How to warm up a LinkedIn account

Build a normal-looking account by hand before you send outreach, and stay inside LinkedIn rules.

Impact
Low
Effort
Low
Filed under
Social Media, Sales
Updated

A LinkedIn warm-up means using a new or quiet account like a normal person before you send many connection requests: fill in the profile, connect with people you know, and engage with posts, then raise your outreach slowly. The aim is to avoid an invitation restriction, but LinkedIn does not say that warming up prevents one. Its help pages give no warm-up schedule or daily invitation limit, and it does not allow third-party automation tools, so any "safe number of requests per day" you read online is a guess.

How to do it

  1. Complete the profile first: real name, photo, headline, current role, and a short about section. LinkedIn's user agreement says you may have one account, in your real name.
  2. Spend the first week on normal use. Connect with colleagues, customers and classmates who already know you. Follow companies and people in your market.
  3. Comment on a few posts each day from people in your target audience. Add something specific to what they wrote.
  4. Start sending invitations in small batches by hand, to people who have a reason to say yes. Add a short note when you have a real reason to connect (free accounts can include a personalized message with five connection requests per month, so save notes for the people who matter).
  5. Watch your acceptance rate. LinkedIn lists as causes of restrictions that many of your invitations have been ignored, left pending or marked as spam by recipients. If few people accept, fix who you target and what you say before you send more.
  6. Withdraw old pending invitations now and then. LinkedIn lists "too many outstanding invitations" as a cause of restriction, with a wait of up to one month.
  7. Increase volume a little at a time. If you hit a limit, stop and wait. The restriction cannot be removed or shortened by LinkedIn.

What it looks like in practice

Say you are a freelance designer starting a new account for outreach to SaaS founders. Week one, you finish the profile and connect with 30 past clients and coworkers. Week two, you comment on a few founders' posts each day and send a handful of invitations with a one-line note about something they published. By week three you review who accepted and who ignored you, withdraw invitations that went nowhere, and slowly raise the number. This is a walkthrough of one possible setup, not a result.

When it backfires

  • Automation breaks LinkedIn's rules. LinkedIn's help center says it does not permit third-party software, including crawlers, bots and browser plug-ins, and the user agreement bans using bots or other unauthorized automated methods to add or download contacts or send messages. Accounts may be restricted or closed.
  • LinkedIn can suspend you if it suspects a tool. Its help page says that if you send an excessive number of invitations and it suspects an automation tool, it may suspend or restrict your account.
  • Limits are not published. When you reach one, LinkedIn says the restriction typically lasts one week, and you cannot buy more invitations or withdraw your way out.
  • Warmed-up accounts for sale. Buying or renting someone else's account conflicts with the one-account, real-name rule in the user agreement.

For the email version of this idea, see email warm-up.

Questions people ask

How do I warm up a LinkedIn account? Complete the profile, connect with people who know you, engage with posts, and send a small number of invitations by hand. Increase slowly and stop if you see a restriction.

How do I avoid LinkedIn account restrictions with outreach tools? LinkedIn's help center says it does not permit third-party automation software. Sending invitations by hand keeps you inside the automation rule, though LinkedIn still limits how many you can send.

Can I buy warmed up LinkedIn accounts? Do not. LinkedIn's user agreement says you may have one account in your real name.

Sources

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