There are two ways of making new acquaintances in life; you either meet new people on your own – in a class, office, restaurant, gym, and so on – or those who are friends/acquaintances of your current friends. In the latter case, the person who introduced you to them would be a mutual link between you two; a mutual friend of sorts. The concept of mutual friends/followers/connections is somewhat similar in the world of social media.
You’re connected to one user, and then, in their stories, tags, mentions, or even the comments on their post, you find someone who strikes a familiar chord, and the two of you connect moving forward.
While such a thing might not be as popular on other social media platforms, on LinkedIn, it’s spreading like a trend, and for a good reason. Growing on LinkedIn involves forming a network of like-minded professionals from whose experiences and insights you can grow and benefit from. After all, it is only when you network with such professionals that you can hope to diversify your industry knowledge and stay on top of global trends.
As you might have guessed by now, the mutual connections on LinkedIn are going to be the subject of our discussion in today’s blog. Keep reading to learn everything about it!
How to See Mutual Connection on LinkedIn
Checking out the mutual connections between you and a fellow LinkedIn user is a fairly straightforward process, regardless of whether you’re connected with them or not. This is because most users keep their profile public to boost their visibility.
To guide you with the process, we’ve designed a dedicated step-by-step guide and attached it below. Take a look:
Step 1: Navigate a blue square icon with in written on it on your smartphone’s app grid; when you find this icon, give it a tap to launch LinkedIn on your device.
Step 2: As the app opens, you’ll land on the Home tab first.
In order to find your mutual connections with another LinkedIn user, you’ll need to head to their profile first. There are two ways of doing that:
By looking for them on your own Connections list.
By searching their username in the search bar of your Home tab.
It’s obvious that the latter is a faster and shorter process, which is why we’ll go with it here.
Step 3: Locate an empty bar with a magnifying glass icon drawn at its left-most corner, with Search written next to it.
Tap on this bar, enter in it the name of the person whose mutual connections you’ve been curious about, and hit Enter.
Step 4: In the search results that are displayed on your screen next, you’ll find the name of this person on top (if you’ve spelled their name correctly).
Step 5: Here, below their name, you’ll spot two buttons: A blue button with Message written on it, and a white button with View full profile.
Give the white button a tap to head to their profile.
Step 6: Once you’re on their profile, you’ll see their background and profile picture on top, followed by their name, location, connections, and finally, mutual connections.
Placed at the end here, this section will begin with the number of connections you both have in common.
The names of your first two connections here will be listed right there, followed by and XYZ others (wherein XYZ denotes the number of your mutual connections, having subtracted the first two).
Step 7: As you give this section a tap, you’ll be taken to another tab with a search bar on top, followed by the list of all your mutual connections on the platform.
Right below the search bar, you’ll also find multiple sorting options that you can use if you wish to narrow down your search results or are looking for someone in particular.
Can you hide your mutual connections on LinkedIn?
So far, we’ve discussed the importance of mutual connections on LinkedIn elaborately. However, not everyone on this platform is here to expand their network. There is a large faction of users who are just here to maintain an online presence on the platform and don’t wish to spend too much time on it.
These are the users who’d rather keep their mutual connections hidden to avoid drawing too much attention to themselves on the platform. If you’re one such LinkedIn user, looking for a way to hide their mutual connections, here’s something you must keep in mind:
Your connections and mutual connections on LinkedIn are interlinked, which means you can’t hide one without the other. In other words, in order to hide your mutual connections on LinkedIn, you’d have to hide your connections altogether. Is that something you want to go forward with? If you do, perhaps our step-by-step guide can help you with it. Take a look:
Step 1: Launch LinkedIn on your device, and from the Home tab that you first land on, navigate the thumbnail of your profile picture towards the top-left corner of your screen.
Give the thumbnail a tap upon finding it.
Step 2: You’ll land on your Profile tab next. Here, can you spot a search bar on top, with your name written within it? Look towards its right side; you’ll find a grey cogwheel icon. Tap on it.
Step 3: Next, you’ll be taken to the Settings tab of your account, with these six options listed below:
Account preferences
Sign in & security
Visibility
Communications
Data Privacy
Advertising data
The third option of this list – Visibility with an eye icon drawn next to it – is the one you need to select here.
Step 4: On the next tab that you’re taken to, you’ll see two different categories:
Visibility of your profile and network
Visibility of your LinkedIn activity
In the first category, the fourth option is of Connections; tap on this option, and you’ll be taken to another tab.
Step 5: On this final page, you’ll see just one option with a toggle switch next to it – Connection visibility.
It is this option that determines whether or not other users can check your connections (and mutual connections) on the platform. Now, by default, this toggle switch is turned on, indicating that everyone can see your connection list on the platform.
In order to change this setting, all you need to do is turn the switch off and save your action. Moving forward, people will no longer be able to see your connections when they land on your profile!
The bottom line
As we’re ready to wrap our blog up, let’s revisit everything we’ve explored together above.
Our discussion began by talking about connections and their importance on the professional platform of LinkedIn. Then, we moved on to talk about how you can check your mutual connections with a fellow user, with a step-by-step guide of the same attached below.
Before the end, we also discussed how you could hide your mutual connections if you so wished. You’ll find a guide for that attached above as well. Is there anything else on LinkedIn that you’d need our help with? Tell us in the comments section below!
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