Who doesn’t want a massive following on LinkedIn?
I mean, where else would you go looking for industry professionals to gather and connect with?
Imagine what you could do if you’re a big name on LinkedIn.
Not only are you attracting house-hold names and experts in your circle, you’re also earning the trust of your prospects.
But what if you're not that interested in gathering a huge following on Linkedin? What if you're just here to talk to prospects, network, and probably sell some stuff?
Then, you should definitely network with LinkedIn LIONs.
First time hearing the name? Don’t worry, I got your back. That’s because I’ll tell you everything you need to know about:
Enough suspense. Let me pull back the curtains on everything you need to know about the LinkedIn LIONs.
What does LION mean on Linkedin??
In your time prospecting in LinkedIn, you might’ve come across profiles that have “LION” in their names or headlines.
Have you ever wondered what it means? Are they part of a secret production of the Lion King on LinkedIn?
Well, not yet at least.
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LinkedIn LIONs is short for “LinkedIn Open Networker”. Being a LinkedIn LION is someone who accepts every Connection request that they receive.
That includes someone who they’ve never heard of before or don’t have any mutual connections with.
Why you might ask? It’s because the LION method is for those who want to widen their network of LinkedIn connections.
LIONs are people who just want to grow their network to hundreds of thousands of connections and followers.
Adding LIONs in your network isn’t a headache either. They won’t reject your connection request, report your profile as spam, or press “I don’t know this person”.
Why Would Someone Want LinkedIn LIONs in Their Network?
LinkedIn separates Connections into 1st, 2nd, and 3rd-degree Connections.
The 1st-degree Connections are your direct Connections, the 2nd-degrees are direct Connections to one of your 1st-degrees…you get the idea.
“Thanks for the info-dump, how does that help me?” Let me help you connect the dots.
LinkedIn LIONs in your network exposes your profile to thousands of other users as a 2nd or 3rd-degree Connection.
One comment from a LION, and your post has high chances of going viral.
That’s because after they engage with your quality posts, it will start appearing on the newsfeeds of their 2nd and 3rd-degree connections. A helpful little tip for all the LinkedIn influencers out there 😉.
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Not to mention, if bringing in more customers through automated LinkedIn outreach is on your bucket list, then LinkedIn LIONs help with that big time by warming up your account.
How to Use Linkedin LIONs for Better Linkedin Outreach
Getting your first 500 LinkedIn connections.
We’ve all been there, and I don’t need to tell you how it’s a pain in the a** to do that when you’re just starting out.
The problem is, spamming random connections with the same message below 500 connections is a one-way ticket to getting your account restricted.
Not to mention, you’re more likely to get banned when you only have a few connections.
However, if you were to connect with LinkedIn LIONs first, you wouldn’t be having this problem to begin with.
You’ll have an easier time getting your connection count to over 500 with a LinkedIn LION in your network.
This way, your prospects are more likely to trust you. Social proof works wonders, you know? Plus, LinkedIn won’t bring down the ban hammer that easily on you when you have 300-500+ connections.
After that, the only thing you have left to do is reach out to your potential customers. And if you don’t want sleepless nights, you’re probably going to use an automated outreach tool.
But before we get ahead of ourselves, let me clear a few more details out for you…
How to Find LinkedIn LIONs
Now that we know what LinkedIn LIONs are, how do we find one out in the wild?
The most obvious way to spot one is through their LinkedIn profile names, headlines, and sometimes even the summary.
But if you are actively looking for a LION, you have another tool that works wonders: the LinkedIn search bar.
It’s as simple as typing “LION” in your search bar and bam! You have a list of LinkedIn LIONs on your screen.
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You can further segment your list by using LinkedIn’s search filters. You aren’t looking for people in companies with just “Lion” in their names, after all. 😉
Use LinkedIn LIONs to Warm Up Your Account
So, a LinkedIn LION has accepted your connection request. Not a surprise, it’s kind of their thing to accept every request they get.
Apart from growing both of your networks, LinkedIn LIONs help warm up your LinkedIn account. That means you’re guaranteed to get your 50-100 connections in no time.
As you grow your connections from a 100 to 500+, LinkedIn is less likely to ban you as you ramp up your automated outreach.
Wait, we covered how you can warm up your account, but how are you supposed to build your automated LinkedIn outreach strategy?
Don’t worry, this is where Salesrobot comes in.
Salesrobot is an automated LinkedIn outreach tool that makes reaching out to thousands of Connections a breeze.
We let you target Connections in any industry with personalized messages and follow-ups that actually sound human. And you can create your first messaging campaign in just 5 minutes.
Let’s start from the beginning.
Salesrobot lets you pull prospects from LinkedIn and Sales Navigator search URLs, Events, and even CSV imports.
Looking for LinkedIn LIONs? All you have to do is use the search bar to find LION profiles, and paste the search URL into our browser platform.
Creating a message sequence from scratch can be uncharted territory for a few beginner users. Don’t worry, we haven’t forgotten you 😇.
Salesrobot gives you SalesGPT, an AI-powered tool that helps with your first outreach campaign. All you need is a conversation with our tool in simple English.
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SalesGPT targets LinkedIn LIONs after you’ve given the appropriate LinkedIn search URL.
And while we give you some of our tested message drafts, don’t be shy to change them however you want! Our Readability Score feature calculates the likelihood of a positive response for messages you draft.
For the seasoned veterans out there, Salesrobot lets you create campaigns from scratch. You even get three options to start off with: “Quick Start”, “From Template”, and “From Scratch”.
Not just that, we let you play around with some advanced steps too. Ditch the boring way of sending Connection requests and sitting around till they accept it.
Want to leave an endorsement on your prospect’s LinkedIn profile after you connect? Check. A like with a relevant comment on their post? Check.
Trust me, we have everything covered to help humanize your outreach.
By the way, our Smart Reply Detection feature automatically stops the follow-up sequence the moment your prospect replies to you.
All you have left to do is swoop in and carry the conversation forward 😄.
So, think Salesrobot has some cool features up our sleeves? Why not take our features out for a test drive with a 14-day free trial?
And hey, if you have bigger dreams for your LinkedIn outreach, let’s chat over a quick call! Coffee’s on me. 😄
The Good Side of LinkedIn LIONs Open Networking
Becoming a part of the LinkedIn LIONs is easy. Just mention that you’re a “LION” in your profile and accept every single Connection request, even if you don’t know the person.
Let’s start with the pros of being a LinkedIn LION:
Supercharged Network
Given that a LinkedIn LION never turns down a connection request, you’re bound to get a flow of new connections who want you in the network once you get the ball rolling.
But what about getting more leads? Does it help you with that?
After all, what’s the point of a huge connection list when you aren’t going to interact with them in any meaningful way?
Lucky for you, a wider network means you have more chances of meeting potential clients or job recruiters.
All of this combined gives your lead gen efforts a massive boost with more connections on LinkedIn.
Increased Online Visibility
You probably saw this one coming. Being a LinkedIn Open Networker will increase your visibility through the roof.
As you start getting more connections and followers, your posts and articles will start getting more engagement through likes, comments, and shares.
And you’ve already seen the chain reaction of users engaging with posts that get shown to their 2nd-degree and 3rd-degree connections.
While you’re at it, you can also join LinkedIn open networker groups to further increase views on your posts.
You can’t have too much of a nice thing, after all 😉 (But can you? More about that in the Cons section below).
Improved LinkedIn Search Results
Fun fact: Whenever you search someone on LinkedIn, you can only see people in your 1st, 2nd, and 3rd-degree connections.
That, or you have to be in the same group.
Imagine the amount of prospects you’re missing out on who could have been a qualified lead! All because you don’t have an extensive network.
Beyond these 3 major pros, there’s a few bonus upsides for the LinkedIn LIONs. You can get more endorsements on your LinkedIn profile from people outside your network.
That’s more credibility and trust from prospects for your business (and can’t lie, those endorsements do look pretty cool stacked up in my profile 😅).
...And The Bad Side of Being a LinkedIn LION
So, remember how I said that you can’t have too much of a good thing? Well, I might have spoken too soon.
Granted being one of the LinkedIn LIONs gets you a steady flow of new connections, there are downsides of being that you should consider:
Spam. Spam. And More Spam.
Sometimes the flow of connections can make you feel like you’re drowning under LinkedIn notifications.
For starters, get ready for an almost endless barrage of messages from absolute strangers.
Reaching out to potential customers isn’t necessarily a bad thing when you do it correctly (trust me, nobody gets it better than Salesrobot).
But the problem is the amount of irrelevant and poorly personalized messages you’ll receive on a daily basis can have serious effects on your sanity.
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Reduced Profile Privacy
Email addresses aren’t the only private information you’re risking when you’re a LinkedIn open networker.
Your residential address, phone number, it’s all up for grabs when you add any random person into your connection list.
Word of advice, delete these from your profile before you decide to become a LinkedIn LION. Stick to the name of your company, college, and other general information about you.
And you already know how the same people can spam your email address if it gets out.
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While this next piece of advice goes against what being a LinkedIn LION is all about, consider doing a quick screening of the connection you’re about to add.
Does their profile look like a human being uses it? Do they look like spammers? No? Then add them in!
Quantity over Quality Connections
This is for the people who aren’t one of the LinkedIn LIONs yet.
Quick, who is the 7th profile on your connection list? No cheating.
Even if you did cheat a little, do you even recognize this person on your list? Exactly.
The biggest disadvantage of having an army of connections is that sooner or later, you’re going to struggle to remember which one of them is a great potential customer or just some random guy.
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Ideally, you’d love to build quality professionals with like-minded industry experts on LinkedIn.
But realistically? You cannot possibly keep up with every single connection. And when you’re spread too thin, you can’t convert prospects into leads as effectively.
Not to mention, when you have the floodgates open for every connection, you’re going to add many bot accounts.
You don’t want to be left wondering which ones are real people and which ones aren't 🤔.
Basically what you need to remember is, good outreach is all about building clean prospect lists and personalizing.
Quality over quantity. Any day of the week.
And that’s what Salesrobot is all about. We offer you the automated LinkedIn outreach strategy that will get you more prospects looking for your solutions.
In other words, Salesrobot gets you more quality leads 😉.
Is Becoming a Linkedin LION Worth the Hunt?
Look, I get it.
Growing your audience to drive more engagement and make more of your posts go viral is a pretty good dopamine kick.
LinkedIn LIONs can get their connection counts sky-high before you can finish your morning coffee. That’s more eyes on their profiles along with some extra perks like more endorsements.
But consider what you’re sacrificing in the long run. Say goodbye to quality leads, privacy, and a good night’s sleep (those LinkedIn notifications can get endless).
While getting the best of both worlds would be a dream, it’s just not possible to get that as part of the LinkedIn LIONs.
Does that mean you have to give up on increasing your connection count in record time? Absolutely not!
Salesrobot takes care of LinkedIn outreach to get you those connections that you truly need. Without risking your privacy and sanity, of course 😉.
Now, I know what you're thinking...
How can I possibly reach out to hundreds of people every day without sounding like a robot?
That's a great question! Actually, Salesrobot handles this for you by personalizing each outreach message based on the details found in the recipient's profile.
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Salesrobot lets you pull prospects from LinkedIn/Sales Navigator search URLs, events, and even make custom CSV imports.
After that, you can create as many messaging campaigns with advanced follow-up steps. Our Smart Reply Detection feature notifies you when your prospects replies so you can swoop into the conversation at the best time 😄.
And hey, if you’re a complete beginner, why not let Salesrobot’s AI tool do the heavy lifting for you?
SalesGPT will handle everything from prospecting to final messaging by creating messaging campaigns in 5 minutes automatically.
Your input? Just talk to our tool in simple English. No, I’m serious. It’s that easy.
So sit back, relax, and see Salesrobot do its magic with our 14-day free trial. No credit card needed 😇.
Feel like you have some more questions? Want a sneak peek into how Salesrobot works behind the curtains? Then let’s chat over a quick 10-min call.
Trust me, your LinkedIn outreach strategies will never be the same again.
Until next time,
Good luck.
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