LinkedIn Growth4 min read
How to Add 1st in LinkedIn Profile: The Honest Answer
How to add 1st in a LinkedIn profile: why the 1st badge cannot be added manually, what actually triggers it, and how to turn people into 1st-degree connections.
By Animesh Kudake, Co-founder, Apna Project
The short version
- You cannot manually add a 1st to a LinkedIn profile: the 1st badge is automatic and appears the moment you and another person are directly connected.
- Someone becomes your 1st-degree connection when one of you sends an invitation to connect and the other accepts it. That acceptance is the only trigger.
- If you only see a Follow button, that person has made Follow their primary action; you can often still find Connect under the More menu on their profile.
- The fastest honest way to add more 1st-degree connections is sending personalized, relevant requests and warming people up first, not chasing a badge you cannot toggle.
- Degrees are automatic labels, not settings. What you control is who fills each one, which is the real lever behind who you can reach on LinkedIn.
How a 1st-degree connection is actually created
There is exactly one path, and it has two halves:
- Someone sends a connection invitation. Either you send it to them, or they send it to you.
- The other person accepts. The moment they do, LinkedIn marks you as directly connected and the "1st" badge appears on both sides automatically.
That is the whole mechanism. No approval queue beyond acceptance, no waiting period, no manual step to "apply" the degree. If you want a specific person to be your 1st-degree connection, you send a request and they accept, or the reverse. When you accept an invitation from your notifications, you are creating a 1st-degree connection in that same instant.
If you already have a large network and want to reach the documented ceiling, note that LinkedIn caps first-degree connections at 30,000 per account, a limit we cover in maximum connections on LinkedIn per week.
What to do when you only see "Follow"
Sometimes you open a profile expecting a Connect button and see "Follow" instead. That is not a degree problem; it is a choice the profile owner made to put Follow as their primary action, which we explain in why LinkedIn profiles say Follow instead of Connect.
You can usually still connect. Open the profile, click the "More" button near their name, and look for "Connect" in that menu. Following makes you a follower, not a 1st-degree connection, so if a direct connection is what you want, use the Connect option rather than the visible Follow button.
The better goal: adding more 1st-degree connections
Since you cannot toggle the badge, the productive version of this question is how to grow the number of people who carry it with you. That is worth doing, because every new first-degree connection turns their network into your 2nd-degree and widens who you can reach.
A few honest habits do most of the work:
- Personalize the request. A short note that names a shared connection, a mutual interest, or a specific reason gets accepted far more often than a blank invite.
- Warm people up first. Commenting thoughtfully on someone's post before you send a request makes you a familiar name rather than a stranger, which is the core idea behind our LinkedIn commenting strategy.
- Grow deliberately, not by mass-adding. If you want volume the sane way, we cover pacing in how to get 500 LinkedIn connections fast.
- Reach further out on purpose. When you want to connect with people beyond your immediate circle, see how to see 3rd-degree connections on LinkedIn.
The honest bottom line
You cannot add a "1st" to a LinkedIn profile, because it is not a thing you add. It is the automatic signature of a direct, accepted connection. Chasing the badge is a dead end; building the connections that produce it is the actual game.
We build a commenting tool, so we will say the thing only we would emphasize: the cheapest way to earn a "yes" on a connection request is to be a face someone already recognizes from their comment section. Degrees are automatic. Being worth connecting with is the part you control.
Frequently asked questions
How do I add the 1st badge to a profile?
You do not add it manually. The 1st badge appears automatically once you and the other person are directly connected, which happens when one of you sends a connection invitation and the other accepts. There is no setting, toggle, or button that adds a 1st degree label on its own; the connection itself is what creates it.
Why does someone show as 1st when I did not connect with them?
If a person shows as 1st-degree, a connection was accepted at some point, even if you do not remember it. You may have sent the invite months ago, or accepted theirs from a notification or an imported-contacts prompt. Check your connections list; anyone listed there is a mutual, accepted first-degree connection.
How do I turn a 2nd-degree connection into a 1st?
Send them a connection request, ideally with a short note that names a shared connection or a reason you want to connect. Once they accept, they become a 1st-degree connection and the badge updates automatically. Engaging with their posts first often makes that request far more likely to be accepted.
Can I hide my connection degree from other people?
No. The degree label is calculated from the actual relationship between two accounts, so you cannot switch it off or set it manually. You can control who can see your connections list and limit some profile visibility, but the 1st, 2nd, or 3rd badge itself is a system-generated fact, not a privacy setting.
Written by the team building Commenti on real LinkedIn growth data. Found an error? Tell us and we’ll fix it. Accuracy beats winning.
Co-founder, Apna Project
Co-founder at Apna Project, where he helps founders and agencies turn ideas into products. Writes here on LinkedIn growth and what actually earns attention in a comment section. Commenti is the LinkedIn comment automation tool by Ampliflow.
If you have searched for how to add 1st in a LinkedIn profile, you have probably noticed that little "1st" next to some names and wondered how to get it, or how to give your own profile that badge. Here is the honest answer up front: there is no button for it.
The 1st is not something you add. It is a label LinkedIn calculates automatically from the relationship between two accounts. Understanding why is more useful than any workaround, because it tells you exactly what to do instead.
What "1st" actually means
The "1st" is a degree of connection. It means you and that person are directly connected on LinkedIn, with no one in between. It sits alongside "2nd" (you share a mutual connection) and "3rd" (you are two steps removed), and we break down all three in what 1st, 2nd, and 3rd mean on LinkedIn.
The key point for this question: the degree is a fact about a relationship, not a decoration you switch on. LinkedIn works it out from whether an invitation between the two of you has been accepted. So the badge is a result, and the thing that produces it is the connection itself.
Why you cannot add it manually
People look for a setting because most things on LinkedIn are settings. This one is not.
There is no toggle in your profile, your privacy controls, or the connection menu that says "add 1st." If there were, the badge would mean nothing, because anyone could paint it on. Its entire value is that it reflects a real, mutual, accepted connection. That is also why you cannot remove the badge from a specific person while staying connected to them, and why you cannot make yourself appear as someone's 1st without them accepting you.
So the real question is not how to add the label. It is how to create the connection that generates it.