The Ultimate Glossary Of LinkedIn Terms

It can be a challenge to get the hang of any social media platform, especially a platform that’s purpose is layered. LinkedIn offers you the unique opportunity to connect professionally and network, to display your resume, and to search for jobs or opportunities. If you’re new to LinkedIn some of the LinkedIn lingo can seem a bit odd. You may need time to process it all. But, have no fear, that’s where the LinkedIn experts can jump in and help you out. 

In this Glossary of LinkedIn Terms, we’ll go into detail explaining all the terms and lingo you could possibly come across while scrolling and exploring LinkedIn. 

1st Degree Connection

A connection is a contact you have on LinkedIn. 1st degree connections are able to view your profile, see your posts in their feed, message you, and recommend or endorse you.

You can have a maximum of 30,000 1st degree connections.

2nd Degree Connection

2nd Degree connections are those who are connected to one or more of your connections. They can view your full profile but won’t see your posts in their feed unless one of your mutual connections has liked or commented on it. 2nd degree connections are able to request to connect with you.

3rd Degree Connection

A 3rd Degree connection is connected to your 2nd Degree connections. If you have a paid account, you can send a message to a 3rd Degree connection using InMail to request connection.

About (aka Summary)

The LinkedIn About (or Summary) is an important section on your personal profile. It allows for 2000 characters where you can summarize your expertise and experience, tell your career story, and infuse your personality.

Accomplishments

Towards the bottom of your profile, you’ll find the Accomplishments section. This is where you can highlight your accomplishments such as publications, patents, courses, projects, test scores, languages, organizations, and any additional professional honors and awards you’ve earned.

Background Photo

Your background photo is the image that appears behind your profile picture. You can add or edit your background photo at any time. Your background photo should be a .jpeg, .png, or .gif. It must be smaller than 8MB. The optimum dimensions for a background photo are 1584×396.

Connection

A connection is a contact you have on LinkedIn. On LinkedIn, a connection is the equivalent of a Friend on Facebook. A connection is slightly different from a follow on Twitter and Instagram in that it is reciprocal. If a contact accepts your request to connect or if you accept a request to connect, you can both see each other’s profiles, posts, and message freely. 

Contact Info

Your contact info is featured at the top of your profile, below your background image and to the right of your headline and location. In the contact info section, you can add a website url, phone number, address, email address, and your birthday.

This info is not displayed on your profile. To view it, a LinkedIn member would need to click on the Contact Info button.

Degree of Connection

Your connections can be 1st Degree, 2nd Degree, or 3rd Degree. A 1st Degree connection has either been invited to connect with you and they’ve accepted or you’ve been invited to connect with them and you’ve accepted. A 2nd Degree connection is a person with whom you have mutual connections. And, a 3rd Degree connection is someone who is connected to your 2nd Degree connections. 

With a 1st degree connection, you can view their profile, see their posts, message them, and recommend or endorse them. 2nd Degree connections, you can view their full profile but you can’t see their posts unless one of your connections has liked or commented on it. You can send them a message InMail to request a connection. A 3rd Degree connection is connected to your 2nd Degree connections. Profiles beyond your 3rd Degree connections (i.e. 4th Degree connections) are considered “out of your network” and have limited visibility. You can’t send people out of your network a direct connection invitation or messages via InMail. 

You can determine what level of connection a user is from you. Next to their name, it will either say 1st, 2nd, or 3rd.

Education

This is the section where you can add, edit, and remove your educational background. If you do not enter any information into this section, it will not appear in your profile. 

You can add multiple past educational institutions. Each entry allows you to enter the name of the school, degree, field of study, years attended, activities, a description, and you can even upload a media file (like an image of your diploma).

Endorsements

LinkedIn members are able to endorse their connections for various skills. You can add a maximum of 50 skills to your profile. Then, your 1st degree connections can endorse you for those skills. When you receive a skill endorsement, you’ll be notified by LinkedIn. You don’t need to request endorsements, but you can.

You also have the option to opt out of endorsements or hide them from your profile while still displaying the underlying Skills. Your Endorsements are found below the Education section and above Recommendations.

CONTINUED: Click here to read the full Ultimate Glossary Of LinkedIn Terms

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