Searching for People
As you’re building a network, it’s always best to start connecting with people you know first. Importing your existing contacts is just the first step of finding people to connect with through LinkedIn. There are certainly more people that you know on LinkedIn than people you have in your contact list.
Furthermore, LinkedIn can only find your contacts if the email addresses you have for them match the email addresses in their LinkedIn profiles. People change their email addresses all the time and most people have more than one email account. If all of those email addresses aren’t listed in their account profiles, you might not find them when you import your contact list. That’s where your search for people on LinkedIn begins!
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One of the simplest ways to search for a person on LinkedIn is to enter their name into the search box in the top-right corner of your screen when you’re signed in to your LinkedIn account. (Make sure the People option to the left of the search box is selected.) However this isn’t always effective, particularly if you’re searching for someone with a common name. Don’t worry! Your search has just begun.
Finding Colleagues, Classmates, and People You May Know
Fortunately, LinkedIn offers a variety of other ways to find people. When you visit the Add Connections page in your LinkedIn account as shown in Figure 5.2, you can click on any of the tabs at the top of the page to search for people.
Just click the Colleagues tab to search for people on LinkedIn who have worked at the same companies that appear in your LinkedIn profile. You can also click the Classmates tab to find people who have attended the same schools that appear in your LinkedIn profile. You can click the People You May Know tab to access a list of people that LinkedIn thinks you might know based on the information included in your LinkedIn profile (such as industry, company, school, and so on). You can find a lot of people quickly using these search features.
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Don’t hesitate to follow trails on LinkedIn to find people. For example, look at who your own connections are linked to and follow links to second- and third-degree connections when you see them. There is a huge audience of people on LinkedIn who could be very interested in networking with you!
Advanced People Search
The Advanced Search tools on LinkedIn are where you can really get into detailed searches for people. Click the Advanced link to the right of the search box in the top-right corner of your screen when you’re logged in to your LinkedIn account. The Advanced Search screen opens with the Advanced People Search tab already selected from the tabs at the top of the screen as shown in Figure 5.4.
Figure 5.4: You can find people using a wide variety of variables through the Advanced People Search tool.
Now it’s time to get serious about finding people on LinkedIn! Scroll through the Advanced People Search form and notice the many ways you can narrow your people searches to find specific people. Basic account holders can select from the following search options:
• Keywords
• First Name
• Last Name
• Location
• Country
• Postal Code (use the Within drop-down menu to narrow your results to a specific geographic radius)
• Title (use the Current or past drop-down menu to narrow your results)
• Company (use the Current or past drop-down menu to narrow your results)
• School
• Groups
• Relationship
• Language
• Sort By (use the drop-down menu to sort results by Relevance, Relationship, Relationship + Recommendations, Connections, or Keywords)
• Views (you can see results in basic or expanded view)
• Premium account holders can also search using Function, Company Size, Seniority Level, Interested In, Years of Experience, Recently Joined, and Fortune 1000 filters
To the right of the varied Advanced People Search form options are additional criteria that are in beta as of this writing. Look for these additional options to be available when you conduct your own searches, as they’ll help narrow your results even more.
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The LinkedIn Advanced Search tool does not allow wildcard searches, but it does support some common search techniques. For example, you can:
• Surround keywords with quotes to search for a complete phrase.
• Exclude results with specific keywords by entering NOT before the keyword.
• Narrow results to those that include one or two keywords by entering OR between the two keywords.
• Find results that include two different keywords (not necessarily together as a single phrase) by entering AND between the words.
• Find results that combine several terms by using parentheses with the preceding options. For example, you can search on CEO OR (president AND corporation).
Find People
Another way to search for people on LinkedIn is to click the Find People tab in the Advanced Search section of LinkedIn. When you click on the tab (shown in Figure 5.4), the Find People page opens, which you can see in Figure 5.5.
Figure 5.5: Use the Find People tools to find people within your extended LinkedIn network.
The Find People tool makes it easy for you to find your first-, second-, and third-degree connections as well as people you’re connected to through groups that you belong to. This is a powerful tool to locate people in your existing extended network so you can send invitations to connect with them. Once you’re connected, you can jump-start or deepen your relationships with them.
The Find People tool offers a variety of useful filters to help you narrow the list of people provided:
• Search (click the More link to reveal the search fields available in the Advanced People Search section discussed in the “Advanced People Search” section of this chapter)
• Current Company
• Relationship
• Location
• Industry
• Past Company
• School
• Profile Language
• Premium account filters and beta filters include Groups, Years of Experience, Function, Seniority Level, Interested In, Company Size, Fortune 1000, and Recently Joined (upgrading your account is discussed in Chapter 16)
For each of the search options listed above, click the Show More link to select from a list of choices or enter custom criteria.
You can search through your hundreds or thousands of extended network connections using these search options. For example, following are five strategic searches you could conduct to find people who can help you build your LinkedIn network for indirect business-to-business marketing purposes:
• Search by Industry and Location to find people in a specific geographic area who work in industries that your business targets.
• Search by Industry and Title (click the More link under the search text box in the upper-left corner of the Find People page as shown in Figure 5.5 to reveal the Title search feature) to connect with purchasing managers, executives, or other individuals and decision-makers who might be interested in the type of work you do.
• Search by Company name to find everyone who currently works for a specific company that you want to connect with. Next, find the most appropriate people on that list to help you meet your goals and send invitation requests to them.
• Search by Current Company and Past Company to find people who work for or worked for your competitors. Next, browse through their public profiles to see whom they’re connected with (there are likely to be some people you should also connect with in those lists).
• Search by Industry, Postal Code, Distance Within, and Keywords to find people who are highly focused on your area of business and live or work in a specific area.
The search options offered by LinkedIn are extremely useful. They can help you find business partners, vendors, investors, employees, a job, customers, publicity opportunities, and more. Don’t underestimate the power of finding and connecting to people in your extended LinkedIn network and beyond.
Reference Search and Saved Searches
In the Advanced Search section of your LinkedIn account (shown in Figure 5.4), you can find people by clicking on the Reference Search tab to open the page shown in Figure 5.6. Keep in mind, the Reference Search tool is only available to people with paid accounts.
If you have the frequent need to confirm work history for people or find references for people who worked at the same company during the same period, then the Reference Search tool might be useful to you. Just enter the company name, candidate name, and dates of employment into the Reference Search form, and a list of references is delivered to you.
Figure 5.6: Search for job applicant or business prospect references through LinkedIn Reference Search (paid accounts only).
Basic LinkedIn account holders can also save up to three searches. Just search on a name or keyword using the Advanced People Search form discussed earlier in this chapter and click the Save button at the top of the results page. Your saved searches appear on the Saved Searches page shown in Figure 5.7.
Figure 5.7: Basic LinkedIn account users can save up to three searches.
Once you save a search, you can also set up an email alert so you’re notified each time a new LinkedIn member adds or changes a profile to match your search. If you need to save more searches and alerts, you can upgrade to a paid account as discussed in Chapter 16.
Title Directory
If you want to find people who hold specific types of jobs, you can use the Advanced Search tools discussed earlier in this chapter, or you can browse through the Title Directory at: linkedin.com/directory/title/.
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This directory is challenging to navigate, but it could lead you to profiles that you might not stumble upon otherwise. You can browse the directory by title, or you can browse titles included in the directory by region or company. With each click of the mouse on a link in the directory, your results get more and more targeted until a list of matching profiles is delivered.
Group Members
If you belong to groups on LinkedIn, which are discussed in detail in Chapter 7, then you have additional ways to find more people on LinkedIn. Not only do group members appear in your extended network in the Find People tab of the Advanced Search tool discussed earlier in this chapter, but you can also search through group members as you interact within the group.
You don’t have to have a first-degree connection with another group member in order to send them a connection request or private message. Don’t just think of joining groups as a way to interact within the group setting, it’s also a great way to find new people to connect with directly and deepen relationships outside the group discussions.