We feared it, we waited for it, we knew it was coming.

LinkedIn is putting in yet another hard restriction and as usual, it’s being quiet about it.

The number of new invitations sent outside your immediate circle (up to 3rd degree connection) is now limited to a 100 requests per week.

If you try to connect to more than 100 people per week, this is the message that starts popping up.

The message encourages the user to create a better, more valuable network of professionals they know personally, or try again next week.

What does it mean for growing your network?

There was no hard and set rule on the number of new connection requests sent previously. However, it was generally agreed that a 100 connections per day was just enough to keep LinkedIn algorithms happy.

In other words, if previously LinkedIn allowed upwards of 2000 invitations per month, now you can only connect to 400 new people per month. As far as we understand, there are no limitations on the amount of invitations sent to your immediate network.

As is the norm, LinkedIn is keeping quiet about the new rules it’s setting for users. There was no prior warning about this restriction and official LinkedIn sources are not revealing anything beyond what the general public already experience.

Earlier on such restrictions were only placed on freshly made accounts with less than cca 250 existing connections. It’s not clear which accounts are affected by this change – the update seems to be rolling out in parts of the USA and Europe and is expected to affect all 700 million accounts in the upcoming months.

Why is LinkedIn imposing the limit?

While the official reason for the restriction is creating a more valuable network, the underlying explanation, that no doubt everyone, including LinkedIn has thought of, is to help reduce the number of automated invitations and messages.

Over the last few years LinkedIn has become a valuable tool in B2B marketing, sales and, of course, lead generation. Tech-savvy professionals take advantage of LinkedIn’s opportunity to connect and directly approach relevant decision-makers in your field.

This direct way of lead generation has proved itself very effective if done right – however, as with many great marketing approaches, it has become overused and lost its lustre.

This new invitations limit could be the platform’s way of dealing with unsolicited messages or spammers; or it could be a way to promote their own paid messaging service, InMail.

Can I go around the limit?

As far as we know, there isn’t yet a fool-proof way to go around the restriction and to connect to over 100 people per week. The limit seems to be affecting profiles at random, and once the account is hit, there is no going back.

However, if your account hasn’t been affected yet, you can try a few things to put off triggering the limit.

1. Clear outstanding invitations. If you’ve been in the network-growing game for a while, chances are you’ve built quite a base of pending connection requests, which can trigger LinkedIn anti-spam algorithm. Clearing the old invitations might reduce your chances of getting targeted.
2. Go slow on the connections. If you already know your audience, try connecting in small batches each day.
3. Try the Follow function. Following a professional will allow you to keep up-to-date with their professional developments while giving you another reason to send that invitation.
4. Take LinkedIn’s advice and connect to people you know personally. LinkedIn has a point – your network will be stronger and more valuable if you have a tangible connection to the person you are inviting. Try connecting to people in 2nd or 3rd degree connections and see the quality of your feed rise.

Lastly, if your goal is to build a community of like-minded professionals in your niche, there are other, more effective ways of building an audience using LinkedIn tools.

Thinking you might need assistance in working out the new LinkedIn strategy? Feel free to get in touch with us for any questions.