But what exactly is the difference between following and connecting?

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Officially, you may only be placed on a mailing list if you have given permission for this. This also applies if an email is only sent to you once in this way. It is undoubtedly the result of the AVG/GDPR legislation (and the many complaints from users), that LinkedIn has now fortunately taken measures.

You can now choose whether people can download/export your email address. See the image below. You can find this setting under the heading 'Privacy'. Then go to 'how others see your profile and network information'. More good news? It is OFF by default! A nice example of privacy-by-default!

linkedin settings 2 privacy email address

With this new setting you prevent spam! Click here to go directly to this setting . First open LinkedIn in your browser.

Setting 2. Follow/Connect
Relatively new is the option to indicate at the top of your profile (with a blue button) whether you would prefer others to follow you instead of sending you a connection request. Previously, this option was reserved for so-called influencers. Nowadays, everyone can set this themselves. People who visit your profile will then initially only see the blue follow button.

linkedin settings 3 follow button


To follow
Anyone can follow other people. You can also be followed yourself. And you can always follow someone, the person industry email list being followed does not have to give permission for this. If you follow someone, you will see the other person's activity in your timeline, but you do not make a connection. You do not connect your own network with the other person's network. This functionality can be interesting for people who are very well-known, share a lot of knowledge, receive a lot of connection requests (without personal text) or so-called 'influencers'. They can easily be followed by others, without immediately making a connection.

Maybe you already have followers without knowing it? You can see that here .

Make a connection
When making a connection, you first have to send an invitation, which has to be accepted in order to see each other's content. As mentioned, you then also become part of each other's network, you can easily exchange messages with each other, etc.

But you can also send an invitation to connect to people who prominently have a follow button on their profile. For this you have to take an extra step, by clicking on the three dots. Here you will still find the possibility to invite the person.