LinkedIn is a professional social media platform that allows users to connect with other professionals in their industry or career field. Making connections is a key part of using LinkedIn effectively, but how exactly do connections work on the platform?
What is a connection on LinkedIn?
A connection on LinkedIn refers to a professional relationship between two users. When you connect with someone on LinkedIn, you are effectively indicating that you know that person in some professional capacity and would like to link your profiles together.
Being connected on LinkedIn allows you and the other person to more easily interact on the platform. For example, you can view each other’s full profiles, message each other, see posts from each other in your feeds, endorse each other’s skills, provide recommendations, and more.
How to connect with someone on LinkedIn
There are a few different ways to connect with other members on LinkedIn:
- Send a connection invitation – You can search for the member’s profile and use the “Connect” button to send them an invitation to connect.
- Accept a connection invitation – When someone sends you an invitation to connect, you will receive a notification. You can then choose to accept or ignore the invitation.
- Import connections – When you first join LinkedIn, you have the option to import contacts from your email accounts. LinkedIn will send connection invitations to the imported contacts.
- Connect during sign up – When you’re signing up for a LinkedIn account, you can choose to connect to people right from the start by allowing access to your email contacts.
Keep in mind that the other person has to accept your connection invitation in order for you to become formally connected on LinkedIn. Sending an invitation simply prompts them to decide whether they want to connect back.
Who should you connect with on LinkedIn?
As a general rule, it’s best to connect with people on LinkedIn who you have some existing professional relationship with. This could include:
- Former or current colleagues
- Clients, business partners, or vendors
- Alumni from your university or college
- Acquaintances from industry events or networking activities
- Members of professional organizations or groups
Avoid sending random connection invitations to strangers or people you have no legitimate connection to. Focus on making quality connections that make sense in a professional context.
LinkedIn connection limits
LinkedIn does limit the number of connections you can have and how many invitations you can send. Here are the connection limits to be aware of:
Account Type | Max Connections | Max Invitations per Week |
---|---|---|
Basic (Free) | 500 | 100 |
Premium Business | 10,000 | 250 |
Sales Navigator | 30,000 | 500 |
Recruiter Lite | 15,000 | 500 |
Recruiter | 25,000 | 500 |
As you can see, the number of connections and weekly invitations you can send increases for paid LinkedIn accounts at the premium tier levels. If you max out your allotted invitations or connections, you will need to wait until the next week to send more.
Pending invitations and ignored requests
When you send a connection invitation, it will show up as “Pending” in your connections list until the person either accepts or ignores it. Your pending invitations can be found by going to My Network > Connections > Sent invitations.
If someone ignores your connection request, you will not receive any notification – their name will simply disappear from your pending list. To avoid spamming someone with multiple requests, LinkedIn will not allow you to send an invitation again after being ignored.
Managing your connections
Once connected, you can manage your connections in a few ways:
- Sort connections – Sort your connections alphabetically or by when you connected.
- Create lists – Organize connections into lists like “Clients” or “Alumni”. You can then easily share posts or messages with entire lists.
- Remove connections – You can remove a connection at any time by going to their profile and selecting “Remove Connection”.
- Block connections – If you want to prevent someone from viewing your profile or contacting you, you can block them.
It’s a good idea to periodically organize and clean up your connections list to make it more usable for you.
How to tell if someone views your profile
LinkedIn has visibility settings that allow you to control who can see your profile and activity. By default, your 1st level connections will be able to see your full profile, but you can restrict it just to your network if you prefer more privacy.
In terms of seeing who views your profile, LinkedIn used to show this, but no longer does. The site removed profile view counts and notifications about who viewed your profile back in 2014. So currently there is no way to tell if an individual connection has visited your profile.
The exception is if you have a premium LinkedIn account. Paid subscribers can see the names of 1st level connections who viewed their profile in the last 90 days (but not the number of times). You’ll find this information under “See all viewers” when looking at your own profile.
Connection statistics
Although you can no longer see exactly who has visited your profile, you can still see overall profile view statistics. This can give you an idea of how many views and impressions your profile is receiving on LinkedIn.
To view your profile statistics, go to your profile and select the “See all profile views” option. This will show total number of views, impressions, and followers over the past 90 days.
You can also see more detailed viewer demographics including top geographies, industries, companies, job functions, and seniorities of those viewing your profile and posts. This can help you understand who your LinkedIn audience is.
3rd degree connections
In addition to direct connections, you can interact with 3rd degree connections on LinkedIn. A 3rd degree connection is someone connected to someone you are connected to.
For example, your co-worker Bob is a 1st degree connection. Bob is connected to Alice. Even though you aren’t directly connected to Alice, she would be a 2nd degree connection. And someone connected to Alice would be your 3rd degree connection.
Your 3rd degree network is viewable to your 1st and 2nd degree connections. You can also join groups, follow companies, and comment on posts from 3rd degree connections. Sending messages requires a direct 1st level connection though.
What happens when you remove a connection?
Removing a connection on LinkedIn deletes the professional relationship and severs the link between your profiles. Here is what happens when you remove a connection:
- Your profiles will no longer appear in each other’s “My Connections” list
- You will no longer be able to interact directly with each other’s profiles
- You will no longer see updates from each other in your feeds
- Endorsements and recommendations are removed from each other’s profiles
- You can send a new connection invitation in the future if desired
Essentially removing the connection takes things back to the state before you were connected on LinkedIn. The process is reversible though if you later choose to reconnect.
Difference between removing and blocking a connection
There are a couple key differences between removing versus blocking a LinkedIn connection:
Remove Connection | Block Connection |
---|---|
Removes the link between your profiles | Leaves connection intact but puts block in place |
Can send a new invitation in the future | User remains blocked from contacting you |
Past interactions remain visible | Past interactions are hidden |
Can be reversed at any time | Blocking is permanent |
So in summary, removing a connection simply deletes the link between you and the other person. Blocking goes a step further to prevent any future interactions.
Troubleshooting LinkedIn connections
Here are some troubleshooting tips for LinkedIn connections:
- If invitations are going to pending and ignored, try reducing frequency. Too many invites may trigger spam controls.
- If you exceed your account’s limits, you will need to wait until the next week to send more invites or connect with more people.
- Make sure your invitation messages are personalized. Generic messages are more likely to be ignored.
- Double check spelling if someone cannot be found. Try searching profiles directly.
- If connections disappear, the person likely removed you or their whole account.
- For persistent issues, reach out to LinkedIn customer support.
Conclusion
Making professional connections is key to building your network and getting the most value out of LinkedIn. Send targeted invitations, engage meaningfully with your connections, and maintain a healthy and organized connections list. Make sure to follow LinkedIn’s guidelines around invitation limits and remove inactive connections periodically. With a thoughtful connections strategy, you can connect with colleagues, clients, partners, and peers who will strengthen your LinkedIn presence.