I recently wrote about the change LinkedIn made that no longer allows people with a free LinkedIn account to view the full names of 3rd degree and group connections.
While you can go through the trouble of using a search engine such as Bing to view any public LinkedIn profile, there are a few ways that you can find and view the full names of 3rd degree and group connections from within LinkedIn even if you only have a free account.
LinkedIn Activity
When you come across a 3rd degree or group connection that you would like to know the full name of…
…open the profile, and if the person you are interested in has any LinkedIn activity in terms of network updates, you can actually see their full name in both activity sections.
Of course, not everyone on LinkedIn updates their status, so this will only work for people who actively use this feature.
LinkedIn Recommendations
Additionally, if the person you are interested in has recommended anyone, or others have recommended them, you can explore those sections and profiles and find the full name of the person there. For example:
When you open the profile of the recommended person, find the recommendation and you will see the full name of your original target person.
Viewers of this Profile also Viewed
As some people have commented to, you can also leverage the “Viewers of this profile also viewed” section to try and reveal the full name of the person you’re interested in. Using the same profile as in the above examples, it took me 3 tries to get the result I was looking for. When I clicked on Jerry’s and Brad’s links, Brian (my original profile of interest) was not listed.
However, the 3rd time was indeed the charm in this case. When I clicked on Alminda’s link, Brian was listed in her “Viewers of this profile also viewed” section, with his full name viewable.
…and Beyond
In addition to the 3 methods I’ve outlined above, Irina Shamaeva has discovered a novel way of revealing the full names of 3rd degree profiles and even those of people beyond your network. I won’t publish them here – I’d advise you to attend one of her webinars if your’re interested in learning this method.
Happy hunting!