How to Combat LinkedIn's Personalized Invitation Limitations

by Kathy Bernard

LinkedIn recently made changes to encourage (force?!) members to upgrade to one of its premium plans (Career premium, $29.99; Business premium, $59.99/mo.; Sales Navigator, $99.99/mon.; or Recruiter premium, $170/month). Non-paying users can now only send ten 200-character-long personalized invitations per month.
If you prefer to keep a free account, here are ways to communicate effectively on LinkedIn.

- Use your 10 personalized invitations to reach people who may not accept unless they know why you’re connecting. Invite others without a note.

- Join LinkedIn groups with prospects to send up to 15 free messages per month. To learn prospects’ groups, scroll to their profiles’ Interests section, then click Groups. Join several groups at once by typing an industry or topic in the search box, like “Marketing” or “Six Sigma” and then selecting Groups.

- Reach out to prospects who display a gold, premium “In” symbol next to their name. They may allow any LinkedIn member to send them a free message.

- Sign up for a LinkedIn premium option. You have to input your credit card but the first month is free. Then simply opt out before the month ends.

- Complete the “Open to Providing services” section of your profile to allow LinkedIn members to message you free for what you offer.

My guess is these limitations will eventually be removed. According to LinkedIn, only 39% of members use premium. If free users massively decrease their participation, the lack of engagement may hurt LinkedIn far more than it gains in increased premium sales.

Kathy Bernard (kathy@wiseru.com), CEO of WiserU.com, is a St. Louis-based LinkedIn consultant/trainer who equips businesses to maximize LinkedIn for sales, marketing, or fundraising.