He had a good run and made a nice profit and still has a residual business to keep him ticking over in his retirement.Īnother app that has been getting attention recently with similar features is Leonard for LinkedIn - I received a message inviting me to try the product - LinkedIn trainers, as potential referrers are often the first port of call for the developer.
It is no longer available in the Chrome Store, Laurie's LinkedIn profile has been deleted and the product is now only available via referral from a private member's site. In recent months LinmailPro has been "slapped down" (Laurie's words) by LinkedIn.
The drinking partner became his business partner. Laurie spotted the opportunity to tidy up the programme and market it as a Chrome extension. One evening, after complaining about how much cutting and pasting was needed to market his business on LinkedIn, a drinking companion offered to write a programme to automate the tasks. After selling his shares in a telco business in the 1990s Laurie retired to warmer climes on a 57-foot sailboat and in due course decided to market himself as an online coach. This was developed by a Bristol entrepreneur, Laurie Tubb. LinmailPro has been another successful popular product in recent years. For example, Autopilot, which was one of the leading third-party apps, bit the dust when LinkedIn changed the design of the desktop last year. Even the most successful ones rarely survive more than a couple of years. Usually, they are small, one or two-person, businesses who have spotted an opportunity to make a quick buck. The developer websites almost never give a company address or any contact details at all. Let's take a closer look at the companies that are marketing these apps. But there are also other reasons to avoid them. For these reasons, I encourage my clients to steer clear of these apps.
#ULINC LINKEDIN PRICING PROFESSIONAL#
But in the long term, the apps are bad for LinkedIn's health because (a) they encourage spam (b) they undermine the integrity of the platform by automating personal actions like endorsements or messaging and (c) they can deprive LinkedIn of revenue.Īs users, it is in our interests that the platform is as spam free as possible, that it continues to operate as a trusted platform for professional networking powered by individual interactions not by bots, and that LinkedIn itself is financially healthy. Why does LinkedIn care? Surely the apps are actually encouraging users to become more committed to LinkedIn and that is true in the short term. LinkedIn is in a constant battle to disrupt these businesses either by technically making it more difficult for the apps to access LinkedIn or identifying and sanctioning members who are using the apps including the threat of suspension.
#ULINC LINKEDIN PRICING SOFTWARE#
The majority of these unofficial LinkedIn apps are marketed as Google Chrome extensions as this is a simple and inexpensive way to market a new software product.Īll of the apps break the LinkedIn user agreement. The apps are designed to automate Linkedin activities such as sending connection invites, endorsing connections, and viewing profiles, and bulk messaging, some allow downloading of profiles and contacts.
This is a lucrative business! What does LinkedIn think about these apps and does that matter? Dux-Soup (47K+ downloads) and LinkedHelper (72K+downloads). In some cases, the paid version can cost more than a standard LinkedIn premium subscription and some of the apps have big user bases e.g. Typically the developers offer a free and paid for version. This has not gone unnoticed and over the years a veritable cottage industry in unofficial third-party apps has grown up, examples include Autopilot, Dux Soup,, Leonard for LinkedIn, LinkedBoost, Linkedhelper, LinmailPro, Protop, Social Lead Machine. If you are still tempted to use one of these apps you should also be aware of LinkedIn's latest moves to close them down - see below.Īlmost anyone involved in recruitment or business development must have wished at some time for a way to automate some of the more mundane aspects of their LinkedIn activity. This article explains how these apps work, who benefits and what the dangers are. All of them contravene the user agreement, put your account at risk and undermine trust in the platform. December 2022: I wrote this article in April 2018, since then there have been a regular stream of third party apps offering to automate your LinkedIn activity.
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