Building your business or personal brand on social media is all about putting yourself out there. It’s important that you are doing what you can to make yourself present on whatever platform you are using. All you want to do is avoid spamming. What is spamming? Basically, any time you get a little too carried away liking posts, sending messages and multiple connection requests, you’re entering spamming territory. LinkedIn users in particular can fall into this pattern of spamming and they might not even realise it before it’s too late. So, to avoid you falling into the same trap, here are 3 reasons why you should avoid spamming on LinkedIn at all costs.
Destroys Personal Brand
Gaining a prominent presence on LinkedIn (or any social media) will build your personal brand – whether you are actively trying to or not. Some people think that any engagement is good engagement and I suppose this all depends on your purpose for being on LinkedIn. If you’re just on LinkedIn for the hell of it then your personal brand probably isn’t really that important to you. However, if you’re using LinkedIn to generate leads or grow your network then the last thing you want is to gain a reputation as a spammer.
Why is gaining a reputation as a spammer on LinkedIn a threat to your personal brand? People will no longer want to interact with you. In fact, they will do their very best to avoid you, even going so far as to block your account. Any credibility you have will be destroyed simply because you were a bit too quick to click.
Network Damage
Connection messages aside, using spamming techniques to grow your network is also harmful. When connecting with people on LinkedIn, you should have a connection criteria of who you want in your network. It doesn’t matter if you are looking to connect with prospects or searching for a new job, a connection criteria is key. Therefore connecting with just any and everyone you come across in the hopes of growing your network won’t work.
There are a couple of reasons why spamming the connection button this way will damage your network. For one, LinkedIn won’t have any idea who you want to connect with so your connection suggestions will likely be completely outside of your industry. On the other side, your profile will not be suggested to the people you actually should be connecting with either.
LinkedIn Jail
LinkedIn wants to make sure that everyone is using its platform in a fair and honest way. Sometimes this leads to it being overly cautious if someone happens to build their network in a short amount of time or if they have a viral post. But most of the time, it is to prevent people from using automated tools. You have probably already guessed where I’m going with this…
While you might be doing it all manually, spamming messages, likes and connection requests is likely to land you in LinkedIn Jail. Your account will be limited and all the time you spent on spamming will be wasted. Even when your account is released, you’ll be on probation with LinkedIn watching your every move so if you continue to use spamming techniques, you’ll go right back and quicker this time. Too many times and you risk having your account banned.
So, what can you do to make sure you are avoiding spamming on LinkedIn? It’s pretty simple: act like a human and not a robot. To avoid your messages being marked as spam, avoid making them too salse-y and repeatedly sending them when you receive no response. Don’t just like posts and send connection requests for the sake of it. Anything you do on LinkedIn, make sure there is a clear intention behind it first.