In B2B prospecting , nothing is more disabling than having your LinkedIn account restricted or blocked . 🚫
You are wasting precious time in your prospecting strategies. But on top of that, you lose valuable access to the platform’s 810 million users.
Here are our tips for avoiding these restrictions and for reactivating your closed account if this happens to you.
Why is your LinkedIn account restricted?
As a meeting place for professionals, Linkedin has adopted strict rules and policies.
Everything is defined in their general conditions of use . They govern user behavior and define actions that may restrict or block your account.
Here are the reasons why LinkedIn may ban your account :
Improper or illegal activity on your account that may
Successive abusive behaviors
Arrival of your prospecting messages in SPAM
An unusually high number of page profile views from your account. You are therefore considered too active
Using a name that does not comply with LinkedIn’s Terms of Service
A possible hack or compromised password detected by the platform’s customer support.
You have been reported multiple times by users saying “I don’t know this person”
How to avoid restriction of your account?
To avoid sanctions from LinkedIn, the easiest way is to use common sense!
Don’t spam your prospects
Best way to get banned and solicit too many people too quickly. Worse still: if these people do not accept your messages or block you, it is a red flag on the side of LinkedIn. 🚩
At LeadIn, in the campaigns we run for our clients , we systematically vary the approach messages:
We favor open-ended questions to encourage people to accept our messages and respond to them.
We start with a few dozen messages a day to preheat the account and we increase slowly
We remain very attentive to the response rate we obtain, especially at the start of the campaign. The ideal is to have at least 20-30% response.
Respect LinkedIn limitations
The maximum number of messages depends on your account. On LinkedIn, there are 3 types of account:
Cold (free)
Preheated
Premium
Each type of account corresponds to a limit on the number of daily messages. Respectively, the limits are 80, 140 and 300 messages per day.
There are also other limitations that you must adhere to in order not to be banned on LinkedIn, including:
100 invitations per week (we recommend that you stay below to limit the risks)
800 inmails per month (with a premium account )
30 groups managed at most and integrate 100 groups at most
Maximum 50 people in a conversation
We strongly recommend that you stay away from these limits, especially if your account is new. First you need to build your profile and increase your Social Selling Index .
The different causes of restriction
There are several levels of restriction on LinkedIn depending on the facts of which you are accused.
Connection request limits
This is the most basic restriction on LinkedIn. This is the case when the LinkedIn algorithm detects that you are sending too many invitations. You are then asked to enter the email address of the recipient of your invitation in order to show that you know it well.
If you use LeadIn , you don’t have to worry about such a restriction because the tool has an email Finder to find the email address of users on LinkedIn.
In addition, it automatically adapts the volume of requests to simulate human behavior. Also, he gradually increases it over time.
The use of automation tools
LinkedIn is able to detect the use of an automation tool. Sometimes it detects behaviors that seem automated but without being completely sure.
In both cases, the platform may ask you to stop this practice.
To avoid this restriction, we recommend that you use LeadIn.
Using an automation tool can also send too many of your messages to SPAM. This is particularly the case when you contact several people with the same message.
To find out if you have been hit by this restriction, you can send a message to a loved one. You will then know if it has arrived or not.
A temporary account restriction
This is the sanction that applies when you are suspected of having violated LinkedIn’s terms of service, for example:
Suspicion of identity theft
Repeated use of automation tool
In this case, LinkedIn will ask you to prove your identity document.
The permanent ban from LinkedIn
An account is rarely banned from the platform.
To get to this final step, you must have gone through the previous restriction. Once you have produced your ID. Then, your account is banned if the account is still locked after several weeks and you receive an email from LinkedIn ‘s security service announcing that your account is banned.
How to reactivate your account?
It is usually possible to reactivate your account 14 days after it has been closed.
For that, you can:
Follow the link provided in the account closure email
Try logging in directly from your account.
In both cases, you land on the login page where you will have to click on the login page. You must then click on “Reactivate” to trigger the process of reopening your account. An email will be sent to you to confirm your project.
Once access to your account is reactivated, you will be able to find all your connections again. On the other hand, as LinkedIn specifies , there are a certain number of elements that you will not find:
Your pending or ignored invitations
The pages you follow
Your Recommendations and Skill Recommendations
Your group memberships
Minimize risks with the right prospecting tool
Some automation tools allow you to circumvent or at least respect LinkedIn’s limitations. This is precisely the case with LeadIn, a LinkedIn automation tool that allows you to launch multi-channel prospecting campaigns via LinkedIn and by email.
This allows it to help you bypass LinkedIn’s weekly limits by giving you an alternate path to approach your prospects. In addition, the multichannel approach is a real plus in your prospecting campaign because you can boost its effectiveness.
LeadIn can also recognize if the profile is open to InMails. So you can combine all these channels and send personal messages, InMails and emails.
Click here to try LeadIn now .
Finally, you maximize the number of people affected while minimizing the risks!
In conclusion, having your account blocked is the nightmare of any professional on LinkedIn.
To limit the risks, limit your connection requests and vary your prospecting messages. In short, keep a natural behavior and you will limit the risks of having your LinkedIn account restricted.
