1st, 2nd, 3rd Meaning on Linkedin: What Are These Numbers?

1st, 2nd, 3rd: wondering what do these numbers mean on linkedin profiles?

I tell you everything in this article.

And also:

1. How to connect with anyone on LinkedIn
2. How to bypass the new linkedin limitation on invites
3. What to do when your connection requests get rejected

Let’s dive in!

What Does 1st, 2nd, 3rd Mean on LinkedIn?

When you are visiting linkedin profiles, you can notice that there is the 1st, 2nd, or 3rd symbol next to the name of the person. This indicates what is your degree of connection with this person.

1. First Degree (1st Degree) Connection Meaning on Linkedin

1st degree connections are people who you are directly connected with because they accepted your invitation request, or you accepted their connection request. You can contact them directly via the LinkedIn message.

Really important: when someone is your 1st degree connection on linkedin you also got access to their contacts details like emails & phone numbers.

To get access to this contact details, just click on “contact info” and a popup will appear.

Emails & phone numbers are not always there.

Approximately:

• 80% of people share their emails with 1rst degree linkedin connections
• 26% of people share numbers with 1rst degree connections
• 15% of people share their twitter

So you got it, if you are prospecting on linkedin, and you want the contact details of someone, you should turn him into a first degree connection on linkedin.

2. Second Degree (2nd Degree) Connection Meaning on Linkedin

2nd Degree connections on linkedin means that you are not connected to the person, but someone of your network is.

When you visit their profile, your mutual connections are displayed just above the “Connect Button”

You can’t send them direct messages, you must end a connection request first.

If you want to skip the connection request step, you can send an inmail.

Inmails are Linkedin paid messages that allow you to direct message 2nd and 3rd degree connections even if you are not connected with them yet.

You can get inmails by subscribing to one of linkedin premium offers like:

1. Linkedin Premium
2. Linkedin Sales Navigator
3. Linkedin Recruiter

You can click on the “Contact Info” button, but you won’t have access to their contact details

3. Third Degree (3rd Degree) Connection Meaning on Linkedin

3rd degree connections are people connected with your 2nd degree connections. They are connections of your connections. You can connect with them by sending a connection request, but the button is not at the same place.

Inmails will also work with 3rd degree linkedin connections.

This option is obviously only available for Linkedin premium users.

However, if you are not a premium linkedin users you can still send direct message to 2nd and 3rd degree connection if you are the same linkedin group or event.

More on that in this video:

4. Third Degree Plus (+3rd+ Degree) Connection Meaning on Linkedin

+3rd degree connection are people you are not connected with nor any of your 2nd degree connections. More than 2 people separates you from these persons.

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Great!

Now you know everything about linkedin 1st 2nd 3rd meanings.

Let’s see how to get the most out of this information to connect with anyone on Linkedin.

How To Connect With Anyone on Linkedin?

If you want to maximize your connection degree acceptance rate, you need to personalize. You can’t copy-paste the message to everyone.

1. What NOT TO DO when you send a connection request on Linkedin

The linkedin connection etiquette is the first contact you make with someone when you are networking.

You don’t have a second chance to make a good first impression.

People usually make 2 mistakes:

First one, they simply don’t make any effort to personalize their messages.

I receive dozens of non-personalized connection requests like this every week.

If you don’t make effort for people, they won’t make effort for you, simple as that.

The second mistake is to try to close the deal right away, without taking the time to build a relationship.

Before asking for anything, you need to give something.

While will I book a meeting or complete the form of a complete stranger?

What’s in it for me?

2. What TO DO when you send a connection request on Linkedin

My first advice is to only add a note if it’s super relevant. If you have no ideas of what to say, say nothing.

Connection request without notes actually get higher acceptance rate than connection request with notes, but that’s because everybody send awful notes.

If you send a note:

• Personalize
• Talk about them, not you
• Be short

Take a look at this example:

• The name of my company is the first word in the message
• She knows what the tool does
• Just asking to exchange, not to sell something.
• Don’t talk about her or her product

This a very good example of what everybody should do.

Pro-tip: if you can, make them feel like you could be a client of their product or service. That is what she did and really like the approach. When I started reading the message, I felt like she could a potential client, and it gets me really interested.

3. What if my Linkedin connection request is not accepted?

Even if your note is excellent, more than 50% of your connection won’t be accepted.

What to do with these people then?

Obviously, you can give up on them so easily.

You need to find their emails.

The thing is, you don’t have access to the emails of your 2nd and 3rd degree connections on linkedin.

If you are using linkedin for lead generation, you are certainly (or should) use Linkedin Sales Navigator to find potential leads.

In the video just above, I show you how to build email lists from linkedin sales navigator in just one 2 clicks.

How to Bypass Linkedin Weekly Invite Limitation on Connection Requests?

Linkedin recently implemented a new limitation on the number of connection request you can send.

You are now limited to 100 connection requests per week.

However, there are still some hacks that you can use to bypass it and go up to 500 invitations per week

1. Send invites through email
2. Sending messages to open profiles
3. Message group members and event attendees

I detailed everything in this video:

How To Cancel Connection Requests on Linkedin?

If you’re sending out a ton of connection requests, but really few get accepted, there is a risk that linkedin begin to think that you are a spammer. That could hinder your linkedin outreach results.

There are 2 solutions to this:

1. Target the right people and send good connections request (so a maximum get accepted)
2. Delete all your connection request older than 3-4 weeks.

If you want to delete your old connection request, go to My Network > Manage.

Then click on Sent > Withdraw

Will someone know if I withdraw a LinkedIn invitation?

No. Linkedin users are not notified if you withdraw your connection request. However, they may notice that the connection request disappeared from the list.

Do LinkedIn connection requests expire? 

Yes. They will automatically expire after six months.