Import Your LinkedIn Connections

You can bring the people you are connected to on LinkedIn into Groupthink. You download your connections from LinkedIn, choose the .zip file in Groupthink, and pick who comes in before anything is added.

Groupthink does not connect to your LinkedIn account. It reads only the file you choose.

Summary

• Start from Import people on the Relationships page and pick LinkedIn connections.
• The import screen shows the steps for getting your connections file from LinkedIn, with a link to LinkedIn's data export page.
• Choose the .zip file from LinkedIn as it is, or drag it onto the import screen. You don't need to unzip it. From a .zip, Groupthink reads only Connections.csv. The other files in your LinkedIn export are not opened.
• Groupthink recognises the file and shows you everyone in it, split into new people and people you already have.
• You tick who comes in, and can search the list to find someone. The file's name, email, company, position, URL and Connected On columns are set up for you.
• A file can be up to 4 MB and hold up to 50,000 people. For a .zip, that means the .zip and the Connections.csv inside it.

Import Your Connections

1. Go to the Relationships page and click Import people in the toolbar. If you have no contacts yet, click Import people from a file under the main button instead.
2. Under Where are they coming from?, pick LinkedIn connections. The steps for getting the file from LinkedIn appear under it. See Getting the File from LinkedIn.
3. Click Choose file and pick the .zip file you downloaded from LinkedIn, or drag the file onto the import screen and let go. If you already unzipped it, pick the Connections.csv file instead. See Dragging the File In.
4. Check the list. Above it, Groupthink names your file and says how many people are in it, and that it is a LinkedIn connections export.
5. Tick who to bring in, then click Import. The button says how many people you ticked. To find someone in a long list, use the search box. See Searching the List.

When the import finishes, you see who was added and anything that was not. After an Import covers that screen.

Find Everyone from LinkedIn

Once the import has added someone, the Relationships page has a From LinkedIn filter with the other filters above the list, with a count of the people it lists. Click it to see only the people a LinkedIn import added, and click it again to see everyone. The screen at the end of an import has a See everyone from LinkedIn button that opens the list with the filter on.

Getting the File from LinkedIn

When you pick LinkedIn connections, the import screen shows these steps, with a link that opens LinkedIn's data export page in a new tab:

1. On LinkedIn, open Settings, then Data privacy, then Get a copy of your data, and ask for Connections. The link on the import screen takes you straight to that page.
2. LinkedIn emails you a link to a .zip file. Download it. The screen notes that the email can take about 10 minutes to arrive.
3. In Groupthink, choose the .zip as it is. The screen says there is no need to unzip it.

The link opens in a new tab, so the import screen stays where you left it while you wait for LinkedIn.

Dragging the File In

Instead of clicking Choose file, you can drag the .zip (or Connections.csv) onto the import screen, over the part that holds Where are they coming from? and the Choose file button. A dashed outline appears and the text beside the button tells you to drop the file. Let go, and Groupthink reads it the same way as a file you chose, with the same size limits.

Dragging works only while you are choosing a file. To switch files once the list is showing, click Choose a different file.

What Comes In

Groupthink sets up the columns of a LinkedIn file for you:

• First Name and Last Name become the person's name.
• Email Address becomes their email.
• Company becomes their company.
• Position becomes their job title.
• URL becomes the link to their LinkedIn profile. Its menu reads LinkedIn link.
• Connected On becomes a dated entry on their page that reads Connected on LinkedIn with the month and year you connected. Its menu reads Connected on LinkedIn.

Groupthink saves the names, emails, companies, job titles, LinkedIn links and connection dates from the file. LinkedIn includes emails only for connections who allow it, so many people may come in without an email.

Each column shows a few sample values and a menu. If a column is set to something you don't want, change it or choose Don't import, then click Update the list below before you import. Import Columns lists every choice.

On the person's page

After the import, the person's page shows:

• Added from LinkedIn under the About heading, for someone the import added.
• A LinkedIn row under Details on the right, with their profile link. Click the link to open the profile in a new tab. Until you confirm it, the row says From LinkedIn, with a Confirm button.
• The Connected on LinkedIn entry in Past interactions, at the date you connected. It never counts as being in touch, so it does not change when you last spoke. It has no edit or delete, and importing the file again does not add a second one.

Adding your own notes

To add notes, unzip the download first. Add a column headed Notes to the Connections.csv file, write a note next to anyone you want to remember something about, then choose that file instead of the .zip. Groupthink sets that column to Note about them. Each filled-in cell becomes a note on that person's page, dated the day you imported. Importing the same file again does not add the same note twice. See Import Columns.

Who You Already Have

Before anything is added, the list splits your connections into groups:

• New people start ticked.
• Adds to people you already have lists connections that share an email address or a LinkedIn profile link with someone in Groupthink. Each says what matched and who, such as Same LinkedIn link as followed by their name, linked to their page. These start unticked, so tick the ones that are the same person. Where the file says something different from what you have, yours stays unless you tick Use the file's value on that detail.
• A new person with the same name as someone you already have is marked Possible duplicate and starts unticked. Tick them if they are a different person.

Each group has Tick all and Untick all. Who an Import Brings In explains each group in full.

Searching the List

Above the list there is a search box. Type part of a name, email, phone number, company or job title, and the list shows only the connections that match, in their usual groups. Case doesn't matter.

While you search:

• A line under the box says how many of the file's people are shown, or that no one matches.
• Tick all and Untick all change only the people shown.
• Searching never ticks or unticks anyone. Everyone ticked is imported when you click Import, whether the search shows them or not.

Clear the search box to see everyone again.

Large Files

A file can be up to 4 MB and hold up to 50,000 people. A file of more than 5,000 people takes longer: the screen shows how far Groupthink has got while it reads the file. For a file of up to 5,000 people, nothing from it is saved until you click Import, and then only the people you ticked. A file of more than 5,000 people is stored encrypted while a queued job reads it, then deleted, and the people matched from it are kept for about 3 days so you can import them. From a .zip, that is only its Connections.csv.

If a file is too large, the screen says what to do instead:

• A .zip larger than 4 MB: unzip it and choose Connections.csv from inside it.
• A .zip whose Connections.csv is larger than 4 MB, or a Connections.csv larger than 4 MB: split Connections.csv into smaller files and import each one.

If the .zip doesn't work, the screen says why and what to do:

• It has no Connections.csv in it: choose the .zip LinkedIn emailed you, or unzip it and choose Connections.csv. If your export has no Connections, ask LinkedIn for a copy that includes them.
• Groupthink can't open it: download your LinkedIn export again and choose the new .zip, or unzip it and choose Connections.csv.
• It holds another .zip: unzip it, then choose the LinkedIn export inside, or choose Connections.csv itself.

Related

• Import People from a File - The same import for a spreadsheet or a contact card file (.vcf)
• Merging Duplicate Contacts - Fix someone who ended up in your contacts twice