Last Names on LinkedIn

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If you have a basic or a low-paid account on LinkedIn, you can’t see the full names of people who are your third level connections. You can’t see the names of people outside your network. In LinkedIn Recruiter, which is the solution for corporations, you can see all names.

I didn’t realize up till I was at the #sourceIn event yesterday at the LinkedIn HQ in Mountain View, that agencies with the top solution wouldn’t see the names either. Now, LinkedIn has decided to open up the names to agencies as well. GREAT! It should be available soon. (They also have some really cool features coming up in the Talent Pipeline.)

However, if you don’t have that advanced type of account or don’t want to wait until the new feature is implemented for agencies, here is what you can do.

 

(1) Go to the profile in question.

(2) Share it, using the share function, with someone you know who’s OK with it, or with me. (We need to be connected for that; I am gladly accepting all invitations.)

(3) Look for the message you had just sent, in your “Sent Items” under Inbox.

(4) In your message, see the link to the profile with the name that you couldn’t see? Click on it.

There’s no need to have a paid account for it to work. It works in exactly 100% of all cases.

ADDITIONAL INFO. Added on 9/17/2012

Some people can no longer see the “share” link as on the screenshot above. Here is a workaround.

  1. Look at the profile in question and copy its LinkedIn ID (a large number in the URL)
  2. Start sharing a profile that you can share (such as your connection, or share my profile)
  3. Paste this ID into your sharing dialog (in case of my profile the number to replace is 1769200)

This works just like before. Of course it’s a bit more mouse and key clicks but it works.

Also you get to see a link to the person’s public profile if it exists and that one will give you even more info in some cases.

Or, just use this link. Here is the exact link that should work (paste the LinkedIn ID where it says so):

http://www.linkedin.com/forwardProfileMsg?displayCreate=&profileID=PASTEIDHERE&network=I

Comments 10

  1. I just tried this yesterday and it didn’t work! I ended sending them an inMail and it revealed their name in my sent folder after sending the inMail.

    1. Post
      Author

      Agreed. It is absolutely a great trick (and you could add a few words from the title, company, industry, etc. if needed) and will work in the majority of cases but, unlike the above, will not work in 100% of the cases.

  2. Super!!! the above mentioned trick works fine, otherwise I do the conventional method of pasting available information in the google search to find the second name

  3. We figured this out a long time ago at our firm – you can also check “send a copy to myself.” When you get the e-mail and click on the link, then you see the full name. Sending Inmails isn’t feasible if you have the /free package, and even with the paid packages it is very limited. ($50/m for 10 inmails is crazy. )

    1. Post
      Author

      Yes, that’s exactly right!
      You can also see the public profile link if it exists and get even more info there, after logging out of LinkedIn (which may not seem intuitive).

  4. I’ve used this tip many times that Irina taught in her online class. Her classes are filled with aha moments of tips and tricks especially for us newbies.

  5. We’ve been using the ‘share’ solution for a couple of years but in the last month or so it’s stopped working for people outside our network and now only works for 3rd tier connections. Irena, can you shed any light on this?

    It goes without saying, the more connections you have, the more useful LinkedIn becomes for sourcing.

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