LinkedIn is a powerful professional networking tool. It is the biggest professional networking site and it is still growing fast. It’s a hub of opportunities. For businesses, it’s a great platform for leads generation. For professionals seeking more opportunities, LinkedIn is also the best venue.
Fast Facts About LinkedIn:
- 95 percent of recruiters use LinkedIn to search for candidates;
- 95 percent use LinkedIn to contact candidates;
- 95 percent use LinkedIn to “keep tabs on” potential candidates;
- 93 percent use LinkedIn to ‘vet candidates pre-interview (versus 32 percent on Facebook and 18 percent on Twitter);
- 92 percent jobs on LinkedIn (versus 48 percent on Facebook and 39 percent on Twitter.
Read: 5 Reasons Why LinkedIn Is Also for Non-Job Seekers
But did you know that your LinkedIn account (personal and business accounts) can be suspended or restricted by LinkedIn? Yes, LinkedIn can do that if you violate their community guidelines.
However, if you wish to get suspended or restricted on LinkedIn, you can do the following (or not):
1. Being Mr. or Ms. Congeniality.
You can try to be extremely friendly and send out a ton of invitations to connect to people who don’t have any reason to connect with you. Once you receive enough “I don’t know this person” responses, LinkedIn might begin to consider suspending or restricting your account. Good luck with that!
Tip: Connect with people you know and people who have reasons to connect with you.
2. Spamming people on LinkedIn.
Perhaps you are thinking: “What’s the point of having hundreds of connection on LinkedIn if I won’t take advantage by sending out unsolicited sales pitch to everyone?” Oh well, go on with that and get plenty of red flags soon after.
Tip: You can send your connections InMails. Just make sure your InMail is worth their while. Avoid sending the same InMail to the same user many times.
3. Cloning yourself.
It’s not like you could ever clone yourself, at least it’s not yet a possible scenario in the nearer future. But if you believe you can never have enough, you can try cloning yourself on LinkedIn. Create another profile that is in no way different to your existing LinkedIn profile. You will surely confuse people with your multiple accounts. You’ll get LinkedIn confused, too. Chances are, LinkedIn will suspend you.
Tip: Stick with one account and optimize it.
4. Trying to be mysterious and suspicious.
You can try to be unusually mysterious and suspicious by inserting ambiguous characters and links into your LinkedIn profile name. And, use your favorite Japanese Anime character’s photo as account photo. You can also use your corporate logo. Good luck. We hope you won’t get suspended.
5. Stalking, stalking, stalking.
Are you a good and fast stalker? Try viewing 500 profiles in 2 hours. Also, run multiple searches consistently in a long period of time. You will surely get a red flag, especially if you are using LinkedIn’s regular account.
6. Sharing anything, rubbish or not rubbish.
You may try treating LinkedIn the way you treat Facebook and Twitter. Share a manifold of content – from hilariously crazy to disturbing contents. In LinkedIn’s own words: Act dishonestly or unprofessionally by engaging in unprofessional behavior by posting inappropriate, inaccurate, or objectionable content to LinkedIn
7. Earning money out of LinkedIn (without their permission).
Are you entrepreneurial? Do you wish to earn extra cash through LinkedIn? Well, you can try. But LinkedIn hates it when people use their site to earn money without their consent. Any form of monetization of income generation out of their stored information, services and/or functionality will surely get you suspended.
8. Trolling.
Feeling funny and mischievous? Trolling is an entertaining habit online. It seems fun making fun of other people. But mind you, to harass, abuse or harm another person online is consistently frowned upon across all social networking sites, and LinkedIn is definitely not exempted. Launch a verbal assault to an unsuspecting user and you’ll immediately find yourself in another battle – this time against the suspension of your account.
Check out the complete LinkedIn user guidelines, including the dos and don’ts, here: http://www.linkedin.com/legal/user-agreement.
All GIFs grabbed from Giphy.