t make any public statements regarding the introduction of the LinkedIn connection limit.
However, many users believe they’ve been introduced to provide a satisfying user experience and maintain the quality of the connections made through the platform.
Despite everyone appreciating LinkedIn’s effort to remain a strictly professional, prime platform, they all want to know how to work around the LinkedIn connection limit. For this reason, in this blog, we’re going to show you 4 ways to bypass the LinkedIn connection limit.
4 ways to bypass the LinkedIn connection limit
Import via email
Import via email is not to be confused with Invite via email.
Invite via email used to allow you to type in or import your leads’ emails through a CSV file to invite them to connect directly in the platform.
As mentioned above, LinkedIn discontinued this feature in the summer of 2022 and left its users with a similar feature - Import via email.
Import via email, on the other hand, allows you to import saved contacts and other contacts from your email or any other email you have access to.
Saved contacts are the email addresses you manually saved or imported through a CSV or Vcard file to your email.
Other contacts are the email addresses of all people you engaged with via email, but you haven’t saved them as a contact in your email.
How to use Import via email
So, to use Import via email, go to your LinkedIn home page, and click Show less.
Then, choose More options.
LinkedIn will then offer you to type in an email address you wish to import contacts from. Then click Continue.
Once you click Continue, you will be offered to choose the account you wish to import contacts from. This implies that you can actually import contacts from any email address you have access to.
LinkedIn will let you know what contacts it will take into consideration and will ask for permission.
Once LinkedIn imports contacts, you can check the box in the right corner of each contact you wish to Invite to connect and then click the button Add connection.
If the emails you have, match the ones your lead's used to create their LinkedIn profiles, LinkedIn will send them an invite to connect over the email and directly in the platform as well.
These connection requests don’t count toward your limits, so, in theory, there is a way to use the Import via email to bypass LinkedIn restrictions.
You could upload a CSV file with your leads’ email addresses to your email and then use the import via email feature to invite them to connect on LinkedIn.
However, this way of bypassing LinkedIn limits is a bit of a hassle.
Here’s how.
First you need to find someone’s email address. In other words, need to find a way to get a hold of all those emails – scrape them from somewhere or purchase them from a database.
Then, you will need to add them to a CSV file manually, upload the CSV file to the contact list on your email account, and hope that the leads you’re trying to reach used those emails in particular to make their LinkedIn profiles.
Only then will Import via email actually work.
LinkedIn InMails
InMails are free or paid direct messages on LinkedIn that you can send to members not part of your network, contrary to a regular LinkedIn message.
By sending InMails, you can actually avoid using your LinkedIn Connection Requests.
LinkedIn InMails are, for many platform members, a mystery, therefore underused and often wasted.
That’s quite a shame, taking into account that, according to the official LinkedIn learning courses, InMails have an average response rate of between 18 to 25% compared to cold emails’ 3% average response rate.
Every member on LinkedIn can receive a paid InMail, but only paid LinkedIn subscribers can send them.
LinkedIn’s way to encourage meaningful LinkedIn connections is by giving the paid InMails credits back to the sender each time they get a reply.
Additionally, every paid LinkedIn subscriber gets 800 free InMail credits (but for LinkedIn Recruiter) that only users with open profiles can receive.
If you are unfamiliar with InMail as a LinkedIn feature, check out our guide on how to send LinkedIn InMail.
Since, as mentioned above, InMails can be sent to users not part of your network, they can be more effective than LinkedIn Connection Requests themselves.
When should I use LinkedIn InMail?
InMails can be your last resource to get to the desired lead. Or they can be a wise hack to outreach busy decision-makers who get numerous new LinkedIn connections every day.
Let’s say you tried to connect with a specific lead on LinkedIn. You’ve sent several emails, and called them, and you never got an answer. In these cases, sending an InMail turned out to be a practice that brings results for many Skylead users. InMails can also be part of your Smart Sequence.
An InMail, among other things, has all the characteristics of a regular email (subject line, body, and higher character limit). If well-written, is a secure way to stand out in your lead’s Inbox and stay remembered in the long run.
By sending a LinkedIn InMail to a complete stranger on LinkedIn and composing an engaging InMail copy by following these LinkedIn InMail examples with a 25% reply rate formula, you are also diminishing the possibility of your lead clicking I don’t know this person once you send a regular LinkedIn connection invite.
Skylead allows you to include both free and paid InMails in your outreach.
By moving the toggle button to the right, you are allowing the platform to check if your lead has set their profile to Open profile status, and decide for you whether to reach them out via free or paid InMail.
Emails
Since we mentioned LinkedIn’s version of emails, we cannot avoid highlighting all the advantages of regular cold emailing too!
Yes, LinkedIn has over 800 million active users. But that doesn’t mean that the platform is the preferred means of communication for all of them. This is also one of the reasons, as mentioned above, why Smart Sequences come in “handy”.
By combining Email Outreach with LinkedIn Outreach, your sequence will show which channels work best for target leads. This information can be useful for your future sales and marketing strategies overall.
Here is how you can make the most out of emails.
The role of an email in a multi-channel approach
Send the same message as on LinkedIn and see where you get the answer faster. If you don’t get a reply whatsoever, here are some hacks on how to write a follow-up email after no response;
Use email to complement your Connection Message
Elaborate on the LinkedIn Connection Message you’ve already sent on LinkedIn, as email gives you more freedom in terms of character limits;
Subject line: Sara <> John Hi Sara, I recently tried connecting with you on LinkedIn. I saw that you’re VP of Sales at PowerData. I was curious if you are using cold outreach to get new clients. If the answer is yes, I would love to show you a multichannel solution that can help you scale your sales with minimal effort. Would you be interested in learning more about our solution? Best, John
Ask for a Connection Request via email.
Ask someone to send a LinkedIn connection to you by inserting a link to your profile in the email, if you reached the LinkedIn connection limit for the week.
Subject line: Loved your post on cold outreach… Hey John, Love the post you recently made on LinkedIn about Cold Outreach and totally agree with you on "how SDRs should be more creative". I am a content creator, and I post majorly about prospecting, cold outreach, LinkedIn and email outreach hacks, and lead generation. I figured my content could benefit you and your team, so I wanted to connect with you on LinkedIn. Here’s a link to my profile - linkedin.com/in/jelenacerovic Also, I saw that you’re Head of Sales at Leadgen.io and was curious if you are using any solutions to make your sales more efficient. Best, Jelena
The Find & verify business emails via LinkedIn and Find & verify business emails by your source (if you are using a CSV file or API) are two of Skylead's native features. They make sure your email arrives at its correct destination.
The most important segment of these two features is the “verification” part, which safeguards your domain from being blacklisted. That said, Smart Sequences will only send emails to double-verified emails. Moreover, they will make sure emails get delivered to the intended recipient.
Smart sequences
Smart Sequences are AI-inspired algorithms that track your leads’ behavior and act accordingly. Yours is to create different paths to your leads (via email, LinkedIn messages, InMail), combine them with if/else conditions, and then click Start Campaign. Skylead will find the fastest and most effective way to your lead.
This Skylead’s all-star feature allows you to combine all platform solutions in one campaign. That way, you can take advantage of all possible touch-points with your leads.
As you may see from the above example, Smart Sequences are perfect for bypassing LinkedIn connection limits.
With Skylead’s
- LinkedIn Outreach (LinkedIn Connections Requests, InMails, LinkedIn Messages)
- Email Outreach
- Find & Verify business emails via LinkedIn or via CSV/API (whichever works for you and what brings the best result)
- Image & GIF hyper-personalization (Skylead’s native feature and available to all users)
you will, for sure, find a way to get in touch with your lead. Also, you will discover what your lead’s preferred channel of communication is, and, therefore, increase your response and engagement rates.
FAQ about LinkedIn connections
Let’s go through several most commonly asked questions regarding LinkedIn connections and the LinkedIn connection limit.
How many LinkedIn connections can you have?
LinkedIn limits the number of 1st-degree connections to up to 30 000. After you reach this number, you won't be able to send or receive Connection Requests until you resize your network under its limit.
On the other hand, LinkedIn allows you to follow and be followed by an unlimited number of members.
LinkedIn Follow VS Connect
When someone is your 1st-degree connection, you can see each other’s content and any update on your feeds. Also, you are allowed to exchange regular LinkedIn messages. You always follow your 1st-degree connections by default, but you can also unfollow them.
If you turn on the Creator Mode, you can continue growing your network without necessarily adding new connections.
What is the LinkedIn connection limit?
The LinkedIn connection limit is the restriction introduced by the platform at the beginning of 2021. It implied that each member could send up to 100 Connection Requests per week.
In the meanwhile, as of December 2021, LinkedIn raised the connection limit to approximately 200 invites per week.
We say approximately because the truth is the LinkedIn connections limit depends on many factors.
These factors could be how old your profile is, the number of connections you have, how active you’ve been lately, your acceptance rate, etc. No one knows how many LinkedIn connections exactly you can send per week. Undoubtedly, it is far less than it used to be before the restriction.
When does the LinkedIn connection limit reset?
Your LinkedIn connection limit resets at the beginning of each week - over the weekend or Monday, depending on the user.
Basically, if you use all your LinkedIn connections for the week on Friday, you won’t wait long to have your connection limit reset.
However, despite respecting the LinkedIn connection limit, you must be careful to whom you send invitations. LinkedIn members who get turned off many times, left pending, or marked as I don’t know this person are more often subject to additional screening. Consequently, they are more likely to end up in LinkedIn jail or with restrictions.
Summary
As you may see, there’s no reason to panic about the LinkedIn connection limit.
There are legitimate and secure ways to bypass them.
Furthermore, aside from sending LinkedIn connections, messages, InMails, and emails, Skylead also performs all time-consuming sales tasks for you. This way, it allows you to focus on finding qualified leads and closing the deal faster.
If you are not part of the Skylead team, register and test out Skylead for 7 days for FREE. Our support team is at your disposal from the start. They will be more than happy to help and answer all your questions.
Let's scale up your business!
If you ask yourself how to connect with someone on LinkedIn, you are in the right place. We will go over a couple of methods you can use to add someone to LinkedIn, including the LinkedIn App, so you can grow your network and prepare for LinkedIn lead generation.
However, that is not all. Keep in mind that building your network is all about building relationships. Thus, we will mention what you need to do before adding connections. Moreover, we will get into the core of what is truly important for a successful professional relationship and, therefore, a successful business.
How to connect with someone on LinkedIn?
Building your network is not just about having a large connection number. It is about establishing relationships, getting in touch with the people from your industry, sharing experiences, and growing your business.
Furthermore, 80% of professionals found networking crucial for career success*. For example, salespeople and hiring managers proved this by finding their perfect leads and ideal candidates while growing their network. And with the rise of social selling and word-of-mouth recommendations, networking on LinkedIn really did become essential for professionals in today's world.
So to take full advantage of networking, let’s start from the beginning - how to connect with someone on LinkedIn.
8 ways to connect with someone on LinkedIn
To connect with someone on LinkedIn via your PC, you can use one of these ways:
- Add connections when creating your LinkedIn account
- Send a connection request via their profile
- Connect on LinkedIn via the “People Also Viewed” section
- Send invites to people from Search Results
- From the “People You May Know” section
- Use the “More Suggestions For You” Section
- Connecting with people from events page
- Asking other network members
Add connections when creating your LinkedIn account
First, when you create your LinkedIn account, you can add connections you might know in real life. LinkedIn recommends them from the school you chose as your education or from the company you set to work in.
In addition, you should know that if you add people to your network using this option, you will not be able to write a personalized note. In other words, when you click the + button, the people you sent the invite to, will only get the following LinkedIn’s general message:
Send a connection request via their profile
The easiest way to connect with someone after browsing through their profile on the desktop is to get back to the top of their LinkedIn profile and hit the Connect button.
If you plan to connect with someone on a LinkedIn app, the process is similar to desktop. The slight difference is that you need to go to the More Options button and click Personalize Invite. Otherwise, if you click the Connect button only, your invite will be sent automatically, and you won’t be able to personalize it.
Sometimes you will notice that a LinkedIn user doesn’t have an immediate Connect button on their profile. This can happen because of two reasons:
- The user either has their creator mode on;
- Or they set the Follow button as primary via their Settings & Privacy page.
So you would need to click the More button and then Connect option from the drop-down menu. In addition, this is how to connect on LinkedIn with your favorite creators.
Here is what it looks like in the LinkedIn app. Click on the ··· button and choose if you wish to send a blank or a personalized invite.
Next, if this person is your 2nd-degree connection, you will have the option to type in the personalized message and let it be on its merry way.
To clarify, you need to write a personalized message to increase the chances of the user accepting your invite. However, there are other reasons, as well.
Message personalization
Firstly, we wish to build our network by building true relationships. Secondly, we want to decrease the chances of people ignoring, declining, and checking the “I don’t know this person” box. Too many refusals can result in LinkedIn account restriction, as this will be one of many signals for LinkedIn that you might be a spammer.
If, however, you wish to add a 3rd+ degree connection, you will first need to answer LinkedIn's question about how you know this person.
Should you say you don’t know them, you will see the following alert.
If you have a LinkedIn Premium subscription, you will be able to send a message but you will use up one LinkedIn InMail credit.
Otherwise, you won’t be able to send messages. Instead, you can only write a note for your connection invite.
Connect on LinkedIn via “People Also Viewed” section
While we are still on the user’s profile, let’s show you another way how you can connect with someone on LinkedIn. If you look at the right end of the screen, you will notice the People also viewed section.
LinkedIn will recommend other people you can add to your network based on the user’s profile you are currently viewing. So, all you need to do is to either connect straight from there or visit that person’s profile to decide if you wish to connect with them on LinkedIn or not.
Send invites to people from search results
If you wonder how to connect with someone on LinkedIn without going through their profile, you can do so using a couple of ways. The first one is to do the "LinkedIn prospecting" of your own and add a connection from the Search Results Page. Simply click the Connect button right to their profile information.
Here is how to connect with someone on LinkedIn via search results within the LinkedIn app. Only be aware that this way, you won’t be able to personalize your message.
How to connect with someone on LinkedIn via network page
To send someone a connection request, you can also go to the My Network section at the top of the page.
Once you do, you will see the list of pending invitations and options to manage your network. From here, If you scroll down a bit, you will have two ways on how to connect with someone on LinkedIn.
How to connect on LinkedIn from “People You May Know” section
After you pass Follow suggestions, LinkedIn will present users who have similar roles as yourself and offer you to add them. Simply find the People You May Know With Similar Roles section, browse through and add a few connections by clicking the Connect button below their name.
In addition, you should know that you won’t be able to personalize invites if you send them through this method. So, to personalize your invite messages, it’s best to go to that person’s profile and connect from there.
Use “More Suggestions For You” section to connect with someone on LinkedIn
If you scroll down a bit more, past the Groups you may be interested in, LinkedIn will surprise you with another suggestion section. In this case, LinkedIn will present the list of people you can add based on shared connections, mutual company, industry, or, again, job roles. Just be aware that this method does not support personalized invites as well.
Add people who joined certain events
This is a nifty way on how to connect with someone on LinkedIn from the same event you attended and mingle. Simply go to the event’s page, and join by clicking the Attend button. Once you do, look at the right side of the screen and search for the Networking option.
Lastly, browse the people who attended the event. When you find the one you wish to add to your network, click the ··· button and then Connect.
And here is how to connect with someone on LinkedIn using the LinkedIn app.
Asking other network members
Last, but not least, you can always ask other members of your network if they know anyone from your line of work or industry or if they can introduce you to someone. This is a nice way to get an introduction and connect with other people you otherwise cannot reach.
Moreover, if you are a recruiter or salesperson, this is a nifty way to get to your lead or find an ideal candidate you’d probably miss.
4 things to do before connecting with someone on LinkedIn
1. Set up your LinkedIn profile
Imagine a scenario where you get a connection request from a user with no profile, LinkedIn headline, or displayed experience to learn more about them and what they do. You wouldn’t accept that request, would you? Thus one of the first things you should do is pump up your LinkedIn profile and allow people you don’t know in real life to get to know you.
2. Craft your message carefully
Remember when we said you need to personalize your message to increase the acceptance rate and build your network more efficiently? Well, by structuring your message carefully, you can.
If you are sending the message to a person you don’t know in real life, firstly look them up and personalize your message accordingly. For example, you can research the content they created, what their occupation is, or what company they work in.
Apart from personalization, here are other things you should consider when creating your invite message:
- Clearly state why you want to connect with them;
- Write a compelling copy to catch their attention;
- Include a hook or call-to-action so you can continue the conversation once you are connected;
- Introduce yourself;
- Be polite and professional.
So, for example, you can try emphasizing your mutual connection:
Hi {{firstName}},
I noticed that {{Mutual Connection Name}} is in your network. We worked together at {{Company}}. Nevertheless, as we both work as {{Occupation}} I would love to have you in my network.
Or you can target their expertise and reach them out like this:
Hello {{firstName}},
Love the work you are doing. I followed your advice regarding {{Topic}} that you shared here, on LinkedIn, and it brought me {{Achieved Results}}. I would love to connect!
We have complete blog posts on connection request message templates and using personalization to scale up your business, so be sure to check them out.
3. Prepare to engage
After connecting with someone, it is essential to maintain and build a relationship. Thus, keep engaging with the people on LinkedIn via post engagements, an endorsement, or an occasional message. This can nourish your relationship and can lead to future opportunities.
4. Connect with someone you know first
As we mentioned previously, once you create your profile, LinkedIn will suggest contacts you might know so you can add them first. Thus, it’s better to strengthen your network with your known contacts rather than trying to add unknown people from the beginning. Try finding your coworkers, classmates, or simply your friends.
Is there a solution to send the connection invites for me?
If you plan to use LinkedIn for sales or recruiting and don’t have time to do the outreach, build your network, and personalize messages on a large scale, then meet Skylead, a LinkedIn Automation & Cold Email Software that does the outreach for you.
Let’s dive into the tool itself. We previously explained how to contact people who attended certain events. Thus, here is how Skylead can do it instead of you.
Go to the desired event, and attend it. Once you do, click the Attendees option.
Then copy the attendees search result URL.
Next, go to your Skylead Campaign creator, choose the campaign source, give your campaign a name and paste the URL in the LinkedIn URL field. Don’t forget to select the Connection type.
Go to the next step and choose the Collect Contact Info if you wish to. This is a nifty option as Skylead will scrape all publicly available data such as your lead’s email, phone number, or website. Once you finish with setting up additional campaign settings click next.
Now we are at the Smart Sequence page. From here, you can drag and drop desired actions you wish Skylead to perform.
We will start with the steps such as Follow, Find & Verify Business Email and invite them to connect. Next, we will personalize the invite message via Skylead's variables.
Furthermore, you’d be surprised to hear that Skylead not only sends connection invites but continues to outreach your target audience and perform other actions for you. For example, if the person accepted the invite and didn’t respond to your message, you can instruct Skylead to send a follow-up.
On the other hand, if, after a couple of days, the person doesn't accept the invite, you can check if Skylead found their email address and send them an email to multichannel your outreach.
All you need to do on your end is to determine the steps in the Smart Sequence, and Skylead will do it for you.
Once you set all the sequence steps, click Start Campaign, and Skylead will start to outreach your audience.
In conclusion
There are many ways you can add a person to your LinkedIn network. However, there are only 3 ways to maintain and create a strong network: politeness, honesty, and consistency in building relationships. So, to sum up…
And don’t forget about the top things to do before adding someone to your network:
- Set up your LinkedIn profile;
- Craft your message carefully;
- Prepare to engage;
- Connect with someone you know first.
And if you find yourself with no time to build your network, or you simply wish to find a solution that will do it all for you, then try out Skylead, a sales engagement tool that thinks for you.
See Skylead in action! Start your 7-day Free Trial now.