Are there any safe digital companions for LinkedIn? 🤔

I’d love to hear back from the core LinkedIn crew on the allowed set of assistance tools that content creators and businesses can use.

No, I’m not referring to automated scrapers or mass connection request apps. That line is pretty clear. ☠

Chapter 8.2 from the User Agreement includes a ton of “Don’ts”… Most hidden behind “bots” and automated features. But API posts or using an analytics tool externally also fall into that broader definition.

And tools like Taplio and Vulse are picking up more traction as we speak. Can we safely use them without violating the Terms of Service?

Lots of established creators with tens or even hundreds of thousands of followers have shared testimonials around them. 🗣

I also signed up for Texts ran by Automattic, the largest company behind the WordPress open source project. Texts is a multi-channel protocol (proxy messenger) for Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Slack, Discord, Messenger, Telegram and a few others.

Ever since I connected LinkedIn, my browser session keeps kicking me off multiple times a day, requesting a follow-on log in and captcha. Super annoying (and I may eventually get banned for misbehaving with an open-source tool designed for good). 😿

I’d love a formal statement by Reid Hoffman or Ryan Roslansky but it will likely be lost in the pile of thousands of daily requests by users on the platform.

So if you have anyone in your network who can authoritatively speak to the ToS and allowed apps, please tag them or refer them to the post. 🙏

LinkedIn is the best B2B social platform out there, but this doesn’t mean it’s flawless (think about the groups, events, real-time notifications, live streaming, commenting limitations, circles/lists, archives to name a few.)

Supportive tools can go a long way in organizing contacts or improving the process without being fully managed externally. 🌞