LinkedIn withdraws CSV upload method; there's still a workaround! [LinkedIn's Official Response]

[belaya_zvezda]

LinkedIn had a direct email and CSV upload option that allowed users to send connection request if they submitted emails to LinkedIn.

The feature was heavily abused by sales professionals to bypass the normal weekly connection request limits.

Observing the abuse, LinkedIn revoked the features. This broke all the LinkedIn automation tools that were using this method to automate sending connection requests on behalf of their users.

You can still continue to use the method although it is now not the most hassle-free experience, but it is what it is. Read on and find out the full details!

What was CSV upload method?​

Last year, LinkedIn reduced number of normal connection requests you can send. It's about 100-200 per week.

So there was a way to bypass LinkedIn's weekly invite limits which allowed you to send 100 or more invites daily. Read about it here: How to bypass LinkedIn weekly invite limits?

Before

LinkedIn CSV Upload Option

After

Now, the upload contacts option is gone!

What forced LinkedIn to revoke this feature?​

People should have done it quietly but a few creators wanted to stand out, they started posting it publicly. If one player already made it public, others are forced to do the same. This is how a lesser-known method becomes mainstream method.

The only two things platforms observe when they make such decisions:

1. Number of users exploiting a loop hole on their platform (they have analytics about the usage behavior and patterns)
2. Social listening (they are silently reading and watching what creators are sharing about their platform)

If something becomes mainstream, it also reaches to spammers.

I am in the favor of spilling the beans but these folks were too aggressive with it.

The other month I saw someone on Twitter sharing a thread "How to grow 10K connections on LinkedIn", instead of also talking about regular methods, they 100% focused on upload contacts method. That's spamming.

As a platform, if I see someone doing that and encouraging others to do the same, I am obviously going to revoke access or make changes to the features they are exploiting.

What did LinkedIn comment on this recent development?​

A screenshot floated in a private Telegram group by founder of Expandi (Stefan) revealing LinkedIn's response to this latest development. The LinkedIn team's response:

We are always looking to constantly improve our member experience. However, this sometimes means that we withdraw from certain products to invest in other areas that offer more value to our members. Members no longer have access to the following features: 1) Sending invitations via direct email and 2) Uploading a CSV file of contacts to send invitations.

Please note that we still offer other ways through which you can sync contacts from other address books and sources.

How to still upload contacts and send connection requests?​

The workaround for the CSV upload tactic:

Step 1: Create a new Gmail account or use an existing account but delete all existing contacts

Step 2: Import the CSV of contacts on Google Contacts. You can find targeted emails by scraping from LinkedIn Sales Nav.

Step 3: Connect the Gmail account to LinkedIn and allow necessary permissions

Step 4: LinkedIn will show you a list of profiles whose emails are matched

Step 5: If you don't want to manually select profiles, select all using the code shared here.

7 Effective Ways To Do LinkedIn Outreach Without CSV Uploads​

1. Send regular connection requests (100-200 per week)
2. Send InMails (30-50 via Sales Nav subscription)
3. Send InMails to OPEN profiles (25-30 per day)
4. Send messages to group members
5. Send messages to event attendees
6. Conduct LinkedIn events; invite up to 1000 connections / week (LinkedIn shares emails of attendees)
7. Engage and reach out to existing connections

Have any questions? Ask in the comments below. Want to get latest juiciest news and trends from the growth marketing world, join our WhatsApp group.

 

[asjoe]

@belaya_zvezda Well covered. This game will continue. Anything that works with a few people will eventually stop working when everyone jumps in.

So, what's the next one?

BTW, why do people continue to focus on quantity rather than quality? Instead of trying all hacks to reach 1000 people per week and get 5% hit rate (=50), why don't people do a quality 100 with 50% hit rate? I am with a platform that focuses on quality first prospecting and I get to see so often people chasing numbers and then complain "it does not work". Guess it is to do with email marketing habits where it has just become a number game and then they apply the same to LinkedIn.

 

[belaya_zvezda]

@asjoe I second you

 

[revrog252]

@belaya_zvezda Hi, could you tell me how you can scrape linkedin sales nav for emails? thanks

 

[belaya_zvezda]

@revrog252 Sent you a PM

 

[drriversong]

@belaya_zvezda Be warned: people will hate you if you do this, and Linkedin will remove your accounts if they catch you.

This is directly from a friend of mine at LinkedIn, who says they consider this work around abuse, so I'm only warning you all once. Don't do it.

 

[belaya_zvezda]

@drriversong May I know what position this person holds at LinkedIn? Are they in the engineering team, marketing team, or..?

 

[drriversong]

@belaya_zvezda I’m never going to tell you that. They don’t deserve to be harassed because of their job and I’m not going to be giving out information on who they are or where they work anymore, because I don’t want random people on the Internet harassing them.

 

[belaya_zvezda]

@drriversong I did not ask their job title, I was meaning to ask which team -- engineering, marketing, etc.

That would have helped us know if their opinion matters in how the product would shape.

People who are syncing their email contacts are doing nothing wrong for it to be called "abuse".

 

[drriversong]

@belaya_zvezda Their opinion matters. And anybody doing this will lose their account. Thats direct from them. This is not something that LinkedIn wants people doing.