“LinkedIn LION” is without doubt one of the oldest subjects I’ve ever written about, and in some way it nonetheless sends folks to my website each month. Most of that 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 fairly than depart a dated put up to reply the query, I need to provide the sincere model: what a LinkedIn LION is, the place the thought got here from, why the motion pale, and what I truly advocate in the present day. I helped popularize the idea again in 2009, and I’m additionally the one who later referred to as for ending it, so you’re 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, typically signaled by placing “LION” of their title or headline.
✅ The motion began round 2009, and I used to be considered one of its earliest evangelists. My first guide, Windmill Networking, was constructed on the thought of open networking and included a devoted chapter on LinkedIn LIONs.
✅ The label is essentially out of date now. Open networking grew to become the default throughout social platforms, and the LION tag bought co-opted by entrepreneurs harvesting connections, so it stopped signaling a lot of something.
✅ Extra connections is just not the objective. A smaller community of individuals you will have a motive to know beats 1000’s of strangers, and that issues extra now that pretend and AI-generated profiles are in every single place.
✅ You may nonetheless community brazenly, simply do it intentionally. Skip the label, vet who you let in, and lead with relationships fairly 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. A lot of them sign it by including “LION” or “L.I.O.N.” to their title or LinkedIn headline. The unique objective 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 option to inform different customers that you simply welcomed invites, no prior relationship required. It was half id, half networking technique, and for a couple of 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 recent concept and the platform was nonetheless small. I used to be one of many first and most seen folks writing about it. My first guide, Windmill Networking: Understanding, Leveraging and Maximizing LinkedIn, was constructed on the idea of open networking and devoted a complete chapter to LinkedIn LIONs.
The pondering 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 in the present day, as my LinkedIn statistics present. Open networkers have been those keen to simply accept invites from strangers, which helped in any other case siloed networks develop into one another. I coined the thought 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, grew to become the general public badge for that method. For a stretch, placing LION subsequent to your title genuinely meant one thing.
How LinkedIn Handled LIONs
LinkedIn was by no means absolutely 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 would ship. The platform additionally gave folks the “I Don’t Know” response, or IDK, as a option to decline invites from strangers, and too many IDKs might get your account restricted.
Over time, LinkedIn shifted to a extra impartial stance. It allowed LinkedIn teams constructed round open networking to exist, and discovering fellow LIONs grew to become 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 pale for 3 causes: open networking grew to become regular in every single place, the label bought hijacked by entrepreneurs, and LinkedIn itself began throttling the habits. None of these is reversible, which is why I now not advocate the label to anybody.
First, open networking went mainstream. By the mid-2010s, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn’s personal publishing and observe options made it regular to attach with and be taught from folks you had by no means met. You now not wanted a badge to announce that you simply have been open to it. The entire social internet labored that manner.
Second, the label bought hijacked. Entrepreneurs and spammers realized that an open networker’s profile was a simple option to attain a high-value skilled viewers and pull these connections into lead era and e 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 referred to as for an finish to the motion again then, regardless that 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 habits that outlined being a LION.
Right here is the shift in a single view:
| The LION period (round 2009) | LinkedIn in the present day | |
|---|---|---|
| The way you signaled openness | Added “LION” to your title 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 objective | Maximize complete connections | Join with intent and vet who you let in |
Extra Connections Is Not the Aim
Chasing an even bigger quantity was at all times the weakest a part of the LION concept, and it ages worse yearly. A centered 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 once I wrote about LIONs is one thing I nonetheless agree with: each connection ought to have a goal. Fifty significant connections will do extra for you than 5 hundred random ones. And in 2026, with pretend and AI-generated profiles widespread, accepting anybody is an actual danger. A connection will get a more in-depth 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 turn into spam. Should you 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 and not using a private observe, and take away any open-networker branding from your personal profile. Then deal with connecting with folks you will have a real motive to know.
Here’s what that appears like in apply. Whenever you get an invite from somebody who labels themselves a LION, open networker, or TopLinked of their title or headline, don’t settle for it until the message provides you an actual motive to attach. And take that very same branding off your personal LinkedIn profile, as a result of it now not helps you and will invite the unsuitable consideration. From there, personalize your invitations, join with goal, and construct relationships over time. If you’re new to LinkedIn and attempting to develop from zero, that deliberate method beats gathering strangers, and it matches naturally right into a broader LinkedIn advertising technique.
If You Nonetheless Wish 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 best way the most effective LIONs as soon as did, brazenly and generously however constructed for the way LinkedIn works now, you’ll be able to completely try this.
That’s precisely what I educate in my guide, 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 ways that gave open networking a nasty title.
Incessantly 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 typically provides “LION” to their title or headline to sign it.
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Traditionally, you grew to become 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 objective is a wider community, join intentionally with folks you will have a motive to know as an alternative.
No. The label is out of date, it will possibly entice spam and rip-off invites, and LinkedIn now limits the open connecting that made it work. You may nonetheless community brazenly 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 useful than an enormous checklist of strangers, and it’s safer given what number of pretend profiles exist now.
I might not. Constructing intentionally, with personalised invites to folks related to your targets, provides you a community that truly helps you, fairly than a big however ineffective connection depend.
Community Brazenly, however Skip the Label
The LinkedIn LION motion made sense in 2009. It doesn’t anymore. Open networking gained, which is strictly why the badge grew to become pointless, and the individuals who hijacked it completed the job. Should you bear in mind nothing else: join with intent, vet who you let in, and drop the label.
If you wish to do open networking the suitable manner for in the present day’s LinkedIn, my guide Maximizing LinkedIn for Enterprise Development walks by all the method step-by-step. And when you would fairly continue to learn right here first, I share sensible LinkedIn and digital advertising ways in my publication.
For extra on how I take into consideration LinkedIn and the place I converse and seek the advice of on it, right here is extra about me.
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