LinkedIn Followers vs. Connections: The Difference Explained

This comprehensive guide explores the crucial differences between connect vs. follow on LinkedIn, helping you understand how each impacts your networking and profile promotion. 

We’ll dive into the mechanics of Unfollowing and Removing Connections, when and why you should consider these actions, and how they can influence your professional visibility.

Whether you’re looking to declutter your feed, refine your connections, or understand the nuances of LinkedIn’s features, this article has you covered.

LinkedIn followers vs. connections

If you’ve ever wondered how LinkedIn followers differ from connections, you’re not alone. These two features might seem similar, but they play distinct roles in how you build your network and share content.

• Followers are people who see your public updates in their feed, but you don’t necessarily see theirs unless you follow them back. It’s like subscribing to someone’s posts without forming a closer, mutual connection.
• Connections, on the other hand, are a two-way street. When you connect with someone, you both see each other’s posts and updates and can engage more directly through messaging.

Choosing to connect or follow can impact how your content spreads on LinkedIn. While connections can offer deeper networking opportunities, followers can help you reach a wider audience.

The difference between following and connecting is significant, especially when it comes to limits. 

You can follow an unlimited number of people daily, whereas you only have 100 connection requests per week on a basic profile. 

That’s why sometimes you might want to use the follow option instead of connecting in order to appear in the user’s notifications. After that, you can either send a free InMail if their profile is open, or stick to this strategy if you’ve already hit your weekly connection limit. 

Even when you follow someone, you’re already drawing attention to your profile. Explore facts about following vs. connecting on LinkedIn in the image below. 

FYI: You can explore user experiences on the topic of LinkedIn Follow vs. Connect through discussions on Reddit and Quora. Check out the following threads for insights:

• Reddit: What exactly is the difference between a LinkedIn Follow and Connect?
• Quora: Which is better: Follow or Connect on LinkedIn?
• Quora: What is the difference between Connections and Followers on LinkedIn?

Remove LinkedIn connection: When and How to Do It

You don’t need to worry about users finding out that you’ve removed them from your contacts because LinkedIn doesn’t send any notifications. 

Even in the final confirmation window before you delete someone, it reassures you that no notification will be sent to the user. 

You can clean up your network from the connections list and have to delete contacts one by one. The steps for cleaning can be found in the screenshots below. In this menu, you can also sort contacts alphabetically and use search filters.

However, as soon as you apply search filters as shown in the picture below, the option to delete contacts with a single button on this page will be unavailable. This means you can sort your contacts, but it will be less convenient to delete them after sorting.

We all know that the number of your connections also influences the quality of your network. In reality, people are more likely to expand their network rather than delete connections. 

However, in certain cases, you should consider cleaning up your network. For example, when you reach the 30,000 connection limit, you won’t be able to invite more people to your network until you remove unnecessary contacts. 

Additionally, you might feel the need to delete unwanted connections because the people in your network determine what you see on your LinkedIn news feed. For instance, if a particular niche or the updates from people in certain roles are no longer relevant to you, you can remove those users from your network.

How to unfollow on LinkedIn

For the same reason, you may also want to unfollow contacts that are no longer relevant. 

Above, you’ll find instructions with screenshots on how to do this. It can be done in the same way as removing connections from the page where all your subscriptions are listed, allowing to delete each one separately. 

You can also do this from the profile page of a specific user. When you open their profile, you’ll see the option to unfollow them at the top of the profile if you’re already following them.

How to follow / unfollow business pages / newsletters / hashtags on LinkedIn

LinkedIn allows you to follow not only individual profiles but also organizations, newsletters, and hashtags, all of which influence the content you see in your feed. You can follow specific organizations or hashtags directly from their respective pages with just one click on the Follow button. 

From then on, you’ll see all updates related to those organizations or hashtags in your home feed.

Similarly, if the updates from a particular organization are no longer relevant to you, you can go to their page and click the Unfollow button to stop seeing their content in your feed.

In the instructions below, you’ll see that in the Manage Network section, you can manage your subscriptions to hashtags, organization pages, and newsletters. 

For example, if you want to unfollow multiple organizations at once, you should select the Pages section. From there, you can click Unfollow on the organizations whose updates you no longer wish to see.

Linked Helper: Automate and Optimize Your LinkedIn Network

A look into how Linked Helper can streamline connection management.

How to mass follow / unfollow on LinkedIn automatically

To save time, you can manage your network using Linked Helper. There’s an action that can handle mass following and unfollowing, as well as cleaning up your subscriptions from unwanted connections.

You can read more about this process here.

You can add this action to an empty campaign or use it as a step in a funnel. For example, it can be used to warm up your audience before sending a connection request.

In the settings, you can select the mode – either follow or unfollow. You can add leads from any LinkedIn source and quickly follow or unfollow them all.

Note: If you need to unfollow fast choose the Unfollow mode and Following page as your audience source. 

You can filter profiles in the Queue after gathering them and unfollow only specific people. For example, you can sort by headline or by recent activity.

Automate sending and accepting LinkedIn invites

Linked Helper also offers a plugin that helps you manage your network faster by automating the process of sending and accepting connection requests. If you find it tedious to manually accept multiple invites, you can automate this in the software.

For more details about mass accepting invites, you can check out this article.

After installing the plugin, you’ll see a function that allows you to accept all incoming connection invites automatically, saving you time.

Remove connections on LinkedIn automatically 

Similar to the mass follow/unfollow action, you can also remove contacts from your network. To do this, create an empty campaign and add the action Remove from 1st Connections.

Read more about it here.

In the lead source, you can select your network and start collecting contacts. You can choose all contacts and then sort them in Linked Helper, or you can apply LinkedIn filters directly on the contacts page. 

For example, you can filter by title or company from which you want to remove contacts. Linked Helper provides additional filters, allowing you to sort contacts by activity, headline keywords, or the number of followers.

You can also manually review the list and remove contacts you don’t want to delete. Be cautious, as all contacts remaining in the campaign queue will be removed from your network.

Cancel pending invites automatically

Officially, you can have up to 3,000 pending connection requests at any given time. If you reach this limit, you’ll need to withdraw some of the pending requests before sending new ones. However, due to technical reasons, the recommended maximum is 1,000 pending invites.

This video tutorial will help you quickly cancel all the requests you’ve ever sent that remain unanswered. It’s a good practice to do this cleanup regularly every 2-3 months, so you can resend requests to people later.

To get started, you’ll need the Sent Invites Canceller plugin from the Linked Helper free store. After installing it, a new function will appear, allowing you to cancel invitations with a calendar feature. This means you can select a specific date before which you want to clean up the invites, making it very convenient since LinkedIn doesn’t offer this kind of sorting option.

How to unfollow everyone on LinkedIn fast

You can automate the process using Linked Helper:

• Create a Campaign: Start by creating an empty campaign, similar to what you’d do for mass follow/unfollow actions. Or use the campaign template Follow profiles. 
• Select Your Source: Choose your “Following” page as the source in the campaign setup. This will allow Linked Helper to gather all the profiles you currently follow.
• Launch the Campaign: After collecting the profiles, launch the campaign. This will automatically unfollow all the selected profiles.
• Handling Large Numbers: If you need to unfollow more than 1,000 profiles, you can do this in stages, gradually adding users to the campaign.

FAQ: LinkedIn Network Management

Do you have any questions left? Let’s sort them out!

What’s the difference between Following and Connecting on LinkedIn?

The main difference between following and connecting on LinkedIn is the level of interaction and visibility.

• Following: You can follow anyone on LinkedIn without their approval. When you follow someone, you’ll see their updates in your feed, but they won’t see yours unless they follow you back. There’s no limit to the number of people you can follow.
• Connecting: When you connect with someone, it means both of you have added each other to your respective networks. This creates a mutual connection where you can see each other’s updates. Connecting usually indicates a deeper level of professional relationship. However, there’s a limit to how many connection requests you can send – typically around 100 per week.

Who should I connect with on LinkedIn?

Choosing the right people to connect with on LinkedIn is crucial for professional growth.

• Target Audience: Ideally, you should send connection requests to those who are part of your target audience, which will depend on your goals on LinkedIn. If your goal is to find clients, you might focus on a narrow selection of individuals, using LinkedIn’s filters to refine your search.
• Build Your Initial Network: If you’re just starting out with a new profile, consider adding people you know personally, like former colleagues or classmates. This will help you avoid having an empty network, which can make your profile appear more trustworthy when you start connecting with important contacts.
• Expand with Open Networkers: Another strategy is to expand your network with individuals who are likely to accept your invitation. Some LinkedIn users identify themselves as “LION” (LinkedIn Open Networker) or participate in open networking groups, meaning they accept all connection requests. Connecting with these users can help you quickly grow your network.

What happens when you remove a connection on LinkedIn?

Here’s what changes:

1. Connection Removed: The person is no longer in your connections list, meaning you won’t see their posts or updates in your feed, and they won’t see yours in theirs.
2. Messaging: You lose the ability to message each other directly unless you’re both part of the same LinkedIn group or have a premium account that allows messaging beyond connections.
3. Following Status: The removed connection automatically becomes a follower if they were following you. This means they can still see your public posts, but their posts won’t appear in your feed unless you decide to follow them back.
4. Profile Visibility: The person can still view your public profile, posts, and any content you’ve set to be visible to “Public”, but they won’t have access to information that’s restricted to connections.
5. Search Results: You and the removed connection might still appear in each other’s search results on LinkedIn, depending on your privacy settings.

How to remove a connection on LinkedIn without them knowing

You can relax knowing that LinkedIn doesn’t notify users when they’re removed from your connections. As mentioned earlier, they will still follow you and see your updates, even after being removed from your network.

How to remove LinkedIn connection without viewing their profile

There are two ways to do this:

1. From the My Network Page: You can access all your connections by going to the “My Network” section. Click on the three dots next to each contact to remove them without having to view their profile.
2. Using an Automation Tool: You can use an automation tool that will remove all the connections you add to a campaign list. This method allows you to remove connections without having to view each profile individually.

If I remove a connection on LinkedIn will they still follow me?

Yes, any contacts who were following you before will continue to follow you even after you remove them from your network. This means you won’t see their updates anymore, but they’ll still see your content and likely won’t notice that you’ve removed them from your contacts.

Does LinkedIn notify when you remove a connection?

No, LinkedIn does not send notifications when you remove someone from your connections. Just as you won’t be notified if someone removes you, they won’t know if you remove them. This makes removing connections a completely anonymous process.

How to unfollow a company on LinkedIn

As mentioned earlier in this guide, here’s a detailed instruction on how to unfollow a company:

1. From the Company’s Page: Visit the company’s LinkedIn page. If you’re following the company, you’ll see an “Unfollow” button below the page’s header. Click this button to stop seeing their updates.
2. Mass Unfollow Multiple Companies: If you want to unfollow multiple companies at once, you can do this from the “Manage My Network” section:
   • Go to your LinkedIn profile and click on “My Network.”
   • Navigate to the “Pages” tab.
   • From there, you can quickly remove multiple companies from your list by clicking “Unfollow” next to each one.

This method is much faster if you want to clean up your feed by unfollowing several companies at once.

Why can I not connect with someone on LinkedIn?

Connection Limit: If you’ve reached the 30,000 connection limit on LinkedIn, you won’t be able to connect with more people until you remove some existing connections.

You should wait 3 weeks: You cannot send a new invitation if the previous one hasn’t expired. After withdrawing an invitation, you must wait three weeks before sending a new one to the same recipient.

More details can be found on LinkedIn’s Help Center here.

Invitation Limit Reached: LinkedIn imposes weekly limits on the number of connection requests you can send (usually around 100 per week). If you’ve hit this limit, you’ll need to wait until the following week to send more invites.

Pending Invitations: If you have too many pending connection requests (up to 3,000), you may need to withdraw some before sending new ones.

Recipient’s Privacy Settings: The person you’re trying to connect with may have set their privacy settings to only receive connection requests from people who know their email address or who are in common groups or companies.

Profile Restrictions: LinkedIn sometimes restricts accounts for various reasons, including if they suspect inappropriate activity or if there have been too many declined invitations. If your account is restricted, you may not be able to send connection requests.

Already Sent a Request: If you’ve previously sent a connection request to this person and they ignored or declined it, you won’t be able to send another request unless they change their settings to allow it.

How to remove a pending connection request on LinkedIn

The most effective way to remove a pending connection request on LinkedIn is by using the Linked Helper feature that allows you to cancel outgoing invitations sent after a specific date. 

One way to remove a pending connection request on LinkedIn is through the main menu

• Go to the “My Network” page.
• Click on “Manage” or “See all” to view your connections and pending invitations.
• Navigate to the “Sent” section to see all the connection requests you’ve sent.
• You can then cancel any pending requests by clicking on “Withdraw.”

However, note that in LinkedIn’s native interface, you won’t be able to filter these requests by date. This is something you can do more effectively with Linked Helper, which allows for date-based filtering when canceling invites.

If I remove a connection on LinkedIn can they still message me?

Once you remove someone from your connections, they won’t be able to message you directly as a first-degree connection. However, there are a few exceptions:

• Open Profile: If you have an Open Profile, anyone on LinkedIn can send you a free InMail, even if they’re not connected to you.
• Paid InMails: Users with a LinkedIn premium account can still send you paid InMails, regardless of your connection status.

If I remove a connection on LinkedIn will they still see my posts?

They can still see your content if they were following you in addition to being connected. If they aren’t following you, they won’t see your posts in their feed unless they specifically visit your profile. However, your content will no longer appear in their news feed.

All in all

You can use a strategy of both following and connecting, depending on your goals. 

Following is a quick way to attract attention and warm up interest before sending a connection request. It also helps curate your LinkedIn feed but doesn’t allow you to send messages. 

Connecting, on the other hand, offers a deeper level of engagement, though there’s no guarantee your connection request will be accepted. It’s also important to regularly remove outstanding connection requests before they accumulate to 3,000.