September 2017
You Can (Once Again) Search the Connections of Others
Thankfully, LinkedIn (LI) has brought back a very valuable feature, the ability to search other people’s connections. This can be useful for job seekers, entrepreneurs, sales professionals, or anyone trying to strategically expand his / her network. For example, if I was selling a medical device and trying to find potential buyers, I could search through the 1st-degree connections of my 1st-degree contacts to see if they know others in healthcare or hospitals holding the title of Chief Operating Officer or Director of Procurement.
There are two important things to note about this feature:
- First, you must already be a 1st-degree connection to another person to see his/her connections (i.e. you will never see connections for 2nd and 3rd-degree connections).
- Second, LI users can block others from seeing their connections. You can do this too. Click here (after logging in to LI) to see where you change this setting. Blocking others from seeing your connections is not the norm, and I don’t recommend it if you want to be seen as someone who brings people together. However, some people do it for reasons of privacy. Often recruiters and sales professionals do this to prevent others from approaching their LI contacts.
To access this capability, go to the profile of one of your connections. Click on the word Connections in the top right-hand corner (if nothing happens, it’s likely they have blocked others from viewing their connections). On the following page, you’ll see a variety of criteria to filter your search, including title, keyword, company, etc.
If you’re a visual person, here’s a video (less than two minutes) from LinkedIn expert Mark Williams, showing you how to navigate this feature. Have fun playing around with it!
