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Permalink Reply by Kristen Durkin on February 4, 2009 at 11:16am

Big Brother anyone?

I have had an invite suspension lifted after 5 days or so for sending requests where 5 or more people claimed they didn't know me (even though they were members of "Invite Me").

I believe it will be lifted, but they will boot you if they find you mass e-mailing again.
Good Luck!

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Permalink Reply by Chris on February 4, 2009 at 11:29am

Hi Kristen,

Thanks - hopefully they will... but I certainly don't understand why you can't email your own contacts! I was emailing my own contacts!!! I wasn't sending out invites. I accept invites from anyone who wants to send them to me, but I don't send them out..

If anyone else has had any trouble let me know - I know there are a few out there who have that I talked to.. it think that even may be why Recruiting Blogs started in the first place..



Kristen Durkin said:

Big Brother anyone?

I have had an invite suspension lifted after 5 days or so for sending requests where 5 or more people claimed they didn't know me (even though they were members of "Invite Me").

I believe it will be lifted, but they will boot you if they find you mass e-mailing again.
Good Luck!

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Permalink Reply by Eric Gilson on February 4, 2009 at 12:12pm

Just a suggestion, don't send job descriptions.

Get engaged and discuss the opening with them verbally. When asked for a job description we use:

"Our clients higher people. They don't simply fill positions."

People don't want to read what duties they will have to perform, they want to hear about the opportunity to advance their career. Job descriptions usally read like to do lists. I highly suggest that you stop sending job descriptions to potential candidates. We don't allow that practice at Bluespeed. We talk to them.

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Permalink Reply by Julia Stone on February 4, 2009 at 3:32pm

I am wondering just how many people you are emailing at one time, my guess is that you got flagged for spam & abuse because it exceeded their limits. I would also wonder how effective your current methods are, we get approximately 1/3 or 1/4 response rate from our metrics on LI.

I have never had an issue and I use it all the time to network, but I do take a point to only contact people who are open to career opportunities as linked In calls them.

I wonder how long it will be before they boot all of the open networkers off that don't want to pay 10,000+ per year to have a corporate solution. I have a feeling they have little sympathy for any of us.

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Permalink Reply by Slouch on February 4, 2009 at 7:27pm

I think that it is probably the case that most people are not open networkers and most people hate the fact that they do get mass emailed by people they don't know just looking to build contacts. If it is so important to have the biggest list of them all, maybe the open networks should pay. If there is true value in it, then it should be something one pays for. I think people need to realize that the world was not built for them. If you get an email from Linkedin like that it is probably because you are in violation of their user agreement. If they ask you to stop and you don't they probably send another email and if you still don't stop, there is no case you can make why it is unfair that you got removed.

Julia Stone said:

I am wondering just how many people you are emailing at one time, my guess is that you got flagged for spam & abuse because it exceeded their limits. I would also wonder how effective your current methods are, we get approximately 1/3 or 1/4 response rate from our metrics on LI.

I have never had an issue and I use it all the time to network, but I do take a point to only contact people who are open to career opportunities as linked In calls them.

I wonder how long it will be before they boot all of the open networkers off that don't want to pay 10,000+ per year to have a corporate solution. I have a feeling they have little sympathy for any of us.

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Permalink Reply by Jerry Albright on February 4, 2009 at 7:37pm

Chris - what I find interesting is not so much that Linkedin didn't want you to do whatever you did - but rather how in what appears to be your first response you just demand they reinstate your account. Twice.

You get more flies with honey. Maybe if you would have said "Lindsay - I am sorry. There is a bit of confusion on what I can/can't do. Could you please clarify some things for me.......?"

It's just a thought. Maybe they would have reactived your account already if the approach were a bit different.

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Permalink Reply by Jerry Albright on February 4, 2009 at 7:48pm

What I find interesting - and not to pile on Chris here - but in a larger sense is many of these services are not costing us a dime. Like our home here at RBC. Twitter. Google. Linkedin. DIgg. The list of freebies is endless. These are all tools that we are not spending a dime on - yet so many of us act entitled and make demands upon them.



Rayanne said:

I had an issue a year ago where I was suspended from sending out invites because one person had said they didn't know me. I responded almost exactly as you describe here Jerry and I was reinstated immediately. Gotta love honey.

Jerry Albright said:

Chris - what I find interesting is not so much that Linkedin didn't want you to do whatever you did - but rather how in what appears to be your first response you just demand they reinstate your account. Twice.

You get more flies with honey. Maybe if you would have said "Lindsay - I am sorry. There is a bit of confusion on what I can/can't do. Could you please clarify some things for me.......?"

It's just a thought. Maybe they would have reactived your account already if the approach were a bit different.

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Permalink Reply by Amitai Givertz on February 4, 2009 at 9:24pm

Jerry, spot-on!

Jerry Albright said:

What I find interesting - and not to pile on Chris here - but in a larger sense is many of these services are not costing us a dime. Like our home here at RBC. Twitter. Google. Linkedin. DIgg. The list of freebies is endless. These are all tools that we are not spending a dime on - yet so many of us act entitled and make demands upon them.



Rayanne said:

I had an issue a year ago where I was suspended from sending out invites because one person had said they didn't know me. I responded almost exactly as you describe here Jerry and I was reinstated immediately. Gotta love honey.

Jerry Albright said:

Chris - what I find interesting is not so much that Linkedin didn't want you to do whatever you did - but rather how in what appears to be your first response you just demand they reinstate your account. Twice.

You get more flies with honey. Maybe if you would have said "Lindsay - I am sorry. There is a bit of confusion on what I can/can't do. Could you please clarify some things for me.......?"

It's just a thought. Maybe they would have reactived your account already if the approach were a bit different.

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Permalink Reply by Jim Durbin on February 4, 2009 at 10:13pm

LinkedIn has changed since the beginning, but in doing so, they've brought tremendous value to those who use it correctly.

The problem with your line of thinking Chris is that you're all about making placements. That's great as a recruiter, but if I invited you to a dinner party with business contacts, and you started passing around lists of jobs you wanted to place, I'd take you aside and tell you to relax and try the clam dip. LinkedIn is a dinner party, not a networking event.

Open Networking is like Multi-level Marketing - it's only great if you're one of them. Most people can't stand the idea of sharing contacts - and it's their right to do so. They may connect with you, and then regret it, or they may connect, and not realize what you meant. There are a lot more of them then there are of you, and as you aren't paying for the privilege (are you paying for the premium packages?) in the way they want you to, you're trying to game the network for your benefit and don't seem too concerned about the rest.

My advice would be to backup your contacts, diversify your networking across multiple sites, and don't be surprised if they bounce you. You should also look at how much money you've made on LinkedIn. If you're making great money, put it under the mattress, because they're cracking down on your behavior.

If you're not making a lot of money, then you're generating statistical noise that actually hurts the rest of us. LinkedIn is voluntary. Users have to choose to spend time there. If you are making someone uncomfortable, you have to figure that eventually, you're going to get bounced.

And for the rest of you - export that contact list.

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Permalink Reply by Chris on February 4, 2009 at 10:38pm

Hi All -

Thanks for your advice. My contacts have all - or should have all linked to me because they want to be kept posted with job opportunities. They are just about all active candidates, or other recruiters who want to do splits. There are a few who are probably in there for other reasons but they have told me that they are there for the jobs. When i send out job descriptions to them - they are targeted toward their industry, and their level of expertise and experience. For the record I'm not blindly sending out emails to 1000's of people who I've never spoken to before and don't know their backgrounds at all. These are also people that I'm in contact with roughly every other week or so with new opportunities for them. I've spoken to most of my contacts over the phone, if not in person, and absolutely we've all exchanged a number of emails before I've invited any of them into my network. Those I haven't spoken to first are typically referred to me through other contacts and the occassional open networker who wants to link in and claims to be looking for a job. I do NOT accept invitations to send invitations to anyone. So I DO have a targeted audience. I did not blast 1000's of people when I sent out the mailing.

My hunch is, and this has actually happened before, someone was looking for a job. They set up their linkedin account to email their work email, and someone from work saw the position come in and they decided to cover themselves and complain in front of the colleague or boss. I've actually had someone do this, get me shut down, and then called later and appologized becasue his boss was over his shoulder when the email came in and he didn't think to put his home email on his resume.

There was no violation of any of their rules or agreements. I've gone over all of them repeatedly. (They did by the way reinstate me late this morning). I didn't do anything wrong, they apparently shut you down with a complaint before they investigate.

Below is their response... apparently I'm not to send messages to anyone unless they ask about a job.

Hello Chris,

Thank you for your reply. In the past, we did provide a form which allowed members to send available job positions to their connections. This form is no longer available. As previously stated, if a connection of your inquires about available opportunities, please feel free to reply with the positions you have available. However, we ask that you do not send messages to those that have not inquired about open jobs.
All restrictions have been removed from your account. We apologize for any inconvenience this has caused you and realize that all members may not be aware of new policies.

If you have any further questions, please feel free to reply.


Regards,

Lindsay
LinkedIn Privacy Team

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