Want to learn how to use LinkedIn automation to save time & grow your following?
In this guide you will learn how automation tools can quickly boost your LinkedIn profile.
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Have you discovered how much work it takes to make a GREAT LinkedIn presence?
It takes:
- Marketing wit
- Great timing
- Engagement-focused content
- AND a whole lot more...
A SIMPLE way to enhance your LinkedIn marketing efforts?
LinkedIn automation!
This article is going to focus on 2 questions:
- What is LinkedIn automation?
- How do you use LinkedIn automation to grow your profile effectively?
If you’ve wondered how you can automate LinkedIn to save time and get more connections, keep reading!
LinkedIn automation tools that won't get you BANNED
Before we jump in, we need to go over the BASICS of automation.
Some people mistakenly think that all LinkedIn automation software works similarly.
As a result, they jump right into automating their profile WITHOUT considering possible consequences.
You have to be able to tell the GOOD automation from the BAD automation.
Using the BAD kind can lead to some costly consequences for your account.
With that said, we’re going to cover:
- What is LinkedIn automation?
- Types of LinkedIn automation
- How to Use Post Planner to automate LinkedIn posts
- Is LinkedIn automation legal?
- How does LinkedIn detect automation?
- 3 Benefits of LinkedIn automation
- The DOs and DONTs of LinkedIn automation
Let’s get started!
What is LinkedIn automation?
LinkedIn automation is any tool or software that automatically executes actions FOR you on your LinkedIn account.
Some examples of automation include:
- A LinkedIn bot that sends messages, comments, and likes posts for you
- A software tool that posts content on your LinkedIn page for you
- A tool that automatically finds and requests to connect with new people in your industry.
There are TONS of different ways people automate their LinkedIn profiles to save time.
However, they all revolve around using technology to do something for you — so you can focus on the important things.
Types of LinkedIn automation
LinkedIn automation is sounding pretty great, right?
Not so fast!
There are ways to use automation that’ll help GROW your account.
But there are other ways to help you get your account REMOVED.
Learn to distinguish the good automation from the bad before you start going gung-ho with automation.
As we said, there are many ways that you can automate your LinkedIn profile, but they generally fall into 2 broad categories:
- Automate with a LinkedIn bot
- Automate LinkedIn posts
Let’s take a closer look at these two types of LinkedIn automation so you can choose which one is best for your business.
Using a LinkedIn bot
A LinkedIn bot is what most people think of when they hear the word “automation.”
Even though different LinkedIn bots do various tasks, they generally execute actions without much input from the user.
In other words, the user will set the bot to make connections, and then the LinkedIn bot will automatically reach out to other users to request connections with them.
Some bots are even capable of:
- Liking posts
- Commenting
- Sending automatic messages.
The problem with LinkedIn bots is that people can generally tell when they’re being contacted by a bot versus a real human.
That’s why we recommend avoiding most LinkedIn bots.
Some LinkedIn bots may genuinely improve your LinkedIn presence, but most aren’t worth your time.
Even worse, they can get you PENALIZED if misused (which we’ll talk about in a moment).
Posting schedule automation
Another type of LinkedIn automation is when you automate LinkedIn posts.
We’ll call this “posting schedule automation” because it makes predetermined posts on a set schedule.
For example, you might come across a great piece of LinkedIn content that you think would benefit your connections.
Posting schedule automation allows you to schedule that content to be posted in the future.
By creating an automated posting schedule, you can easily prepare a month or 2 months’ worth of content in a single day.
The significant difference between posting schedule automation and using a LinkedIn bot is that posting automation allows MORE significant user input.
In other words, you’ll still be choosing:
- When to post
- What to post
- How you interact with other posts
- Who you connect with
The only part of your LinkedIn that is automated with this type of automation is the act of posting.
How to use Post Planner to automate LinkedIn posts
To get started with posting schedule automation for LinkedIn, you’ll need software to help.
Post Planner is a content discovery and posting automation tool.
In other words, it helps you find great content FAST.
Then it enables you to automate the posting process.
There are 4 areas that we’ll focus on where Post Planner can help you seriously improve your LinkedIn presence:
- Consistent posting schedule
- Quick content discovery
- Diverse content
- Planned posting calendar
Let’s take a closer look at these 4 Post Planner strategies.
Create a posting schedule
The first core feature that Post Planner offers is post scheduling.
All you have to do is select the following:
- Which days you want to post
- What time of day you want to post
- What type of content is allowed to post at each time slot
- What social media you want to post on
As you find content through the content discovery tool, Post Planner will automatically fill each posting slot with the content you select.
Then, Post Planner automatically posts the content you selected at the times you specified.
But when should you post?
It’s different for every audience, but a good starting place is posting once per day at around lunchtime or around 5 PM.
As you begin posting more consistently, change your posting frequency and posting times.
Then analyze the change in engagement.
Repeating this process can help you find the perfect posting times and frequency for your audience.
Discover content quickly
The second core feature of Post Planner is the content discovery system.
This is where you’ll start to save a TON of time (compared to using LinkedIn without automation).
Without automated content discovery, it can take hours to find just a couple of pieces of good content.
You have to do keyword searches across multiple sites to find pieces that are performing well.
This process is time-consuming, leading you to attempt to save time by finding lower-quality content.
On Post Planner, all you have to do is search for a keyword that’s relevant to your niche.
In addition, Post Planner has tons of pre-made content streams full of curated content from across the web.
For example, you can search for a keyword like “marketing” and find multiple curated content sources from around the web.
Each content stream is full of high-performing content tested on audiences just like yours.
Select a content stream, then add content that you like to the posting schedule that you created.
If you find a lot of content you like in a particular content stream, you can save it for quick access later on.
Save multiple content streams across different keywords to accelerate your content discovery.
Diversify your content
Diversification is an excellent place to start if you’re looking to improve your content strategy.
Diverse content types help you take FULL advantage of automated LinkedIn posting by helping more people engage with your content.
What do I mean by “diverse content?”
You shouldn’t be posting only 1 or 2 content types.
For example, many people exclusively post articles on their LinkedIn profiles.
Articles aren’t bad, but they can get boring after a while.
Plus, LinkedIn doesn't like it when you post links to off-platform content.
To keep your audience from getting bored of your content, try posting various native content types:
- Videos
- Articles
- Infographics
- Images
Post Planner allows you to sort content streams by content type.
This can help you quickly find a wide variety of content to share with your followers.
For example, I filtered this search only to show gifs for memes:
Automation won’t help you if your connections get bored with your content after a week.
To take full advantage of automation, you need to ensure that you have a diverse content strategy that'll keep their attention!
Plan your content calendar weeks in advance
Finally, Post Planner can help you automate your posting calendar weeks in advance.
For example, you can use your content streams to quickly find 20 or 30 pieces of content that you want to share.
Then, simply add them to your schedule to plan your posting calendar for the next several weeks.
LinkedIn automation is about saving time and improving your post quality.
So by planning weeks in advance, you can think more about strategy and pick BETTER content.
You can use your posting queue to ensure that your content will post precisely when you want it to.
Posting automation is the best way to improve your LinkedIn presence.
Which is why we recommend using planning and content-discovery tools to help YOU make the best schedule possible.
Is LinkedIn automation legal?
Sometimes, when people realize how much time they could be saving with LinkedIn automation, their first question is:
“Is that allowed???”
The short answer is that it depends on what you’re doing.
Some types of automation are allowed.
For example, using LinkedIn automation scheduling tools like Post Planner is completely allowed!
But other LinkedIn automation tools aren’t.
For example, LinkedIn’s Prohibited Software and Extensions page says that you can’t use bots to “send or redirect messages.”
More specifically, it says that bots aren’t allowed to do the following 4 things:
- Scrape LinkedIn to copy profiles or data
- Access LinkedIn services
- Add or download contacts
- Send or redirect messages
If you use a bot to do one of those things, you could get your account removed or suspended.
How does LinkedIn detect bot automation?
At this point, you may be saying, “They’ll probably never know! How are they gonna find out anyway?”
Good question!
The reality is that it’s pretty easy to tell when a user is automating their account in ways that go against the LinkedIn user agreement.
- Automated messages seem awkward and forced.
- Bots often connect with too many people at once, which is a red flag.
- Other users will notice spammy practices and could potentially report your account.
Is it possible that LinkedIn might never know, and you could get away with it?
Sure.
Is it a good idea to risk your account on the prayer that they won’t find out?
Nope.
Accounts engaging in spammy practices typically get discovered and shut down.
So we always recommend AVOIDING those practices at all costs.
3 Amazing Benefits of LinkedIn automation
If you choose to stick to the types of LinkedIn automation (like Post Planner) that are allowed, some excellent benefits can send your profile to the NEXT level.
In this section, we’re going to look at the top 3 benefits of LinkedIn automation and show you how they can boost your profile.
In essence, automating your LinkedIn helps you:
- Save time
- Connect with more people
- Engage more with your community
1. Save time on repetitive tasks
When you start automating your LinkedIn account, the first benefit you’ll notice is how much time it saves.
Think about how many steps there are to keep up with your LinkedIn posting:
1. Finding good content by scrolling through your feeds
2. Sharing with your followers
3. Replying to comments and engaging in conversations
4. Repeating this process at least once a day, but preferably multiple times every single day
Automation takes this process out of the picture.
You can find LOADS of content at once, set it up to post when you want it to, and forget about it.
Then, all you have to worry about is engaging with people on the social media platform.
You can then use your saved time to do more productive things!
(Like engaging with your audience!)
2. Get exposed to more people
Second, you’ll find that you get exposed to MORE people when you start automating your profile.
For example, you might currently only have time to post 2 times per week.
That means you’re putting your name in front of your followers only twice every week.
What if you could increase that number to 5 times per week? What about 7 times?
The answer is that more people will see your content, which leads to:
- More engagement (likes, comments, shares)
- More connections
- More influence in your professional niche
In other words, automating your LinkedIn makes your schedule more reliable and consistent.
Which leads to MORE exposure to new people.
Over time, automation will help grow your profile by repeating this simple cycle:
- Find great content and share it with your followers
- Your followers engage with your content by sharing it with their connections
- Those new people engage with your content and connect with you
- The cycle repeats, but with a BIGGER audience.
3. Engage more with your professional community
One of the critical LinkedIn strategies that people miss out on is engaging with their connections.
They think that posting content will earn them new followers, but it won’t.
You HAVE to follow up on that content by participating in the conversations it starts.
LinkedIn is different from other social media platforms in this area.
On other platforms, starting conversations isn’t quite as important.
However, LinkedIn users are looking to expand their professional network by GETTING TO KNOW people.
Give them a chance to get to know you by:
- Participating in conversations in the comments of your posts
- Commenting on other people’s posts to show them that you’re interested in them
- Consider messaging people directly if you have a question that relates to them. Most people like to be helpful, so asking thoughtful questions about an area of their expertise can create a good relationship.
Without automating your LinkedIn profile, it’s tough for most people to focus as much as they need to on engaging with their audience.
Instead, they’re just trying to find content to post.
Automation can offer incredible benefits if you stick to your plan and take the opportunity to develop your social media strategy in other areas.
However, don’t expect to see these benefits overnight.
You have to work CONSISTENTLY over time to grow your account — even if it’s automated!
The DOs and DON’Ts of LinkedIn automation
Learning when NOT to use automation is just as important as learning how to use it for your business.
In other words, it’s essential to understand both WHY and HOW using automation can hurt you if you use it wrong.
On the other hand, it’s important to know how much you’re missing out on if you’re not using LinkedIn automation.
This section will go more in-depth into what you should use automation for and what you shouldn’t.
DON’T automate messages
First, you should NEVER automate your LinkedIn messages.
You might be thinking:
“But I could save so much time with LinkedIn message automation!”
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve received automated messages on LinkedIn.
Do you know what I do every single time?
I IGNORE THEM!
That’s precisely why you shouldn’t be using automated LinkedIn messaging.
Your connections can tell when they’re getting a real message VERSUS when they’re getting something copied & pasted or sent by a bot.
Don’t insult your connections’ intelligence by thinking you can fool them with automated messages.
If the conversation with the connection is crucial, you should take the time to write them a real message!
Not only that, but we mentioned above that using a bot to send messages is actually against LinkedIn’s terms of service, so it can result in losing your account!
In other words, don’t do it!
DON’T automate engagement
Second, you might try automating engagement in the form of Likes, comments, or some other engagement.
Some bots will automatically comment on or Like other people’s posts for you, so you don’t have to do it yourself.
While this strategy can certainly save you some time, it isn’t beneficial.
The purpose of Liking content is to show the poster that you got something out of that comment.
Having a LinkedIn bot like those pieces of content doesn’t help you out, and it doesn’t help the other person out either.
Similarly, commenting is for starting conversations.
Bots don’t create good conversations.
In fact, they’re terrible at starting conversations at all.
For example, with messages, people can tell when the comment posted is a one-size-fits-all comment.
Generally speaking, they’ll just ignore it.
Engagement on LinkedIn is a way to build relationships, and you can’t put relationships on autopilot.
You have to INVEST in them.
Trying to automate engagement will HARM you rather than help your LinkedIn profile in the long run.
DON’T automate connections
It’s easy to scroll through your LinkedIn feed, see people with thousands of connections, and start to get jealous.
Some people even start to think that they could make those connections by just sending a connection request to everyone or getting a bot to automate LinkedIn connections.
Unfortunately, it’s NOT quite that easy to get thousands of connections.
To understand this, it’s essential to understand WHY connections are formed.
Generally speaking, either:
- They value your content or your opinion.
- They see you as a leader in their niche.
- They like your ideas and want to see more of them.
- You have offered them something valuable, and they want to form a relationship.
In other words, connections aren’t worth anything if they aren’t formed for the right reasons.
Like someone who buys followers on Twitter — a person who asks to connect with everyone on LinkedIn isn’t accomplishing much.
DO automate posting
Let’s change our tune and start talking about what you SHOULD automate on LinkedIn.
First and foremost, you should automate your posting schedule.
It can be extremely time-consuming to get online every day and make a LinkedIn post — especially if you don’t have it prepared ahead of time.
Since most people dread figuring out what they’re going to post, they often just don’t post at all.
Then, they lose out on the benefits of frequent posting.
That’s why you should automate your posting schedule as soon as possible.
It’ll free up your time and make your posting more consistent, which is key to growing your profile over time.
DO automate content discovery
If you’re interested in saving time on social media (and you should be), one of the best ways is by automating content discovery.
I’m not recommending that you automate CHOOSING content — just FINDING it.
What do I mean by that?
Usually, it takes a really long time to find content.
For example, you might scroll through LinkedIn for 30 minutes just to find a single post worth sharing.
Alternatively, you could follow a bunch of LinkedIn groups or just do Google searches.
But, unfortunately, none of those are time-effective options.
The content you find online is normally so general that it’s useless to your connections on LinkedIn.
Instead, use automation to discover high-quality, relevant content to post on your LinkedIn (and other social media).
Tools like Post Planner will scour the internet for the best content in your niche and put it right in your lap.
It saves tons of time while INCREASING the quality of your content.
Get started with the RIGHT LinkedIn automation TODAY
We highly recommend signing up for Post Planner’s free trial to learn just how much posting automation can improve your LinkedIn profile.
Following the steps outlined in this article will help you improve your content strategy on LinkedIn.
It’ll also help you save time with automation and scheduling!
Have you ever used automation on LinkedIn? If so, what worked for you, and what didn’t?
Let us know in the comments below!
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