With LinkedIn being the premier business social networking site, it comes without surprise that there are companies out there trying to offer services for users to grow their connections. After all, networking is vital for not only LinkedIn success, but business success as well.
Since the platform is becoming more popular for tasks such as recruitment, sales marketing for B2B opportunities, as well as searching for more competitive job opportunities, the platform is booming with traffic looking to increase the attractiveness of their profile.
Not only that, businesses want more lead generation, which means they are looking for easy ways to streamline this process via LinkedIn and reach more people. Many companies think they have solved this dilemma through their LinkedIn growth services, but is this really the best way to make your LinkedIn a success?
One company in particular, Expandi.io, has really amped up the promotion of their services, so we decided to take a look and examine what it really is that they offer and whether or not it will help, or hurt, your LinkedIn account.
As can be seen from other social media networks and their problems with growth services, you should always be skeptical when a company offers you a way to increase your productivity or connections. After all, why wouldn’t everyone be using it if it worked?
In this article, we are going to give you an Expandi review that touches on their services, whether or not they’re viable, and what you should consider when looking for LinkedIn growth and workflow management.
Expandi Review: How Does the Service Work?
Expandi is a LinkedIn automation software that works to automate most of your LinkedIn engagements and interactions in order to reach more people and make things easier. While that’s a reasonable goal, is that what it actually does?
The main premise of Expandi is to actually automate your campaigns, which really means bulk message a bunch of users on the platform so that you can reach more people in less time, and you can set up auto-responses so that you can maintain constant contact with these potential leads.
Expandi software will basically take popular accounts that are similar to yours and scrape all of the followers from that account, or check out their posts and scrape all of the people who engaged with it, and then send them bulk messages.
While there is some level of personalization, this truly is a terrible way to gain real leads for LinkedIn. There are many reasons why LinkedIn automation is absolutely the wrong option; Expandi knows it, and they’re just trying to make a quick buck.
Let’s take a look at why automation for LinkedIn is a bad choice.
What’s Wrong with LinkedIn Automation?
It seems like automation for most social media networks should be no problem, but actually there are some big issues with social media automation, and especially with LinkedIn automation.
Let’s take a look at some reasons why automation doesn’t work, and as a result, why Expandi isn’t the best service for LinkedIn success.
LinkedIn Automation Hurts Your Reputation
When you use automated messages to contact new leads for the first time, it makes you look really bad. Not only does your profile look like a bot or spam, it looks like you don’t care enough to think about who might truly benefit from your product and service and reach out to them.
Even though we live in a digital world, people still want to see a personal touch from your interactions on the internet, and if you are automating all of your communication through the lead-to-conversion process, this is a big red flag.
Most people don’t trust bots or spam, and they certainly won’t want to do business with them. Your reputation and credibility can’t stay at healthy levels when you use LinkedIn automation.
LinkedIn Automation Is Against Terms of Use
Not only will you look less professional when you use LinkedIn automation, but LinkedIn itself has also clearly stated that it is against the terms of use of the platform. That means you can effectively be punished or banned from the platform for using it.
LinkedIn has recently become a lot smarter in terms of recognizing automation, and you will receive a warning from LinkedIn when you are detected. You must agree that you will avoid using all services that go against the terms of use, including automation.
If you are caught using automation services again, the consequences will be more grave. If you decide to use Expandi’s service, it’s no doubt a ticking time bomb, and it’s no surprise that Expandi doesn’t care about that. Why does LinkedIn care so much?
Well, as we mentioned, LinkedIn is a professional networking site that focuses on real businesses and real employees. With a platform that is directly connected to careers and business opportunities, the level of integrity must remain intact in order for the platform to stay a trusted source for engagements.
If the level of LinkedIn’s integrity is lowered by a lot of spam, bots, and auto-messages, people will begin to discredit the legitimacy of LinkedIn, and will therefore begin to look elsewhere for their business networking needs.
After years of development, it’s unlikely that LinkedIn would take that lying down. In fact, they won’t. They are well aware of third-party attempts, like Expandi, to make some money through automation services, and they’re not having it.
Expandi Knows it’s Against LinkedIn Terms of Use
Yep, that’s right. Expandi knows exactly what it’s doing, and it knows that LinkedIn doesn’t approve of their service. While you would think their clients’ safety would be the priority at the top of their list, unfortunately that isn’t the case.
At the very bottom of the Expandi website, you can see that they completely distance themselves from LinkedIn by saying they are not affiliated. Not only that, their last words are “use of Expandi is at your own risk.”
It’s true, you’ve got to respect that they are upfront about it, albeit in really small text at the very bottom of a long page. But there are some automation companies that won’t even tell you that.
In any case, that should be a clear sign to avoid Expandi. Their service is against the terms of service of LinkedIn, which means they won’t work very well, nor for very long. Not only that, they put your account in jeopardy and they literally won’t do anything to help you when you find yourself in hot water with LinkedIn.
Top Tools for LinkedIn
Pricing
So, Expandi knows they’re against LinkedIn terms of use, the service must be pretty cheap, right? Nope! Expandi offers their disapproved services at pretty high prices. Gutsy. Expandi really wants to make some money off of your LinkedIn needs, so you won’t find an affordable option to check things out.
There is only one pricing package for Expandi, and it is a monthly option that will cost you $99 per month. That’s right, $99/month to perhaps get your LinkedIn banned and devalue your business reputation.
Sound worth it? It’s not.
How To Protect Your LinkedIn Account While Growing Your Profile
Your number one priority must be to protect your LinkedIn account. You must also consider your whole online reputation especially when your LinkedIn account is attached to it.
Most people using social media link their accounts in a variety of ways across the internet. Just one little misstep on any social channel could potentially bring down your entire reputation.
Consider the time and effort you have put into building and developing your online presence. In one fell swoop (one poor decision) you could destroy your hard work. You don’t want to be that person.
We just want to stress the importance of choosing the proper and safest methods of growth and engagement for LinkedIn. This also goes for all social media outlets.
Choosing a company that claims to be safe, but still uses practices that LinkedIn doesn’t approve of could end your profile for good. The risks outweigh the benefits by a large margin.
There are alternatives that give you the results you desire, at prices you can live with, and that are safer than Expandi. We have provided a few for you to consider.
Understanding that Expandi could pose a big risk to your LinkedIn is a good start when you are protecting your LinkedIn reputation.
Review Verdict
As you can see, there is nothing good about this type of automation. It’s natural to want to boost your success on any social network, but you shouldn’t do it at the expense of your reputation and account security.
Stay above board and do things the right way— your leads will stay healthier and you’ll be able to have a LinkedIn that you are proud of.
Final Thoughts
As you have probably noticed, we don’t recommend Expandi. We have given you plenty of reasons why we have come to this conclusion for you to consider.
What we are here to do is give you information and make recommendations based on the years of experience and expertise we have in this industry.
What we are not here to do is make your decisions for you. Ultimately, however you decide to grow and engage on LinkedIn is your choice. You are responsible for your own account and how you interact online.
We may not like Expandi, but you might like it and it may work for you, at least for a while. We feel it’s bound to fail eventually, which is why we don’t recommend it. If it gets shut down, it will adversely affect your LinkedIn account in various ways.
People will see the loss in your connections and followers. When it happens suddenly, like it will if/when Expandi or other similar services get shut down, it will appear suspicious to your real connections and followers.
The likelihood of them leaving you for this reason is pretty high unless they know you personally. You might even have to start all over again in building your online presence, and in this instance, specifically your LinkedIn account.
One of our biggest concerns about Expandi is with its offering of comments and messaging. Automation in these two areas are highly suspicious and easily detected by LinkedIn’s programming. Suspicious activities are known to get your account suspended or banned. Either way, it’s not good.
As always, we advise you to do your own research regarding Expandi and any other service that claims to help you grow or engage on the LinkedIn platform.
Be cautious, smart, and savvy when choosing your method of engagement on LinkedIn and all social media outlets.
You want to experience here: https://expandi.io/?gr_pk=jqZq&gr_uid=ZeY4
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