LESSON 7. Searching on LinkedIn

In this lesson, you learn about LinkedIn quick searches, searching for people, advanced search techniques, and the Profile Organizer.

Performing a Quick Search

LinkedIn is a large, complex network of information. You can greatly improve your chances of achieving your networking goals by learning how to find exactly what you want among millions of member profiles and many more millions of answers, job postings, and group discussions. The easiest way to search for information on LinkedIn is to use the search box on LinkedIn’s global navigation bar, shown in Figure 7.1.

Figure 7.1. Quickly search for information from anywhere on LinkedIn.

To perform a quick search, follow these steps:

1. Select the focus of your search from the drop-down list. Options include searching for people (the default), jobs, companies, answers, your Inbox, and groups.
2. Enter your search term in the text box. This might be a person’s name, company name, job title, job skill, or a keyword, for example.
3. Click the Search button (a small white magnifying glass on a blue button). LinkedIn displays search results. The format of the search results depends on the type of search you perform.

This lesson focuses on LinkedIn’s most popular search type (the people search) and advanced search techniques. To learn more about searching for jobs, companies, answers, your Inbox, and groups, refer to the lessons in this book that cover those topics.

Searching for People

The fastest way to search for people is to perform a quick search from the search box on LinkedIn’s global navigation bar. For example, let’s say that you’re searching for your former colleague Felice Mantei. Enter her name in the search box and click the Search button. Your search results appear, shown in Figure 7.2.

Figure 7.2. It’s easy to find colleagues and classmates on LinkedIn.

Each LinkedIn member who matches your search results appears in a preview box that includes a photo, name, headline, location, industry, and information about shared connections and groups. Depending on the preview you’re viewing, not all items might appear. For example, a member might choose not to upload a photo.

Icons appear to the right of each member’s name indicating their connection to you, such as a 1^st degree connection, 2^nd degree connection, 3^rd degree connection, or group member. For members who are out of your network, you might view the Out of Network designation next to their name or their name might be hidden from view.

Refer to Lesson 6, “Communicating with Other LinkedIn Members,” for a reminder of how LinkedIn classifies its members.

Hover over the preview of a specific LinkedIn member to view the available contact links. (The preview box turns blue.) Possible links include Send Message, Get Introduced, Send InMail, Add to Network, Find References, or Save Profile. The options available depend on your connection to the particular member. For example, it wouldn’t make sense for you to send InMail or get introduced to someone you already connect with. Refer to Lesson 6 for more information about the available options for contacting others on LinkedIn.

Narrowing People Search Results

When you search for the name of a specific individual, the search results should display a short list (unless the individual has a very common name). But what if you can’t remember someone’s last name or you’re searching for LinkedIn members who meet specific criteria such CPAs in the Indianapolis area? In this case, your search might return hundreds or even thousands of results, exceeding the 100-result viewing limits associated with a personal account.

There are two ways to handle this. One is to narrow the results that display on your search results page. The other is to perform an advanced search that targets very specific criteria.

On the search results page, you can sort the search results using the following criteria:

• Relevance: Displays search results in the order LinkedIn determines most appropriate based on keywords you enter and your network.

• Relationship: Displays search results based on their position in your network, in the following order: 1^st degree connections, 2^nd degree connections, fellow group members, and 3^rd degree connections that are combined with out-of-network connections.

• Relationship + Recommendations: Displays search results by relationship. Those that have the most recommendations are listed first for each relationship category.

• Connections: Displays search results based on the number of common connections.

• Keyword: Displays search results that match your keywords without considering their placement in your network.

You can also customize the member information you preview in your search results. The options are

• Basic: Displays a photo, name, professional headline, location, industry, and details about shared connections.

• Expanded: Displays all the information from the basic view and current and past employment details.

• Create a New View: Opens the Create a New View pop-up box (see Figure 7.3) in which you can specify the exact information you want to display in the preview. Options include the data you can see in Basic and Expanded views and recommendations, groups, and number of connections. Click the Save button to save your customized view for future use. Customized views are a premium feature for customers who upgrade to a paid account.

Figure 7.3. Customize exactly what you see in search results.

The other way to narrow search results is to click the Show More link in the Search box to display more options for narrowing your search, as shown in Figure 7.4.

Figure 7.4. Modify your search criteria to narrow your results.

In this box, you can narrow your search results by specifying any of the following criteria:

• Keywords: Enter a keyword that LinkedIn searches for in member profiles. The best keywords are terms that don’t fit any of the other search criteria and are specific words that a member might include on a profile. For example, entering a name or location wouldn’t be appropriate here, but terms such as Java, PMP, auditing, CPA, and so forth would work well.

• First Name: Enter the first name of the member you want to find.

• Last Name: Enter the last name of the member you want to find.

• Title: Enter a job title and specify in the drop-down list whether you want to search only for members who hold this title currently, in the past, or both currently and in the past.

• Company: Enter a company name and specify in the drop-down list whether you want to search only for members who work at this company currently, in the past, or both currently and in the past.

• School: Enter the name of a college or university.

• Location: Select a country, postal code, and distance range.

• Keep Filter Selections: Select this check box to save your choices in the search box.

Click the Search button to update the search results.

For even more search options, consider the choices in the Filter By box (below the Search box): Location, Relationship, Industry, Current Company, Past Company, School, or Profile Language. If you have a premium account, LinkedIn offers even more advanced search options such as Groups, Company Size, and Seniority Level. Again, click the Search button to update results.

Performing an Advanced People Search

If you want to search for very specific criteria, you can perform an advanced people search. An advanced search offers you the same options as the extended version of the Search box on the search results page, but you can perform it all in one step. For example, you might enter a search term in the quick search box and then decide to narrow your results. But if you already know that you want to search for specific keywords, companies, or locations, for example, an advanced search is a more streamlined option.

To perform an advanced people search, select the People option (if it’s not already selected by default) to the left of the search box that appears on the global navigation bar and click the Advanced link. Figure 7.5 shows the Advanced People Search page.

Figure 7.5. LinkedIn’s advanced people search options provide maximum flexibility in finding members who meet specific criteria.

Enter your search criteria on this page and click the Search button to display your search results. Refer to “Narrowing People Search Results,” earlier in this lesson for descriptions of each field on this page.

Saving a People Search

If you perform the same searches frequently, saving them can reduce redundant data entry. To save a search for future use, follow these steps:

1. Click the Save link on the search results page.
2. In the Save This People Search pop-up box, enter a search name for this search (see Figure 7.6).

   Figure 7.6. Saving a search saves you time.

   

3. In the Send Email Alert field, choose to receive email updates of your search results: Weekly, Monthly, or Never. You don’t have to receive updates by email, but this can be a time-saver if you’re very interested in following updates to your saved search. For example, recruiters might want to know about new LinkedIn members who match specific search criteria. Or job seekers might want to know about new LinkedIn members who work at companies they’re interested in working for.

   Note: LinkedIn Limits the Number of Searches You Can Save

   As a free basic account holder, you can save up to three searches and receive email updates either weekly or monthly. To save more searches, click the Upgrade Your Account link to sign up for a premium account. If you want to receive daily email updates on your saved searches, you must select the Pro account option.

4. Click the Save button to save your search.
5. Click the Close This Window link to close the confirmation pop-up box.

To edit or delete your saved searches, click the Saved Searches tab on the search results page.

Using Advanced Search Techniques

LinkedIn offers several techniques for narrowing your search results even further. You can use these techniques when performing a quick search or when using the Advanced People Search page. For example, you can search for phrases in quotation marks, use search operators such as NOT and OR, or enter complex criteria with a parenthetical search.

LinkedIn enables you to use specific search operators to define advanced criteria directly in the quick search box. For example, ccompany is the operator for current company and title is the operator for job title. Entering ccompany:Google title:director would quickly list all current Google employees with the title of director.

For more information about advanced search techniques, visit the LinkedIn Learning Center at http://learn.linkedin.com/linkedin-search. Scroll down the page to the “Advanced Search Tips” section.

Using the Profile Organizer

LinkedIn’s Profile Organizer enables you to save profiles of interest, sort them into folders, and add notes about your contact with the members whose profiles you save. This feature is particularly useful for recruiters, active job seekers, or people using LinkedIn for business development. You must have a premium LinkedIn account (this includes Job Seeker accounts) or sign up for a free Profile Organizer trial to use this useful tool. Depending on the plan you choose, you can maintain from 5 to 75 Profile Organizer folders.

Figure 7.7 shows a sample Profile Organizer view.

Figure 7.7. Save and manage LinkedIn member profiles with the Profile Organizer.

In the Profile Organizer, you can do the following:

• Add and view notes about each person whose profile you saved: Notes can contain up to 1,000 characters. This is a good place to flag profiles for follow-up, indicate where you met a particular contact, and so forth.

• Add profiles to folders: For example, you might want to create folders for potential recruitment prospects, potential clients, people you met at a conference, hiring managers at companies you want to work for, and so forth.

• Contact a LinkedIn member whose profile you saved: To view potential options, pause your mouse over the profile and view the contact options on the right side of the profile preview box. Depending on your connection to the person and what actions you’ve already taken, possible options include the following links: Send Message, Send InMail, Add Contact Info, Contact Information, Add a Note, Archive, and Delete.

To access Profile Organizer, select Profile Organizer from the Contacts drop-down menu on the global navigation bar. Click the Upgrade Now button to upgrade to a paid account immediately or click the Start a 30-Day Free Trial link to receive a 30-day free trial of the Profile Organizer. No credit card is required for the free trial.

Summary

In this lesson, you learned how to find information quickly and easily through LinkedIn’s advanced search capabilities. Next, you learn about several tools that also enhance searching and other aspects of your LinkedIn experience.