“LinkedIn LION” is among the oldest subjects I’ve ever written about, and by some means it nonetheless sends folks to my web site each month. Most of that site visitors comes from Google, and a rising share now comes from AI assistants like ChatGPT and Perplexity that floor my older writing when somebody asks what a LION is. That tells me the time period nonetheless confuses folks in 2026, greater than fifteen years after it caught on.
So reasonably than go away a dated publish to reply the query, I need to provide the trustworthy model: what a LinkedIn LION is, the place the concept got here from, why the motion light, and what I truly advocate right this moment. I helped popularize the idea again in 2009, and I’m additionally the one that later known as for ending it, so you might be getting the complete arc from one supply.
Key Takeaways
✅ A LinkedIn LION is a LinkedIn Open Networker. It describes somebody who retains their profile open to connection requests from folks they’ve by no means met, usually signaled by placing “LION” of their identify or headline.
✅ The motion began round 2009, and I used to be one in every of its earliest evangelists. My first ebook, Windmill Networking, was constructed on the concept of open networking and included a devoted chapter on LinkedIn LIONs.
✅ The label is basically out of date now. Open networking turned the default throughout social platforms, and the LION tag acquired co-opted by entrepreneurs harvesting connections, so it stopped signaling a lot of something.
✅ Extra connections is just not the aim. A smaller community of individuals you might have a motive to know beats 1000’s of strangers, and that issues extra now that faux and AI-generated profiles are all over the place.
✅ You may nonetheless community overtly, simply do it intentionally. Skip the label, vet who you let in, and lead with relationships reasonably than uncooked connection counts.
What Is a LinkedIn LION?
A LinkedIn LION is a LinkedIn Open Networker, somebody who accepts connection requests from folks they’ve by no means met as an alternative of limiting their community to recognized contacts. Lots of them sign it by including “LION” or “L.I.O.N.” to their identify or LinkedIn headline. The unique aim was to develop attain and assist bridge networks that might in any other case keep closed off from one another.
Within the early days of the platform, declaring your self a LION was a fast technique to inform different customers that you just welcomed invites, no prior relationship required. It was half id, half networking technique, and for just a few years it was an actual motion with its personal teams and etiquette.
How the LinkedIn LION Motion Began
The LION motion grew out of LinkedIn’s early years, round 2009, when open networking was a contemporary concept and the platform was nonetheless small. I used to be one of many first and most seen folks writing about it. My first ebook, Windmill Networking: Understanding, Leveraging and Maximizing LinkedIn, was constructed on the idea of open networking and devoted a complete chapter to LinkedIn LIONs.
The considering was easy. Again then LinkedIn was a younger community, and most of the people solely related with colleagues they already knew. It’s a very totally different platform right this moment, as my LinkedIn statistics present. Open networkers have been those keen to just accept invites from strangers, which helped in any other case siloed networks develop into one another. I coined the concept of “Windmill Networking” to explain constructing a large community of trusted connections, serving to others, and reaping the advantages over time. The “LION” label, typically credited to the early networker Christian Mayaud and his Lions’ Lair group, turned the general public badge for that strategy. For a stretch, placing LION subsequent to your identify genuinely meant one thing.
How LinkedIn Handled LIONs
LinkedIn was by no means totally comfy with open networking. It initially displayed solely as much as 500 connections on a profile, capped complete connections at 30,000, and restricted what number of invites you may ship. The platform additionally gave folks the “I Don’t Know” response, or IDK, as a technique to decline invites from strangers, and too many IDKs may get your account restricted.
Through the years, LinkedIn shifted to a extra impartial stance. It allowed LinkedIn teams constructed round open networking to exist, and discovering fellow LIONs turned simpler. However the connection cap and the invitation limits by no means actually went away, which is a giant a part of why the technique ultimately stopped making sense.
Why the LinkedIn LION Motion Is Over
The LION motion light for 3 causes: open networking turned regular all over the place, the label acquired hijacked by entrepreneurs, and LinkedIn itself began throttling the conduct. None of these is reversible, which is why I not advocate the label to anybody.
First, open networking went mainstream. By the mid-2010s, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn’s personal publishing and comply with options made it regular to attach with and be taught from folks you had by no means met. You not wanted a badge to announce that you just have been open to it. The entire social net labored that manner.
Second, the label acquired hijacked. Entrepreneurs and spammers realized that an open networker’s profile was a simple technique to attain a high-value skilled viewers and pull these connections into lead technology and electronic mail lists. Not each LION had ulterior motives, however sufficient did that the tag stopped signaling belief and began signaling warning. That’s precisely why I publicly known as for an finish to the motion again then, although I had helped construct it.
Third, LinkedIn now actively discourages connecting at scale. There are weekly invitation limits, a “are you aware this particular person” immediate on many requests, and restrictions if too lots of your invitations get ignored. The platform itself nudges you away from the conduct that outlined being a LION.
Right here is the shift in a single view:
| The LION period (round 2009) | LinkedIn right this moment | |
|---|---|---|
| The way you signaled openness | Added “LION” to your identify or headline | Not wanted; open networking is the norm |
| What the label meant | A trusted “I welcome invites” badge | Usually a flag for spam or lead harvesting |
| What LinkedIn allowed | Bigger open networks, looser invite limits | Weekly invite caps and “are you aware this particular person” friction |
| The aim | Maximize complete connections | Join with intent and vet who you let in |
Extra Connections Is Not the Objective
Chasing an even bigger quantity was all the time the weakest a part of the LION concept, and it ages worse yearly. A targeted community of individuals you even have a motive to know is extra helpful than 1000’s of strangers, and vetting who you let in issues extra now than it ever did.
The commonest pushback I heard again after I wrote about LIONs is one thing I nonetheless agree with: each connection ought to have a function. Fifty significant connections will do extra for you than 5 hundred random ones. And in 2026, with faux and AI-generated profiles frequent, accepting anybody is an actual danger. A connection will get a better take a look at your community and your exercise, so it’s price checking a profile earlier than you settle for and eradicating connections that grow to be spam. For those who do need to discover and confirm particular folks intentionally, LinkedIn’s search is a much better device than ready for open invites.
What to Do As a substitute of Chasing LIONs
Skip the label and community with intent. My two long-standing suggestions nonetheless maintain: don’t settle for LION-branded invites with out a private observe, and take away any open-networker branding from your individual profile. Then deal with connecting with folks you might have a real motive to know.
Here’s what that appears like in follow. While you get an invite from somebody who labels themselves a LION, open networker, or TopLinked of their identify or headline, don’t settle for it until the message offers you an actual motive to attach. And take that very same branding off your individual LinkedIn profile, as a result of it not helps you and will invite the unsuitable consideration. From there, personalize your invitations, join with function, and construct relationships over time. If you’re new to LinkedIn and attempting to develop from zero, that deliberate strategy beats accumulating strangers, and it suits naturally right into a broader LinkedIn advertising and marketing technique.
If You Nonetheless Need to Community Like a LION
I’ve by no means turned on open networking as a philosophy. The Windmill Networking concept I wrote about nonetheless works. What modified is the execution. If you wish to community the way in which one of the best LIONs as soon as did, overtly and generously however constructed for the way LinkedIn works now, you may completely try this.
That’s precisely what I train in my ebook, Maximizing LinkedIn for Enterprise Development. It’s the fashionable playbook for constructing a LinkedIn community that produces precise relationships and enterprise, with out the outdated label or the spammy techniques that gave open networking a foul identify.
Regularly Requested Questions
LION stands for LinkedIn Open Networker. It describes a person who retains their profile open to connection requests from folks they haven’t met, and who usually provides “LION” to their identify or headline to sign it.
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Traditionally, you turned a LION by accepting invites from anybody and including the label to your profile. Right this moment I don’t advocate the label in any respect. In case your aim is a wider community, join intentionally with folks you might have a motive to know as an alternative.
No. The label is out of date, it might entice spam and rip-off invites, and LinkedIn now limits the open connecting that made it work. You may nonetheless community overtly with out ever calling your self a LION.
High quality wins. A smaller community of individuals you truly know or have a transparent motive to know is extra worthwhile than an enormous record of strangers, and it’s safer given what number of faux profiles exist now.
I’d not. Constructing intentionally, with personalised invites to folks related to your targets, offers you a community that really helps you, reasonably than a big however ineffective connection depend.
Community Overtly, however Skip the Label
The LinkedIn LION motion made sense in 2009. It doesn’t anymore. Open networking gained, which is precisely why the badge turned pointless, and the individuals who hijacked it completed the job. For those who keep in mind nothing else: join with intent, vet who you let in, and drop the label.
If you wish to do open networking the fitting manner for right this moment’s LinkedIn, my ebook Maximizing LinkedIn for Enterprise Development walks by your entire strategy step-by-step. And if you happen to would reasonably continue to learn right here first, I share sensible LinkedIn and digital advertising and marketing techniques in my e-newsletter.
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