Follow vs Connect on LinkedIn: What's the Difference and Which to Use?

Connect creates a two-way relationship; Follow is one-way. When you connect, the other person has to accept your invitation. You then become 1st-degree connections, can message each other for free and automatically see each other's posts. When you follow, there's nothing to accept: you start seeing their public posts in your feed right away, they get a notification, but you're not connected and can't message them for free.

In short: follow people whose content you want to read, connect with people you want to talk to. The details, limits and settings below are taken from LinkedIn Help.

Follow vs Connect on LinkedIn: the differences

Sources: Follow or unfollow people, View your followers, Network size limit.

What happens when you connect with someone on LinkedIn

You click Connect on their profile (or More > Connect if Connect isn't the main button), optionally add a note, and send the invitation. Nothing changes until they accept. Once they do:

• You're 1st-degree connections. You can message each other for free, without InMail.
• You follow each other automatically. Your 1st-degree connections see your posts and articles, and you see theirs (LinkedIn Help).
• Your network grows. Their connections become your 2nd-degree connections, which widens who you can find and reach (see what 1st, 2nd and 3rd mean on LinkedIn).
• Contact info opens up. By default, a member's primary email address is visible to their 1st-degree connections.

If they ignore the invitation, it stays pending. You can withdraw it from My Network > Manage > Sent, but you then can't invite the same person again for up to three weeks.

What happens when you follow someone on LinkedIn

You click Follow on their profile and that's it:

• Their public posts start showing up in your feed.
• If you're not connected, they get a notification that you followed them. Following isn't anonymous.
• You can't message them for free: you still need to connect, use InMail, or rely on their Open Profile if they have Premium.
• You can unfollow anytime. They aren't notified when you unfollow.

Following also works on top of a connection. If a connection posts too much for your taste, unfollow them: you stay connected but stop seeing their updates.

Why do some profiles show Follow instead of Connect?

Because that person chose to make Follow their primary button, or LinkedIn did it for them. According to LinkedIn Help, you won't see Connect as the main button when:

• the member turned on Make follow primary in their settings;
• the member has a large network: LinkedIn's help notes that above 500 connections, Follow can replace Connect as the default button (Connect moves under More), and Follow always becomes the default at the 30,000-connection limit;
• you're already connected, or you already sent an invitation;
• you haven't confirmed your primary email address;
• the member is out of your network.

In most cases you can still connect: click More on their profile, then Connect. If LinkedIn asks for their email address, the member only accepts invitations from people who know it, or several people clicked "I don't know this person" on your past invitations.

How to make Follow the main button on your profile

If you post regularly and want more followers than connection requests:

1. Click the Me icon at the top of your LinkedIn homepage.
2. Select Settings & Privacy.
3. Click Visibility in the left pane.
4. Under Visibility of your LinkedIn activity, click Followers.
5. Turn on the Make follow primary toggle.

On the same page, Who can follow you lets you choose Everyone on LinkedIn or Your connections. If you restrict it to connections, followers outside your network are removed.

You may have read that you need "creator mode" for this. LinkedIn retired the creator mode switch in 2024; the Follow setting now lives in your Followers settings for everyone.

How to ask people to follow you on LinkedIn

LinkedIn gives every eligible member a ready-made Follow link: go to Me > View Profile > Contact info, find Follow link under Sharing on socials, then click +Copy link (or +Copy code for a button) (LinkedIn Help). Paste it wherever people already know you:

• Your email signature. A small "Follow me on LinkedIn" line under your name is seen by everyone you email. Our free email signature generator adds it in a minute.
• The end of a talk, newsletter or article: "I post about [topic] every week. Follow me on LinkedIn: [link]".
• Your website's About or contact page.

Give a reason to follow ("I share one cold email teardown every Tuesday") rather than just asking. People follow topics, not names.

Limits: connections vs follows

• Connections: up to 30,000. Once you reach it, you can't send or accept invitations unless you remove some, and Follow becomes the default button on your profile.
• Invitation notes: free accounts can add a personalized note to up to three invitations per month (200 characters each). Premium members can personalize all of them (LinkedIn Help).
• Weekly invitations: LinkedIn applies a weekly limit without publishing the number. Hit it and you're usually blocked from inviting for about a week. More in how many LinkedIn invites you can send per week.
• Follows: LinkedIn's help says you can follow up to 5,000 people you aren't connected to. The number of people who can follow you is unlimited.

Should you follow or connect?

Connect when you want a conversation: prospects, potential partners, recruiters, people you met at an event. A connection is the only free way to message someone without Premium, and it puts them one step closer in your network (see our LinkedIn networking do's and don'ts).

Follow when you want their content but have no reason to talk yet: industry voices, executives who don't accept strangers, people with Follow as their main button.

For prospecting, the two work best together:

1. Follow first and engage with a couple of their posts with real comments, not "Great post!".
2. Then connect, ideally referring to something they posted. If you're on a free account and out of notes, send the invitation without one and make your first message count once they accept. Our LinkedIn connection message templates show what to write.
3. Pace yourself. A steady number of invitations each day beats a Monday-morning blast that runs into the weekly limit.

Automating invitations without getting restricted

Sending invitations one by one doesn't scale past a few dozen a week. useArtemis runs LinkedIn steps (profile visits, likes, invitations, messages) and email steps in one sequence, writes a personalized invitation note for each lead with AI, and keeps your account within safe sending limits at a human-like pace. You can export leads from a LinkedIn or Sales Navigator search with the LinkedIn scraper and add them to a sequence, and the email steps give you a second channel for people who never accept. See plans.

FAQ

Does someone know if you follow them on LinkedIn?

Yes, if you're not connected. LinkedIn sends members a notification when someone who isn't a connection follows them, and your name appears in their followers list. They aren't notified when you unfollow.

Is following the same as connecting on LinkedIn?

No. Following is one-way and needs no approval: you just see the person's posts. Connecting needs their acceptance and makes you 1st-degree connections, which lets you message each other for free.

Why can I only follow someone on LinkedIn and not connect?

They've probably made Follow their primary button, or they have a very large network. Click More on their profile and look for Connect. If it isn't there, you may already have a pending invitation, your email may be unconfirmed, or they only accept invitations from people who know their email address.

Can you message someone you follow on LinkedIn?

Not for free. Following doesn't open messaging. You need to connect first, send an InMail with a Premium or Sales Navigator plan, or message them for free if they have a Premium Open Profile or you're in the same LinkedIn group.

If I connect with someone, do I automatically follow them?

Yes. 1st-degree connections automatically follow each other's posts. You can unfollow a connection to hide their updates without removing the connection, and they won't be notified.