LinkedIn Guide · 6 min read · Updated 2026

LinkedIn People You May Know: How to Use It for Strategic Networking

People You May Know is the panel LinkedIn shows you on the home feed and the Grow Your Network page, full of suggested connections. Most people scroll past it or accept everything blindly. Used with a bit of strategy, it becomes one of the fastest ways to grow a job-search network with the right people — recruiters, peers, and hiring managers in your target field.

This guide covers how the suggestions work, how to use them strategically, and how to turn them into real relationships. For the request itself, pair this with our connection request templates and our guide on follow vs connect.

How People You May Know decides who to show

LinkedIn's suggestion engine looks at signals that indicate you and a suggested person are likely to know each other or benefit from connecting:

• Shared connections. People who are connected to your current connections.
• Shared employers and schools. Former colleagues and classmates you may have lost touch with.
• Shared groups and interests. Members of the same LinkedIn groups or people with similar skills.
• Profile similarity. People in the same role, industry, or location.
• Uploaded contacts. People LinkedIn matched from your email or phone contacts if you synced them.

The engine compounds: the more relevant connections you make, the more relevant the next batch of suggestions becomes. This is why the first few strategic connections matter so much.

The strategic approach

Instead of accepting every suggestion, treat People You May Know as a search tool you shape over time:

• Seed your network deliberately. Connect with a few recruiters and peers in your target industry. The algorithm will start surfacing more people like them.
• Add people you actually know. Former colleagues and classmates are low-risk, high-trust connections. Reconnecting with them warms up your network for future asks.
• Filter before you connect. Before accepting a suggestion, check whether the person is relevant to your search — same industry, a recruiter, or someone at a target company.
• Personalize the request. A bare connection request from a stranger is easy to ignore. Use a short note that explains the link — see our templates.

Mistakes to avoid

• Mass-accepting. Accepting dozens of strangers bloats your network and makes it harder for the right people to surface.
• Ignoring the panel entirely. It is a free, curated list of people you are likely to know — skipping it wastes an easy networking opportunity.
• Sending blank requests. A personalized note to a stranger dramatically increases the acceptance rate.
• Connecting and disappearing. A new connection is just a start. Engage with their content or send a quick thank-you message to turn the link into a real relationship.

Turning suggestions into opportunities

Once you have connected with a few relevant people, the real work begins. Engage with their posts, send a thoughtful message, and look for opportunities to help before you ask for anything. If you want to go deeper, our guide to informational interviews shows you how to turn a new connection into a real conversation. And if your goal is more visibility across the platform, see our guide on getting more profile views.

A bigger, more relevant network only pays off if your profile is ready for the traffic. When those new connections click through, your headline and About section should make them want to learn more. Get your free LinkedIn visibility score to see where you stand, or browse the full blog for more networking guides.

Frequently asked questions