Ever had a warning from LinkedIn telling you there has been some strange activity on your account? I have, and the reason was quite bizarre in all honesty. What was a seemingly normal set of activities nearly got my whole LinkedIn account banned. So I did some research and came up with a quick list. Here is a list of average activities that can cause some hefty repercussions.
Being Too Popular
You might scoff at the title, but the initial reason I received a warning was due to the number of views I received on one particular poll I posted. It went viral, a whole 100K more views than my average. So LinkedIn’s robotics found that a little strange and gave me a warning. If your account suddenly sees a surge in popularity for whatever reason your account can get flagged. It didn’t harm my account at all, but it’s always scary to receive a warning that your LinkedIn account will be banned.
Having Too Many Pending Requests
This used to be a larger issue before LinkedIn’s connection limitations, but you can still get thrown into LinkedIn jail if you don’t clean up your requests once and a while. If you have hundreds and thousands of pending requests LinkedIn will see that as you harassing users you don’t know. It’s best to do a cleanup once a week to remove those failed requests. Why did those requests fail? Lack of strategy? The profile is inactive? It could be a number of reasons. You can improve your connection acceptance rate, but there will always be some requests that don’t always go through. So keep an eye on your request outbox.
Looking Like a Fake
Ever had to prove you’re not a robot to a robot? It’s pretty easy, right? You just have to click on all the fire hydrants or choose the upright picture of a grey dog. Ever had to prove your human to another human? It can be a little tougher if your profile has little information on it and you’re using a stock image for a profile picture. You might be too good looking for your own good and your professional studio headshot makes you look straight out of the Shutterstock catalogue. Make sure that your profile is fully complete and you look as “human” as possible.
Robotic Commenting
Engagement is the lifeblood of LinkedIn. It opens up communication for sales, it helps generate organic views and it helps keep you at the front of the minds of your prospects. What doesn’t help is repeating the same comments time and time again. We’ve all done it, comment “thanks for sharing” on a piece of content just to fill the space. But, too many of these and a report from other users will only help LinkedIn’s decision to have your account banned. It’s even worse if you’re using automation. But, let’s not delve into that.
Duplicate Profiles
I know a lot of business owners who, after taking our courses, decide to start all over again. Taking our training and profile optimisation strategies to square one. Not a bad idea and a fresh start can get the ball rolling. BUT. They neglect to shut down their old profiles. Leading to their old accounts, more established due to time, taking over. Now, this on its own might not get the account banned, but it will limit the account reach and people will get confused as to who is the real you. Keep it simple, have one account.
I didn’t mention automation in these seemingly normal activities, mainly because automation isn’t a normal activity for LinkedIn. Any instance of automation LinkedIn finds will get your account banned if you keep using them.
The best advice I can give you from this article is to avoid automation altogether and anything that you would deem spammy if you received those requests, messages or comments. It only takes a handful of reports to put all your LinkedIn efforts into jeopardy.
