For any business that uses LinkedIn for lead generation, automation is almost too good to be true. Instead of spending countless hours on sending manual invites, and checking conversations that need follow-up questions – or forgetting to send them, you can use a LinkedIn automation tool.
All you have to do is pick a reliable and secure tool, set it up, and put your entire lead generation process on autopilot.
LinkedIn automation makes it easier for you to scale your lead generation efforts, and help your team focus on tasks that truly matter. Not to mention the fierce competition, and to find quality leads and recruit top talents in general. All of this makes something like automation a must.
The benefits of LinkedIn automation are undeniable. There is only one thing that makes people wary of using them, which is their reputation of being unsafe. Most of the automation tools violate a dozen LinkedIn policies. And this makes the ban just a matter of time when you use them. For most sales teams, the risk is not worth it.
Luckily, you don’t have to choose between skipping LinkedIn automation altogether and working inefficiently or automating with a high-risk tool.
If you understand the things about LinkedIn automation tools that could get you banned, you’ll be able to use them to their full potential without risking a ban.
What triggers a LinkedIn account ban?
Despite being the ultimate solution for lead generation on LinkedIn, automation is generally banned on this platform. However, using an automation tool doesn’t mean an automatic ban.
In fact, you can get your account banned for the same reasons, even if you’re not using an automation tool. The idea behind banning automation is to prevent LinkedIn from becoming a place where bots are flooding everybody with spam messages and connect requests.
As you’ve probably guessed, human-to-human interactions is what networks like LinkedIn are all about. Connecting with other professionals – and finding job opportunities – is the main reason why people sign up for a LinkedIn account.
To protect the user experience of their platform, LinkedIn has a few triggers that could cause your account to be banned. Avoiding these will make the automation process virtually risk-free:
1. Using multiple automation accounts at the same time
You can fly under the LinkedIn radar if you’re using a single, good automation tool. However, using multiple tools simultaneously is almost guaranteed to get your account banned.
The type of activity that’ll result from multiple automation tools working together would be too much to go undetected. That’s why you should stick to one tool with a solid reputation for all your automation needs.
2. Using LinkedIn Chrome extensions
Not only are LinkedIn Chrome extensions prohibited, but they’re are also easy to spot and pose a high risk for getting you banned. Unlike secure LinkedIn automation tools – like SalesFlow, these extensions are not cloud-based.
Being cloud-based is a good workaround for LinkedIn’s automation ban, and it’s a must in any automation tool you choose. That, of course, in addition to not using a static/dedicated IP address. Having an IP that’s different from the one you’re using is something that’s easily spotted by LinkedIn.
3. Not following the LinkedIn limitations
Hitting a limit for a specific action is one of the most common ways to get suspended on LinkedIn. The problem with LinkedIn is that it has limits for everything, and these limits vary based on account types. There are 3 different types of LinkedIn accounts:
a. Cold/new accounts (free)
b. Warmed-up accounts (free)
c. Premium Sales Navigator accounts
The following are the limits you should always keep in mind, whether you’re using an automation tool or working manually:
Searches per month
To stay on the safe side, we recommend 30 searches per month for cold accounts and 300 searches for warmed-up accounts. As for Premium accounts, you can search as much as you want!
Maximum number of people in a conversation
In order to comply with LinkedIn’s policies, don’t create conversations with more than 50 people per day.
Groups memberships/management
You can manage up to 30 groups on LinkedIn, and be a member of up to 100.
Maximum number of mentions
Keep the mentions per post to a maximum of 20 mentions.
What makes a safe LinkedIn automation tool?
As you know now, automation tools by themselves are not the problem. It’s how most of these tools work that’s causing problems. And that’s something you don’t need to worry about when you’re using SalesFlow.
Our “smart automation” approach allows you to use the power of automation to streamline your workflow and keep up with the competition without risking a ban. By using dedicated IPs and mimicking human behaviour, SalesFlow gets the job done the right way.
Sending a random number of invites and messages at different times is one of many things the tool does to mimic human behaviour. Keep in mind that we have an almost 0% ban rate for users who follow the instructions mentioned above.
Conclusion
Even with the associated risk, the advantages of LinkedIn automation are too good to ignore. And when you can use the right tools properly, the risk is negligible, which makes such tools even more attractive.
In addition to helping your teamwork more efficiently, LinkedIn automation tools are more popular than ever. This means that your competitors are probably already using them, and not doing the same will put you at a severe competitive disadvantage.