useArtemis | What are 1st, 2nd and 3rd on LinkedIn Profiles?

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Every LinkedIn user has noticed that a small number 1, 2, or 3 appears next to the names of other users. And in the same way, everyone has wondered what these numbers mean.

What are 1st, 2nd and 3rd on LinkedIn Profiles?

While for many, LinkedIn is simply a platform for finding a job, for others it's a magical prospecting tool.

And it's for this very reason that LinkedIn informs us of the degree of connection we have with the profile we're visiting.

Understanding the different degrees of connections and their benefits is crucial for using LinkedIn effectively and developing your network efficiently.

As we'll see in the following section, you can leverage these numbers to add new people, obtain contact information, etc.

1st, 2nd, 3rd on LinkedIn: What does this mean?

These numbers correspond to the degree of connection you have with a user.

The lower this number, the closer the user is to your network.
The higher the number, the further the user is from your network.

To understand the principle of degrees of connection on LinkedIn, one can refer to the concept of "friends of friends".

Here's how the different degrees work:

1st-degree connection on LinkedIn

1st-degree connections on LinkedIn are simply the people who are in your network. In other words, they are the people you've sent an invitation to, and they've accepted, or those who have sent you an invitation, and you've accepted. 1st-degree connections can be viewed as your real friends.

Being a 1st-degree connection on LinkedIn offers numerous benefits:

Sending a message to the user. To send a message to a user, they must be in your network. However, there are ways around this limitation, such as sending messages to 'open' profiles, i.e., people who accept messages from users they're not connected with.

Viewing their contact information (email, phone number, website, etc.). Note that phone numbers are not always provided, and some users choose to hide their email addresses.
Viewing content published by the user on your news feed.

It is therefore relevant to send a connection request to someone when you want to discover their contact information or send them a direct message.

Note that you can also use an email finder to find the contact details of people who are not in your network.

2nd-degree connection on LinkedIn

2nd-degree connections are people who are not in your direct connections but with whom you share common connections.

Given the common connections, 2nd-degree contacts can be viewed as friends of friends.

In the above example, we can see that the "Message" button is usable, but it's not a standard LinkedIn message but a LinkedIn InMail.

InMails are premium messages available through a LinkedIn Premium subscription.

If you want to make the most of InMails at the best price, we recommend the LinkedIn Sales Navigator Core subscription, where InMails will cost you about $2/InMail compared to $6/InMail with LinkedIn Premium Career.

InMails are included with the following LinkedIn premium subscriptions:

LinkedIn Premium Career at $29.99/month (5 credits)
LinkedIn Premium Business at $59.99/month (15 credits)
LinkedIn Sales Navigator Core at $99.99/month (50 credits)
LinkedIn Recruiter Lite at $180/month (30 credits)

To send a standard LinkedIn message to Jean De La Rochebrochard, I would first have to send him an invitation, which he would then have to accept to become a 1st-degree connection.

3rd-degree connection on LinkedIn

The 3rd-degree corresponds to 3rd-degree connections. In other words, these are people who:

Are not in your connections.
Have no common connections with you.

You can send a connection request to a 3rd-degree connection, but LinkedIn, for reasons that are still unclear, does not display the button to send an invitation in the same place.

You have to first click on "More" then on "Connect".

If the contact accepts InMails and you have opted for a LinkedIn Premium account, you can send them one by clicking on 'Message'.

In the example above, we can see that the message button is not present, which means that Ryan Reynolds does not accept InMails.

💡 Quick tip: You can contact any 3rd-degree connection with whom you share a group or common event.

To do this, go to LinkedIn Groups to see all the groups you have joined in the past.

contact any 3rd-degree connection through groups

The groups with the "View posts" button are the ones in which you are registered. Once on the group page, you just have to click on "Show all" to see all the members of the group.

Note that even though you can theoretically contact all members of the group, you must be selective and cautious because LinkedIn does not tolerate spam, and you could have your account disabled.

How to connect with anyone on LinkedIn?

Now that you know what 1st, 2nd, and 3rd numbers mean on LinkedIn, you're probably thinking that you just need to send a message to the members of a group or send a simple invitation to be able to connect with almost anyone on LinkedIn.

⚠️ But beware: There are several rules to follow to succeed in networking on LinkedIn.

If you do not follow these rules, there is a high chance that your messages will end up in the spam folders of the users you want to contact.

1) Never try to sell anything in an initial message

SEO experts are the kings of poorly executed automated prospecting.

Here's a perfect example of a message that probably never brought Oksana a single sale, even with an emoji :)

Here, Oksana didn't even pretend to be interested in me. Her only concern is not to provide any value to her conversation partner, but simply to sell her SEO services.

Remember one thing, these messages do not work.

2) Never start your messages with "I saw"

Here we have an attempt at personalization, but the result is not good.

Messages that begin with "I saw", I receive 10 of them a day. Beyond the inelegance of the phrase, "I saw" clearly shows that you are not interested in your conversation partner, but that you discovered them by chance.

3) Don't use uninteresting templates

This kind of message has probably been sent to hundreds of other users, and yet it has no interest.

Zinon did not take the time to analyze my work otherwise he would have mentioned it in the message. You can clearly see that he avoids mentioning my activity because he doesn't know it.

"I think I could add value", but how? What kind of value? Absolutely nothing concrete, and everything suggests that the recipient will have nothing more than a little wasted time in responding to Zinon.

Personalize, for real

Templates with {firstname} {lastname} are rarely sufficient to create a real beginning of a relationship with a user.

You must react to their content, look at what they are currently doing, what they have done in the past. Try to find a relevant common point, and keep it short.

useArtemis proposes to personalize each invitation sent from the app with ChatGPT.

By activating LinkedIn invitations with ChatGPT, useArtemis will retrieve the content of the LinkedIn profile and ask ChatGPT to write a relevant hook taking into account your profile, the brief, as well as the LinkedIn profile of your target.

FAQ about LinkedIn relationships

What is a relationship on LinkedIn?

A relationship on LinkedIn is what friendship is on Facebook. A relationship (so we are talking here about a 1st-degree relationship) is a person who is part of your contacts.

There are also 2nd and 3rd degree relationships which are respectively: people with whom you have relationships in common, otherwise known as friends of your friends, and people with whom you have no direct relationships in common.

How can I develop my network of relationships on LinkedIn?

To develop your network of relationships, it is generally recommended to add people you already know. Whether they are friends, classmates or former colleagues, don't hesitate.