LinkedIn Restrictions: Why Do They Exist?

LinkedIn Restriction Example

If you received an introduction request or an Inmail on LinkedIn and you were not allowed to act upon it, wouldn’t you be angry?  The picture to the right is from the actual screen that a LinkedIn user saw the other day.  Does it surprise you that your LinkedIn account could potentially be restricted?

Let’s take a different perspective.  The other day, I received an interesting email forwarded to me from a friend:

“I am relatively new to Linkedin and I did not know they put a ceiling on it [= number of connections].  At what point do they cut you off?…It just seems kind of odd and I have looked at Linkedin trying to find clarification but I haven’t come across any official policies on that site (but again, I’m new and maybe I’m looking in the wrong place). Just curious!”

I spoke at a LinkedIn event last night in Los Angeles, and there were many people there for whom LinkedIn was still a new experience, just like the person above.  It reminded me that there will soon be a new generation of LinkedIn users who, like I have in the past, will soon run into restrictions and limitations that are not publicly communicated on the site nor reason given for their existence.

This is something that I personally do not think the mass media is doing enough to cover.  And, thankfully, Jon Hansen of the PI Window on Business, a podcast available on BlogTalkRadio, agreed.  This week Jon interviewed me about these restrictions, why they may exist, and how they could ultimately potentially be tied into technical scalability issues or even future plans to monetize the LinkedIn service.  No one knows for sure because it is not being communicated to us, so all we can do is conjecture.  But through the discussions a lot of interesting things were covered.

The interview was recorded as a podcast that you can listen to below.  It is an hour long, and it is less of tips for using LinkedIn and more of a look at the current restrictions and potential future for LinkedIn.  I hope you realize, should you listen to the entire show, that I am as big of a fan of the LinkedIn service as anyone else in the world, and because I am a power user and have hit many restrictions, I can be critical of LinkedIn.  But my criticism is only meant to be constructive criticism so that someday the platform becomes more valuable to everyone.  As I mention on the podcast, I am married to LinkedIn as I am to my own wife, and so I can be as critical about LinkedIn as I can about my own wife because I naturally know her (or LinkedIn) very well.

Jon wrote about the podcast experience with me on his blog as being “equal parts interesting, thought provoking and to a certain degree surreal.”

I hope you find the conversation to be as thought-provoking as I thought it was.  Looking forward to hearing your comments!