LinkedIn Follow vs. Connect: Which One Is Right For You in 2026?
You Should Read This Article If...
- You're not sure whether to follow or connect with someone on LinkedIn
- You want to grow your network strategically without cluttering your feed
- You're building a personal brand and want to understand how the algorithm treats followers vs. connections differently
- You've hit your connection limit and need a workaround
- You want 7 actionable steps to grow your connections or followers starting today
TL;DR
Follow = one-way. You see their content. They don't have to do anything. Good for learning from people you don't know personally.
Connect = two-way. Both parties see each other's content. You can message each other directly. Better for building real relationships and doing outreach.
For most professionals: follow thought leaders broadly, connect deliberately with people you want real relationships with. Use the 7 steps at the end of this article to grow whichever metric matters more for your goals.
What's the Difference Between Follow vs. Connect on LinkedIn?
What Does Follow Mean?
When you follow someone on LinkedIn, their public posts appear in your feed. You see their content. They get a notification that you followed them, but they don't need to do anything. It's a one-way relationship, like following someone on Instagram or Twitter.
Following is low-commitment. It doesn't require the other person to accept anything. You can follow anyone on LinkedIn, including people you've never met, without any social awkwardness.
What following gives you:
- Their public posts in your feed
- A notification sent to them (they know you followed)
- You appear in their follower count
- Access to their public content, but not posts shared only with connections
What following doesn't give you:
- The ability to message them directly (unless they have Open Profile or you share a group)
- Visibility in their 1st-degree network
- Access to their contact information
What Does Connect Mean?
Connecting is mutual. When someone accepts your connection request, you're both in each other's networks. You can message each other directly. You both see more of each other's posts. You appear in each other's "1st degree connections" in search results.
Connecting is higher-commitment. It requires the other person to accept. It creates a more visible, two-way relationship.
What connecting gives you:
- Direct messaging access
- Visibility in each other's 1st-degree network
- More of each other's content in your respective feeds
- Access to their full profile, including contact info if they've shared it
- You appear as a mutual connection when either of you views someone else's profile
Can You Both Connect and Follow Someone on LinkedIn?
Yes. When you connect with someone, you automatically follow them too. But you can also follow someone without connecting.
You can also unfollow a connection without disconnecting. This is useful when you're connected to someone for professional reasons but don't want their content in your feed. You stay connected (and can still message each other) but their posts stop appearing. It's a clean way to manage a noisy feed without the social awkwardness of disconnecting.
Connect vs. Follow Button on LinkedIn: Your Default Choice?
LinkedIn shows either a "Connect" or "Follow" button as the primary action on someone's profile, depending on their settings.
If someone has Creator Mode enabled, their profile shows "Follow" as the default button. This is intentional: Creator Mode is designed for people building a public audience, and following lets people subscribe to their content without the social weight of a connection request.
If someone doesn't have Creator Mode on, "Connect" is the default.
How to Change the Default Button from Connect to Follow?
If you want people to follow you rather than connect (useful if you're building a content audience and don't want to manage connection requests), you can switch your default button:
- Go to your LinkedIn profile
- Click "Edit public profile & URL" in the top right
- Scroll to "Creator mode" in the left sidebar
- Toggle Creator Mode on
- Your profile will now show "Follow" as the primary button
Changing Privacy Settings
You can also control who can follow you and who can send you connection requests:
- Go to Settings & Privacy
- Click Visibility
- Under "Followers," you can choose whether anyone can follow you or only your connections
- Under "Connections," you can control who can send you connection requests
Most people leave these on default (anyone can follow, anyone can connect), but if you're getting too many irrelevant requests, tightening these settings can help.
Should You Follow or Connect on LinkedIn?
5 Questions to Ask
Before deciding whether to follow or connect with someone, ask yourself:
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Do I want to be able to message this person? If yes, you need to connect. Following doesn't give you direct messaging access.
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Have we had any real interaction? If you've met at an event, exchanged comments, or been introduced by a mutual contact, a connection request is appropriate. If you've never interacted, following first is less presumptuous.
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Am I trying to build a relationship or just consume their content? If you want to learn from someone without any expectation of a relationship, follow. If you want to build a real professional relationship, connect.
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Am I approaching my connection limit? LinkedIn caps connections at 30,000. If you're getting close, following is a way to stay connected to someone's content without adding to your count.
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What's my goal on LinkedIn right now? If you're prospecting, you need connections. If you're building a content audience, followers matter more. Know your goal before you decide.
Is Follow Better Than Connect on LinkedIn?
Neither is universally better. They serve different purposes.
Follow is better when:
- You want to learn from someone without the social weight of a connection request
- You're warming up before connecting (follow, engage with their content, then connect)
- You've hit your connection limit
- You're building a content audience and want a large follower base
Connect is better when:
- You want to message someone directly
- You're doing sales outreach or business development
- You've had a real interaction and want to formalize the relationship
- You want to appear in someone's 1st-degree network
How to Remove Connections or Followers on LinkedIn?
Removing Connections
To remove a connection:
- Go to their LinkedIn profile
- Click the "More" button (three dots) near the top
- Select "Remove connection"
- Confirm
The person won't be notified that you removed them. They'll no longer appear in your 1st-degree network, and you'll lose the ability to message each other directly (unless they have Open Profile).
Note: Removing a connection doesn't automatically unfollow them. If you want to stop seeing their content too, unfollow them separately before or after removing the connection.
Removing Followers
To remove a follower (someone who follows you but you haven't connected with):
- Go to Settings & Privacy
- Click Visibility
- Under "Followers," select "Manage followers"
- Find the person and click "Remove"
They won't be notified. They can still view your public content, but your posts won't appear in their feed.
When You Remove a Connection on LinkedIn, Will They Still Follow You?
Yes. When you remove a connection, the person may still follow you if they were following you before you connected. Removing a connection doesn't automatically remove them as a follower.
If you want to remove both the connection and the follow, you need to do both separately: remove the connection from their profile, then remove them as a follower from your settings.
7 Actionable Steps to Increase Your Connections or Followers
Whether you're trying to grow your connection count or your follower base, these steps work:
1. Optimize your profile first. Before you reach out to anyone, make sure your profile is worth connecting with. A strong headline, a clear About section, and a professional photo are the baseline. If your profile looks abandoned, people won't accept your requests.
2. Send personalized connection requests. The default "I'd like to add you to my professional network" gets ignored. Always include a note. Reference something specific: a post they wrote, a shared group, a mutual connection, or a relevant observation. Keep it under 200 characters.
3. Engage before you connect. Follow someone, engage with their content for a week or two, then send a connection request. By the time you reach out, you're not a stranger. That recognition alone can double your acceptance rate.
4. Post consistently. The fastest way to grow followers is to create content people want to follow. Post 3-5 times per week. Share your perspective on industry topics, lessons from your work, and frameworks that help your target audience. Followers come to you when your content is worth following.
5. Comment strategically. Leave thoughtful comments on posts from people in your target audience. Not "Great post!" but a real perspective, a related experience, or a follow-up question. Your comment gets seen by the original poster's entire audience. It's free distribution and a warm introduction.
6. Join and participate in LinkedIn Groups. Groups give you a legitimate reason to connect with people. "We're both in [Group Name]" is a warmer opener than a cold request. Active participation in relevant groups builds your reputation and makes your connection requests more likely to be accepted.
7. Use LinkedIn Events. Attend events your target audience attends. Connect with other attendees before, during, and after. "I saw you're also attending [Event Name]" is one of the warmest openers available on LinkedIn.
Final Tip: LinkedIn Follow vs. Connect — Which One Is Right for You?
The honest answer: you need both, used intentionally.
Follow broadly to learn. Connect deliberately to build relationships. Use the 7 steps above to grow whichever metric matters more for your current goals.
And remember: a large, unfocused network is less valuable than a smaller, intentional one. The quality of your connections matters more than the quantity. Every connection request you send should have a reason behind it.
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