How to Send a Message to All LinkedIn Connections

Trying to send a single message to your entire LinkedIn network can feel like a necessary step, whether you're announcing a new venture, sharing a major milestone, or gathering feedback. This guide will show you the methods that work, explain LinkedIn's current limitations, and offer a powerful alternative strategy for reaching your connections without landing in the spam folder. We will cover the different approaches, from manual and personalized outreach to more efficient (but riskier) third-party options.

So, You Want to Message Everyone? Let's Talk Strategy First

Before we get into the "how," it's worth taking a moment to consider the "why." Mass messaging can be a powerful tool when used correctly, but it can also backfire if it comes across as impersonal or spammy. A good reason to message your network is a universal announcement that provides value or context to the people you’ve connected with over the years.

Examples of good reasons include:

• A major career change: Announcing you’ve started a new role or launched your own company.
• A significant product launch: Sharing a new service, book, or software you’ve created.
• A high-value piece of content: Distributing a comprehensive report, webinar, or article relevant to your industry.
• An event invitation: Inviting your network to a conference, workshop, or virtual event you're hosting or attending.
• A request for help: Asking for survey participants, beta testers, or expert opinions on a project.

The golden rule is to respect the inbox. The connections you've built are valuable. A well-timed, relevant message strengthens your professional brand, while an irrelevant blast can easily damage it.

Understanding the Big Hurdle: LinkedIn’s Built-In Limitations

Let's get the most important point out of the way first: LinkedIn no longer has a native feature that allows you to select all your connections and send them a single message.

Years ago, you could check a few boxes and broadcast a message to up to 50 connections at a time. However, to combat rising levels of spam and ensure a better user experience, LinkedIn removed this functionality. Their focus has shifted heavily towards fostering genuine, one-on-one conversations rather than facilitating mass, impersonal outreach.

This means any method for messaging all your connections is a workaround, not a built-in feature. LinkedIn also imposes other restrictions to be aware of, like weekly connection request limits and invisible caps on the number of new message threads you can start in a short period. Exceeding these unofficial limits can trigger a warning or temporary restriction on your account. Understanding this context is vital before moving forward.

Method 1: The Manual Approach (Slow, Safe, and Surprisingly Effective)

The most reliable and safest way to message your connections is to do it manually. While it’s the most time-consuming option, it gives you the highest degree of control and personalization, which leads to better response rates and protects your account's reputation.

Step 1: Segment Your Connections List

Instead of thinking about your network as one giant group, break it down into smaller, more relevant segments. This makes the task less overwhelming and your messages more impactful.

1. Navigate to My Network in the top menu and select Connections on the left.
2. Click the "Search with filters" button to open up segmentation options.
3. Here, you can filter your network by things like Location, Current Company, School, Industry, and more under "All filters."

For example, if you're announcing a new SaaS product for the marketing industry, create a filter for connections who currently work in "Marketing and Advertising." You can then save your search for easy access later.

Step 2: Craft a Personalized Message Template

Create a base template you can adapt for each person. A strong template is concise, adds value, and has a clear, low-pressure call to action.

Here’s a simple structure:

• Opener: A friendly greeting using their first name. "Hi [First Name],"
• Context: A brief, respectful line about why you're reaching out. "Hope you're having a great week. I'm reaching out because..."
• The Value Prop: State your announcement clearly and frame it around its benefit to them.
• Call-to-Action (CTA): Tell them what you’d like them to do next. Make it easy and optional.
• Sign-off: A warm closing.

Example: Good vs. Bad Template

Bad and Impersonal:

Hey, I just launched my new course. You should check it out here and buy it. Thanks.

Good and Personalized:

Hi [First Name],

Hope you're well. Given your background in [Their Industry/Role], I thought you might find this interesting.

I just launched a new video course on advanced social media analytics - something I know is a big topic in your field right now. If you're looking to get more out of your data, the link is below.

No pressure at all, just wanted to share in case it's helpful!

Best,
[Your Name]

Step 3: The Copy, Paste, and Personalize Process

With your segmented list and your template, you’re ready to start. Go through your filtered connections one by one. For each person, click the "Message" button, paste your template, and make a small personalization. Even just ensuring their name is spelled correctly makes a difference. This method takes time, but the replies you get will be far more genuine.

Method 2: Using Third-Party Automation Tools (Proceed with Caution)

If the manual process seems too daunting, you may be tempted to explore third-party automation tools. These browser extensions or cloud-based applications can automatically send messages to your connections on your behalf, saving you hours of work.

However, it is extremely important to understand the trade-offs.

The Real Risks of LinkedIn Automation

1. Violation of Terms of Service: The use of most automated messaging tools is a direct violation of LinkedIn's User Agreement. LinkedIn’s detection systems are sophisticated and constantly improving.
2. Account Restrictions: If detected, LinkedIn may issue a warning, temporarily restrict your account (meaning you can’t send messages or connection requests for a period), or, in repeated cases, permanently ban your account.
3. Reputation Damage: People can tell when they receive a robotic message. A poorly executed automation campaign can make you look like a spammer, damaging the professional reputation you’ve worked so hard to build.

Best Practices for Safer Automation (If You Must)

If you decide the risk is worth the reward, follow these rules to minimize potential harm:

• Choose Reputable Tools: Look for tools that prioritize safety by mimicking human behavior.
• Warm-Up Your Account: Don't go from sending 5 messages a day to 100 overnight. Start with a very small number and gradually increase it over weeks.
• Set Human-Like Delays: Good tools allow you to set randomized delays (e.g., 60-120 seconds) between actions so it doesn't look like a bot firing off messages every 5 seconds.
• Stay Within Daily Limits: A safe general guideline is to send no more than 50-75 new message threads per day.
• Personalize Heavily: Use personalization tokens like {firstName}, {companyName}, and {jobTitle} to make your messages feel less generic.
• Heavily Segment Your Audience: Never message your entire network at once with an automation tool. Create small, hyper-targeted campaigns for highly relevant segments of your network. The more targeted the message, the less likely it is to be reported as spam.

Method 3: The Superior Alternative - A Well-Crafted Content Strategy

So, the built-in feature is gone, the manual method is slow, and automation is risky. What does that leave? The most powerful and organic way to reach your entire network: letting the LinkedIn algorithm work for you.

Instead of pushing a message into everyone's inbox, you can pull your network’s attention with a high-visibility LinkedIn post. A single, well-crafted post can often reach more people than a direct message campaign and feels far more authentic.

How to Execute This Strategy:

1. Create a Value-Driven Post: Announce your news in a standard LinkedIn post. Don't just state what's happening, tell a story. Explain the "why" behind your new job, the problem your new product solves, or the key takeaway from your new article.
2. Use Engaging Media: Include a high-quality photo, a short video, or a simple custom graphic. Posts with visuals perform significantly better than text-only updates.
3. Tag a Few Key People (Strategically): If your announcement involves collaborators, clients, or specific mentors, tag them (up to 10) in the post. This notifies them and encourages them to engage, boosting the post's initial reach. Don’t tag people randomly.
4. Use Relevant Hashtags: Add 3-5 relevant hashtags to help people outside your immediate network discover the post. Think about keywords your target audience would follow, like #SaaS, #MarketingStrategy, or #Entrepreneurship.
5. Engage in the Comments: This is the most important step. As people comment, reply to every single one. This signals to the LinkedIn algorithm that your post is fostering conversation, and it will show it to more of your connections’ feeds.

This approach transforms a one-way broadcast into a two-way conversation. It builds social proof, enhances your authority, and reaches your network in the place they expect to see updates - their personal feed - without being intrusive.

Final Thoughts

While the old trick of messaging all your LinkedIn connections with a single click is gone for good, there are still effective ways to communicate on a massive scale. The best path forward combines a strategic blend of highly-segmented manual outreach for critical messages and, more importantly, a consistent content strategy that keeps your network engaged and informed organically.

Building that kind of content-driven presence is exactly why we created Postbase. After spending years wrestling with clunky tools ourselves, we built a simple, modern platform that helps you plan and schedule your LinkedIn content in a visual calendar, letting you focus on publishing valuable posts that reach your network effectively and build your professional brand.