LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional networking platform with over 722 million users worldwide. Making connections is a key part of maximizing your LinkedIn presence and growing your professional network. However, with so many connection requests going out, it can be tricky to keep track of who you’ve reached out to.
In this comprehensive guide, we’ll walk through the different ways you can see who you’ve sent connection requests to on LinkedIn and manage your pending requests. We’ll also provide tips on cleaning up old requests and optimizing your connection strategy going forward.
Viewing Pending Connection Requests
The most straightforward way to see who you’ve sent requests to is to look at your list of pending requests. These are connections that have yet to be accepted or declined.
To view your pending requests:
- Go to your LinkedIn homepage and click “My Network” at the top of your homepage.
- This will bring you to the “Manage my network” page.
- On the right side, click “Connections” under the “Manage” column.
- Go to the “Pending invitations” tab. This will display a list of all your pending connection requests.
This list shows the name, headline, and company of the LinkedIn members who have yet to respond to your request. You can also see how long it’s been since you sent the invitation. The list is organized by most to least recent.
One thing to note is that you can only see the last 200 pending invitations you’ve sent. So if you’re a very active networker, this view may not show your full slate of outstanding requests.
Tracking Your Invitation Metrics
For a broader look at your invitation activity, you can check your invitation metrics. This shows you a snapshot of how many invitations you’ve sent, your acceptance rate, and more.
To find your invitation metrics:
- Go to the “Manage my network” page using the steps above.
- Click on “See invitation metrics” under the Connections tab.
Here you’ll see the total number of pending invitations, accepted invitations, and declined invitations from the past 90 days. You can also see what percentage of your invitations were accepted.
Checking these metrics periodically can help you identify trends and refine your connection strategy. For example, if you notice a high decline rate, you may want to re-evaluate how you’re selecting who to reach out to.
Searching for Individual Connections
If you want to look up whether you have a pending or accepted invitation with a specific LinkedIn member, you can search for individual connections.
To search your network for an individual:
- Go to your “My Network” page.
- Use the search bar at the top labeled “Search my network…”
- Type in the name of the member you want to look up.
This will display their profile if they are either a 1st-degree connection, 2nd-degree connection, or someone you’ve sent an invitation to. If they are a pending invitation, it will say “Invitation sent” under their name. If they are connected, it will say “Xth-degree connection” based on whether they are a 1st or 2nd-degree connection.
Using Advanced Search
LinkedIn also offers an advanced search option to look up specific connections. This allows you to filter by 1st connections, 2nd connections, groups, companies and more.
To use advanced search:
- Go to your LinkedIn homepage and click “Advanced” next to the main search bar.
- Fill in any search parameters like name, location, current company, etc.
- Under “Relationship”, check the box for “People you’ve sent invitations to.”
- Click “Search.”
This will display a filtered list of the members matching your search criteria who you have sent connection requests to that are still pending.
You can also select “1st degree connections” to search for connections whose invitations you’ve already accepted.
Finding Invitation Recipients in Your Contact List
Another way to identify individuals you’ve invited is by checking your imported contact list on LinkedIn. When you first join LinkedIn, it prompts you to import your email contacts. LinkedIn will then match these contacts to existing members.
If you later send an invitation to a connection already in your imported list, LinkedIn will note that in your contact record. Even if that connection request is still pending, you’ll be able to see it under the action icons next to their name in your connections list.
To view your contact list and check for pending invitations:
- Go to the “My Network” page.
- Click “Manage synced and imported contacts” under the “Connections” tab.
- Review your contact list. If you see the briefcase icon next to a contact, it means you have a pending invitation sent to them.
This can be helpful if you’ve forgotten someone specific that you may have invited when first building out your network.
Checking Your Sent Invitations Folder
Your “Sent Invitations” folder provides one more way to see who you’ve invited to connect. LinkedIn automatically logs all connection requests you send and stores them in this folder.
Here’s how to access it:
- Click the “Messaging” icon in the top nav bar.
- Open the “Invitations” folder in the left side nav.
- Click “Sent Invitations.”
This will display a feed of all your sent invitations. You’ll see the name, position, and company of the recipient along with the date you sent the request.
Clicking into any invitation will also show the personalized message you included when requesting to connect.
Withdrawing Pending Requests
After evaluating your outstanding invitations, you may decide to withdraw some pending requests. You can easily cancel a pending invitation to connect with another member at any point.
Here is how to withdraw a pending invitation:
- Go to your “Sent Invitations” folder using the steps above.
- Locate the invitation you want to cancel from your feed.
- Select “Withdraw invitation to connect” from the dropdown menu next to the invitation.
- Confirm that you want to withdraw the invitation.
The connection request will then be canceled and the recipient will no longer see it. Withdrawing requests can be useful if you change your mind about connecting or find the invitation has gone stale after a long period.
Deleting Old Connection Requests
Over time, you may end up with old invitations that have gone unanswered for months or even years. It’s good networking etiquette to do some routine maintenance and remove stagnant requests.
You have a few options for clearing out old invitations:
- Manually withdrawing: You can withdraw individual stale invitations from your “Sent Invitations” folder using the steps above.
- Purging all expired requests: In your invitation metrics, click “Purge expired invitations.” This will remove all invites that have been pending over 90 days.
- Using filters: When viewing your pending requests list, use the filter tool to narrow it down to invites sent during a certain time period you want to delete.
Deleting old, unanswered requests helps focus your network-building efforts on active relationships and new opportunities.
Turning Off Relationship Notifications
If you’re sending a high volume of connection requests, all those notifications about accepted and declined invitations can clutter your inbox. You can turn these off to keep things clean.
To manage your relationship notifications:
- Go to your LinkedIn account settings.
- Click “Communications” in the left sidebar.
- Under “Relationship notifications” uncheck any notifications you want to turn off.
- Scroll down and click “Save changes.”
With notifications off, you can check your pending and accepted invitations manually on your own schedule.
Using an Excel Tracker
Maintaining your own tracking sheet is another option for monitoring your connection activity over time. You can copy your pending invitations list and accepted connections into an Excel spreadsheet.
In your tracker, you can add columns to record dates invitations were sent, dates accepted, notes on how you met the person, and any next steps for following up.
This gives you an at-a-glance, sortable view of the growth and activity within your network.
Sample Tracking Spreadsheet
Name | Company | Date Invited | Date Accepted | How We Met | Next Steps |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
John Smith | ABC Company | 9/5/22 | 9/12/22 | Industry conference | Meet for coffee |
Lisa Chen | 123 Corporation | 8/15/22 | Pending | College alumni network | Share recent article |
Following Up on Pending Requests
Don’t let pending invitations languish indefinitely. If you haven’t received a response after 1-2 weeks, follow up to nudge the recipient.
Here are some tips for following up on your open requests:
- Send a friendly LinkedIn message re-introducing yourself and politely asking if they received your invitation.
- If you have an alternate contact method like email or phone number, follow up via that channel.
- Share why you’d value connecting or how you could mutually support each other’s career goals.
- Ask if it would be better to reconnect at a later date if they have a busy period.
- Consider withdrawing the invitation if follow ups go unanswered after several attempts.
Following up shows you value the relationship and provides closure if the person is unable to connect at this time.
Optimizing Your Connection Strategy
Being thoughtful about who you send invitations to will improve your acceptance rate and lead to more meaningful connections.
Here are some best practices for optimizing your outreach strategy:
- Personalize each request with a note addressing the person by name and why you want to connect.
- Target those with overlapping interests, associations, or career histories.
- Connect around shared experiences like groups, events, publications, and causes.
- Highlight what you have to offer the other person and how you can help them.
- Use a customized invitation template so requests don’t sound copied and pasted.
- Send invites in small batches instead of blasting out hundreds at once.
- Follow up pending requests within two weeks.
- Engage meaningfully with your connections after linking up.
Fine-tuning your approach will lead to higher quality connections that serve your relationship-building needs.
Conclusion
Actively managing your LinkedIn invites and connections ensures you get the most value from your networking efforts. Sending thoughtful, personalized requests while maintaining your pending and accepted invitations will set you up for improved relationship-building and career success on the platform.
Use the tips in this guide to take control of your connections list and who you’re connecting with. Proactively nurturing your network leads to more opportunities, insights, and exposure over the long run.