Finding Facebook friends on LinkedIn with Social Bridge

I want to choose who I invite into my professional network. LinkedIn cannot import my selection of Facebook friends, so I have to look up their profiles one name at a time.

I built Social Bridge, a browser extension for Firefox and Chrome. It opens LinkedIn searches and saves my decisions, so I do not have to retype names or remember which contacts I have checked.

I import a contact list from a Facebook data export and choose the categories to review.

Social Bridge opens a LinkedIn search for the first name. I review the results and select “Found” or “Not found”. The extension saves my decision and searches for the next name. I send connection requests myself, directly on LinkedIn.

While reviewing contacts, the extension also enlarges profile photos in LinkedIn search results, making it easier to recognise the right person. If I cannot remember someone, I use the Facebook icon to search for their name. Their photo in the results can help me recognise them.

You can add a note to a contact, such as why you want to get in touch. A star marks people you want to return to later.

I have grown my LinkedIn network by connecting with selected Facebook friends. I can follow their work and get in touch when a shared interest or an opportunity to collaborate comes up. A wider network can also bring fresh ideas or referrals.

While adding friends, I reached LinkedIn’s weekly limit for sending connection requests. LinkedIn asked me to try sending more invitations the following week. I could not find a verified figure for the exact number of invitations allowed. LinkedIn Help on invitation limits.

I load the extension from prepared files on my computer.

Firefox

Chrome

During development, I followed the principle: Private by design. Reviewed by you. I store contacts and notes in the browser on my computer without running my own server. During a search, the name is passed to LinkedIn or Facebook in the page URL. Outside these searches, Social Bridge does not send names anywhere else.

I do not publish this independent project on Firefox Add-ons or the Chrome Web Store. If you would also like to grow your LinkedIn network and are interested in the extension, please contact me.