LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional network with over 740 million members. As a professional social media platform, LinkedIn provides opportunities to connect with other professionals, find jobs, promote your business, and build your brand. One way many LinkedIn users try to expand their reach and visibility is by increasing their number of connections and followers. This raises the question – can you advertise for followers on LinkedIn? Let’s take a closer look.
What are LinkedIn Connections and Followers?
On LinkedIn, you can connect with other members by sending them connection requests which they can accept or ignore. Your 1st-degree connections are professionals who have accepted your connection requests.
Followers are LinkedIn members who follow your profile and posts without formally connecting to you. Followers allow you to reach a broader audience beyond your 1st-degree connections. While your connections see all your posts in their feeds, your followers only see your public posts in their feeds.
Why Get More Connections and Followers?
There are several benefits to having more LinkedIn connections and followers:
Increased Visibility
More connections and followers mean more people will see your profile and posts in their feeds. This can help you expand your professional network and increase your visibility.
Social Proof
Many connections and followers are seen as social proof of your influence and expertise. This can help build your professional brand and credibility.
New Opportunities
With an expanded network, you have access to more people who could potentially help you find job opportunities, new clients, business partners, and subject matter experts.
Improved SEO
Having lots of profile views and engagement on your posts can boost your LinkedIn profile’s search engine rankings.
Can You Advertise for Connections and Followers?
LinkedIn has specific rules around how members can grow their networks. While you can proactively send connection requests and engage with others’ content to organically gain more connections and followers, directly advertising for them is prohibited.
LinkedIn’s User Agreement states:
“You agree that you will not (and will not attempt to)…offer to sell your Connections or endorsements, request money or other remuneration in exchange for being Connected or endorsed on LinkedIn.”
Some specific things you cannot do:
Pay for Connections
You cannot pay other members to connect with you or endorse you. Purchasing connections is considered fake activity that violates LinkedIn’s terms.
Buy Followers
You cannot pay third-party services to inflate your follower count with fake or bot accounts. LinkedIn has automated systems to detect and remove inauthentic followers.
Post “Follow Me” on Your Profile
You cannot add “Follow Me” or “Add Me” to your profile headline, summary, or posts. LinkedIn moderators will remove such solicitation language.
Send Unsolicited Connection Requests
While you can actively connect with others on LinkedIn, you should not spam members with connection requests, especially if you have no existing relationship or shared connections.
Tag Unrelated People in Posts
You should not tag random people in your posts solely to grab their attention and get them to follow you. Your posts and tagged connections should be relevant.
Acceptable Ways to Get More Connections and Followers
While directly advertising or paying for LinkedIn connections and followers is prohibited, there are legitimate tactics you can use to organically grow your network:
Have a Complete, Optimized Profile
Members are more likely to connect and follow those who have filled out their profile with detailed work experiences, skills, education, honors, recommendations, etc. Make sure your profile is looking its best.
Engage With Other Members
Comment on posts, like and share content, and join Groups to meet and engage with more professionals on LinkedIn. Valuable engagement builds relationships.
Share Relevant Updates and Content
Post regular status updates and share articles and insights valuable to your industry and niche. This showcases your knowledge.
Follow Companies and Influencers
Stay up to date on brands, companies, and thought leaders relevant to your field by following their company and Showcase pages.
Make Strategic Connection Requests
Proactively connect with professionals you have interacted with, as well as contacts of your existing connections. Personalized requests tend to get accepted.
Participate in LinkedIn Events and Courses
Attending virtual events and taking LinkedIn Learning courses allows you to connect with others interested in the same topics.
Utilize LinkedIn Ads and Sponsored Content
You can pay to promote your profile and posts to reach more targeted members across LinkedIn who are more likely to connect and follow you.
Export Connections from Outlook or Other Tools
Upload your professional contacts from Outlook, Gmail, or other sources to more easily connect with people you already know on LinkedIn.
Best Practices for Gaining Quality Connections and Followers
Focus on Common Interests and Value Provided
Connect with those you share common interests, groups, or alumni status with. Share content and insights valuable to your connections.
Personalize Connection Requests
Take the time to customize your requests with a note addressing how you met or why you’d like to connect.
Limit Connection Requests to 50 Per Week
Sending too many requests looks desperate and could get flagged as spam, risking your account being restricted.
Follow Back
If someone follows you, consider following them back to build a mutual connection.
Thank New Connections
Send thank you messages to new connections welcoming them to your network and sharing how you look forward to interacting.
Monitor Insights Analytics
Check your LinkedIn account insights to see which posts, interests, and skills attract the most profile views and engagement.
Join Relevant Groups
Join up to 100 LinkedIn Groups centered around your industry, interests, university, etc. Interact frequently within your Groups.
Advertising Your LinkedIn Account the Right Way
Instead of directly advertising for LinkedIn connections and followers, focus your efforts on optimizing and promoting your LinkedIn presence using these above tactics. Some additional ideas include:
Add a LinkedIn Badge to Your Website or Blog
Showcase your LinkedIn profile on your other platforms by embedding a LinkedIn badge, link, or follower count.
List Your LinkedIn URL on Your Email Signature and Business Cards
Make it easy for professional contacts to find and connect with you on LinkedIn.
Highlight Your LinkedIn Presence in Offline Networking
Mention that people can connect with you on LinkedIn when networking at events or conferences.
Promote New Pieces of Content
Share links to your new LinkedIn posts, articles, and presentations across your other social platforms.
Run Retargeting Ads
Use platforms like AdRoll or Terminus to show LinkedIn ads to people who have already visited your profile or content.
Key Takeaways
Here are some of the main points to remember:
- While you cannot directly pay for or advertise to gain LinkedIn connections and followers, there are many legitimate tactics to grow your network organically.
- Focus on providing value, building relationships, optimizing your profile, engaging with others’ content, and participating in Groups.
- Strategically request to connect with those you have existing relationships and shared connections with.
- Promote your LinkedIn presence and content across your other websites, platforms, email, business cards, and offline networking.
- Monitor analytics to identify what is resonating most with your target audience on LinkedIn.
Conclusion
Expanding your reach on LinkedIn takes consistency, valuable insights, and relationship building over time. While advertising directly for followers or paying for connections is prohibited and ineffective, there are many best practices you can use to grow your professional network and increase your LinkedIn presence. Focus on quality over quantity by providing value, optimizing your profile, engaging others, and promoting your account across channels. With the right organic tactics, you can build quality LinkedIn connections and followers.
