Connections

LinkedIn separates connections from follows by how well you know the person: connections are people you have trusted relationships with, such as coworkers, alumni, business partners and friends, while people you follow are those you do not know but want to learn from5. A Microsoft patent from 2019 explains that degrees count the connections separating two members in the social graph, a map where members are points and connections are the lines between them6. Connecting lets you message each other directly for free, and LinkedIn's blog said in 2019 that it gives you access to each other's shared contact information and makes your connections show up in job postings as someone who could get you in the door with the hiring manager17.

You can also unfollow a connection without ending the connection, and they will not be notified38. Members can see if you follow them and receive a notification whenever a non-connection follows them3.

Connections also affect what you see, because LinkedIn uses them as a source of Feed posts910. Its blog said in November 2019 that the people you connect with will most often be the first to show up in your feed9. LinkedIn Ireland's Digital Services Act reports say a post can appear because you follow or are otherwise connected to the person or Page that posted it, because one of your connections reacted to, commented on or shared it, or because it bears relevance to your job, industry or interests1112. However, Tim Jurka wrote in February 2024 that suggested posts may not be from someone you are directly connected with and are shown based on relevance to you13. A LinkedIn research paper dated September 2026 describes a Feed system called Connected Content Retriever that treats relationship strength, meaning how close a viewer is to a post's author, as an important input when selecting posts, alongside what those posts are about; as a paper describing a method, it does not by itself show what LinkedIn does today14.

You can limit followers to only your connections in Settings & Privacy2. Choosing that limit removes followers outside your network, makes your follower number equal your total connections, removes the Follow button next to your posts and articles, and can take up to 24 hours to take effect2.