Building your LinkedIn network helps you stay in touch with colleagues, alumni, and recruiters, and discover new professional opportunities.
Sending a connection invitation creates a 1st‑degree connection. As 1st‑degree connections, you can message each other and see more information on each other’s profiles. Connecting works best when you have a clear professional reason to reach out, such as having worked or studied together, meeting at an event, or wanting to continue a conversation.
To connect on LinkedIn, you can send or accept invitations from several places:
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From a member’s profile: Select Connect on their profile page. If you don’t see Connect (for example, if Follow is the primary option), select More and then select Connect.
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From People you may know: Review suggested connections and select Connect below a member’s name. If you don’t see Connect (for example, if Follow is the primary option), select More and then select Connect.
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From My Network: Go to My Network and accept pending invitations from people who want to connect with you.
Important to know:
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You can add up to 30,000 1st-degree connections.
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You need a primary email address to send connection invitations.
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Your LinkedIn account may be temporarily restricted from sending invitations if members report your invitations as unwanted or spam.
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When you send a connection request, you may be asked How do you know [member name]? If you select We don’t know each other, you may be prompted to send a message first to establish a relationship. Depending on the recipient’s messaging settings, this could include sending an InMail message.
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Messaging access depends on your connection status and the recipient’s messaging settings.
Related tasks:
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