How do I get around LinkedIn invitation limit?

Having a large network on LinkedIn can be very beneficial for establishing your professional brand and making valuable connections. However, LinkedIn limits the number of invitations you can send out to connect with new people. Once you hit the limit, you have to wait for the invitation counter to reset before sending more requests. This can be frustrating when you’re trying to grow your network quickly. Fortunately, there are some clever workarounds to get around LinkedIn’s invitation limit.

Understanding LinkedIn’s invitation limits

First, it’s important to understand how LinkedIn’s invitation limit works. There are a couple key things to know:

• You can only send a certain number of invitations per week. The exact number depends on your account status. Free accounts are limited to around 100-300 invites per week.
• Once you hit the weekly limit, you have to wait for the counter to reset. This happens every Monday at 12am PST.
• LinkedIn monitors invitations at the account level. So even if you have multiple LinkedIn accounts, each one has its own limit.

Exceeding the limits can result in having your invitations throttled or restricted by LinkedIn. That’s why it’s important to be strategic in how you send invitations and find workarounds when needed.

Optimize your invitation language

The first trick is to customize your invitation message. Generic invites are more likely to be ignored or even reported to LinkedIn. Here are some tips for writing effective LinkedIn invitation text:

• Personalize the message with their name and why you want to connect.
• Reference any common connections, groups, or interests you share.
• Explain how connecting could be mutually beneficial.
• Be transparent that it’s an invitation template but you sincerely want to connect.

Spending time personalizing your invitations can help limit accidental declines and reports. This means you can reserve more of your weekly limit for outreach that converts rather than wasted invites.

Leverage LinkedIn Groups

Joining and participating in relevant LinkedIn Groups related to your industry or interests is a great way to connect with engaged professionals. Here are some tips for using Groups to expand your network:

• Search for active Groups in your field and join the conversations.
• Provide thoughtful comments and advice to start building connections.
• Once you’ve engaged with members, you can directly invite them to connect.
• Group invitations don’t count toward your personal invitation limit.
• Aim to join 5-10 active Groups to increase your visibility and outreach.

This approach takes more effort than mass invites, but lets you target engaged professionals open to connecting. Plus, you can make hundreds of connections this way without limiting your personal invites.

Connect in real life

Attending in-person industry events, conferences, and networking opportunities allows you to meet people offline. Here are some perks of making real life connections:

• You can collect business cards and invite attendees to connect on LinkedIn after meeting them.
• There’s a higher acceptance rate when people already know you.
• Personal invites don’t count toward your LinkedIn limits.
• Builds authentic relationships that go beyond digital contacts.

Conferences and trade shows are great places to make strategic, relevant connections in your field. Try setting a goal of gathering at least 25 new contacts at each event.

Use LinkedIn Contact Finder

The LinkedIn Contact Finder is a paid tool that lets you import and connect with your email contacts who also use LinkedIn. Here are some key benefits of using Contact Finder:

• Import your email address book to see who’s on LinkedIn.
• Easily send connection requests to those contacts.
• These invitations don’t count toward your limit.
• Great way to connect with co-workers, classmates, clients, etc.

Depending on your email history, you may uncover hundreds of qualified prospects through Contact Finder you can immediately invite. Just make sure to import and clean your contacts first.

Upgrade to a premium account

One of the main advantages of LinkedIn’s premium subscriptions is increased connection invites. Here’s a comparison of the limits for each account tier:

Upgrading to premium gives you more bandwidth to extend your network quickly. The Sales Navigator and Recruiter accounts have the highest limits. This may be worth the price if networking at scale is a core need.

Use automated invite tools carefully

While I don’t recommend it, there are automated invitation tools and services that claim to send thousands of invites for you. Here are the risks to keep in mind:

• Violates LinkedIn’s Terms of Service if abused.
• Can get your account restricted or banned.
• Invites will seem robotic and be ignored or flagged.
• Not a sustainable way to build authentic relationships.

However, if used selectively, automating some invites can be helpful. Just be sure to personalize the messages and blend them with your own invitations.

Follow up with invite reminders

Rather than continuously inviting new people, you can follow up on outstanding invitations. Here are some ways to follow up:

• Connect via other social media channels where they may be more active.
• Try resharing your original invite message as a reminder.
• Polite direct messages on LinkedIn to reiterate interest in connecting.
• Email outreach if you have their contact info available.

Following up shows persistence and your interest is genuine. With some effort, you may be able to convert 30-50% of non-responders into new connections.

Provide value to your network

At the end of the day, the best way to grow your LinkedIn network is by consistently providing value. Here are some ways to do that:

• Share insightful articles, tips, and resources relevant to your industry.
• Comment with thoughtful advice and perspective on discussions.
• Congratulate connections on work anniversaries, new jobs, etc.
• Endorse skills for connections and write recommendations when warranted.
• Introduce members to each other that can mutually benefit.

When you have a reputation for providing meaningful value, people are far more likely to connect and engage. This creates a virtuous cycle rather than shallow network connections.

Conclusion

LinkedIn limits are in place to maintain quality connections and combat spam behavior. But you have plenty of legitimate options to continue growing your network and bypass the limits. Focus on personalizing invites, leveraging Groups, making in-person connections, and providing ongoing value. With the right strategies, you can connect with thousands of relevant professionals on LinkedIn over time.