Lessons from LinkedIn Jail
If you haven't yet found yourself in LinkedIn jail, you may be wondering a few things.
How do you get put in LinkedIn jail?
What does LinkedIn jail mean, exactly?
How do you get out of LinkedIn jail?
After finding myself locked out of LinkedIn one Tuesday morning, I was unexpectedly thrust into an entirely new world overnight. One day, I was posting, browsing content, commenting, reacting to others' posts, sending DMs, responding to DMs, searching for new connections, etc. The next, I received this message:
What does being in LinkedIn Jail mean?
No logging in, no viewing or responding to messages, no access to anything.
Upon logging back in after my initial "time out," I was promptly locked back out again until the following day. Rinse and repeat on Wednesday, except this time I was locked out until Friday.
It seems that this extended time of being put in the corner, combined with my cautious re-entry to LinkedIn life, has done the trick and I'm happy to report that (so far) I've maintained my access.
While extremely inconvenient, this experience also brought about valuable learning opportunities.
Here are 10 lessons I learned from LinkedIn jail:
Automations on LinkedIn can be very effective, when done correctly (and carefully).
I had been (successfully) using an automation software for about 6 months in order to invite my target audience to my monthly masterclass. It worked well! I was not spamming people with pushy sales messages. I was simply inviting them to an event that I hosted every month. Some accepted, some declined, some ignored me, and others booked calls to learn more about what I do. There was really no downside!
Automations on LinkedIn can potentially get you kicked off of LinkedIn.
Technically speaking, automation software is not permitted by the terms and conditions of LinkedIn. I've heard from many esteemed colleagues, who also rely heavily on LinkedIn for their marketing outreach, that LinkedIn has recently changed their algorithms in order to crack down on users who are utilizing automation software. More on that here. Given the plethora of companies who have recently popped up with this type of SaaS offering, I think they will be scrambling to adapt and figure out how they can remain in business and get around LinkedIn's policing efforts.
Sending 30 direct messages and looking at multiple profiles in one day might get you in trouble.
I've been informed by some of my esteemed colleagues that LinkedIn does not like you looking at "too many" profiles and sending "too many" DMs in one day. I will never know for certain why I was kicked off LinkedIn for almost a full week, but I can tell you that I was using the automation software without any issue until I made a concerted effort to do massive outreach on one particular Monday afternoon.
It's important to have multiple ways to stay in touch with your audience.
Similar to when Facebook had crashed and sent so many business owners reeling and desperate to find ways to reach their audience, this experience reinforced for me the need to be able to reach my audience by email as well. While I have a decent email list so far (not huge but definitely engaged), I now have a renewed eagerness to offer more ways for my LinkedIn network to get on my email list.
It's hard to be out of a routine.
I used to begin every week day by checking in and engaging on LinkedIn. I was also in the habit of checking LinkedIn between meetings to engage with comments on my content and replies to my comments on other people's posts. Having this taken away so abruptly was a really hard thing to adjust to! I'll be honest, I think I was addicted.
Spending too much time on LinkedIn can hurt your productivity.
Being forced off of a platform that I had become accustomed to being on for multiple hours per week, was a valuable lesson in learning to limit and block my time for being on the platform. I found myself being much more productive when I didn't have the platform to fall back into with little pockets of time throughout the day.
Keeping a list of prospects is crucial to effective follow up activities.
While I didn't have as robust of a list as I will going forward, I was thankful that I had started a spreadsheet to track the LinkedIn leads that I wanted to stay in touch with because they expressed interest but weren't ready at the time, or simply because I was really drawn to their LinkedIn profile and wanted to connect more personally with them.
Everyone is curious about how you end up in LinkedIn jail.
I went to both an in person and virtual networking event while I was locked out of LinkedIn. The fact that I was in LinkedIn jail came up in conversation a few times and everyone was VERY eager to know how it happened. Having been a rule follower my whole life, I found a funny little guilty pleasure in being such a rebel. (Nerd alert!)
Getting disconnected from your people is NOT a good feeling.
Aside from being annoyed and concerned, I was honestly sad and a little lonely while I couldn't engage with my usual LinkedIn crowd. I've met so many amazing people on the platform - many that I'm used to interacting with on a daily basis. It felt strange and disconcerting not to be able to engage with them.
You should never become too reliant on one platform for all of your marketing activities.
When the great Facebook crashes have happened, I've been very minimally impacted because I really only use them for business groups, not for any of my direct outreach efforts. While I was already a big advocate for building an email list and not relying on any one platform too heavily, getting banned from LinkedIn let me experience this panic firsthand and really hammer the lesson home.
With these lessons, I will proceed with caution, safeguard against future similar challenges and help teach others to do the same with a well-rounded marketing plan.