Law Students Who Want to Network on LinkedIn
This is for law students who want to network on LinkedIn. It answers the question you asked,
What’s the difference between a connection and a follower?
🔹 When you “connect” with someone, it’s a 2-way relationship:
—You will show up in their network count (connections + followers)
—They will show up in yours
—Both of you will see the other’s posts
—You each may message the other without using an “Inmail” credit
🔹 By contrast, when you “follow,” the link is unilateral:
—You will show up in their network count, but they will not show up in yours
—Their posts will posts will show in your feed, but yours will not show in theirs
—Neither of you may message the other without using up a LinkedIn “Inmail” credit, unless one of you has their profile set to accept free messages (which I do).
🔹 You can disconnect from or unfollow someone at any time.
Doing so will NOT alert that person with a notification.
You cannot, however, stop someone else from following you (unless you “block” them).
🔹 When you first start on LinkedIn, the default setting for others to become linked to you in some way is “connect.”
If you turn on something called “creator mode,” the default is “follow.” [More on “creator mode” in a future post.]
Regardless of the default though, you should be able to connect or follow anyone on here.
—See the 3 dots menu under their profile for choices, including how to add a note to a connection request on mobile.
🔹 Finally, LinkedIn caps the number of connections for any one user to 30,000, but followers can be unlimited.
Fondly,
💌 Amanda
P.S. LinkedIn presents a golden opportunity for you:
It’s the only platform where you can see law students—and real lawyers—conversing with one another on a daily basis about topics you need to learn about.
You’ll never have as much time for networking as you will during law school.
Don’t let these networking years go to waste!
P.P.S. To help you, I’m putting together a guide to answer questions that law students bring to me about the platform.
The above is what I’m thinking of including on the connection-vs-follower question.
🗳️ Please let me know what you’d alter or add!!