My friend, Julian, recently pinged and asked me to make a third-level introduction on LinkedIn.

A what?

A third-level introduction is basically introducing a friend to a friend-of-a-friend. But it’s not as easy at it sounds. Julian is in my LinkedIn network and wanted to meet someone outside of my network and who is connected to me by another guy in my network. Still following? I was confused so I drew a map:

I’ll be honest. If Julian wasn’t such a dear friend, I wouldn’t have bothered. Turns out that there is no convenient way to make a third-level intro on LinkedIn–no quick clicks to get the job done. This involved time, communication and follow-up. Here’s what I did:

Step 1: Figure out who my friend wants to meet

Turns out Julian wanted to meet Novak, who is a friend of a friend, or a second-level connection. Novak was not in my network so I couldn’t contact him directly. More investigation needed.

Step 2: Contact the middleman

So I contacted Nic, the person Novak and I have in common. Nic is in my network so I could contact him directly through the LinkedIn site. I asked Nic if he would be willing to make an introduction to his contact, Novak.

Step 3: The middleman contacts the target

Nic contacted Novak and asked if Novak would be willing to contact me. Since Nic and Novak are in the same network, this was done through the LinkedIn site–like how I contacted Nic.

Step 4: Target agrees to meet me

Novak replies back to Nic that he agrees to meet me. He gives his email address to Nic to give to me.

Step 5: Middleman replies to me with the good news

Nic replies to me that Novak is willing to meet and forwards Novak’s email address.

Step 6: Second-level contact made

I make direct contact with Novak, a second-level contact. I tell him about my friend, Julian, who wants to meet him.

Step 7: Go ahead

Novak replies back that he is willing to meet Julian, a third-level contact.

Step 8: The final connection

I reply to Novak and copy Julian so that they are now connected. Novak and Julian chat about their common interests.

Third-level communication totally sucks, but my job is done. All of this only took about four hours of my time spread over three weeks. Any better ideas out there of how to do this?