FIGURE 8–10. Viewing 2nd-Degree Mutual Connections in Sales Navigator
I prefer to use the Advanced Search for Leads when I’m looking for very specific information about a person or company. In this example in Figure 8–11 on page 88, you could do an Advanced Search to find C-level executives, managers, and directors in companies that have between 501 and 1,000 employees located within 25 miles of downtown San Francisco. If you notice a manager or director from a company with “CRM” in their profile, it’s a good idea to connect with them and start a dialogue. To see the search results for this specific search, see Figure 8–12 on page 89.
You can see your relationship to them and ask for introductions from your 1st-degree connections when the time is right. You can also modify your search to focus on specific companies once you know which companies are researching new CRM systems.
There are also hundreds of ways to slice and dice your searches using the Advanced People Search. We don’t have enough room in this book to get into every combination of searches you can do, but here are the high-level categories offered in the Advanced People Search:
FIGURE 8–11. Selecting CXO-Level People Within 25 Miles of Downtown San Francisco
■ Keywords
■ First name
■ Last name
■ Title
■ Current company
■ Past company
■ School
■ Geography
■ Industries
■ Seniority level
■ Groups
FIGURE 8–12. Viewing the Results of Your Search Specifications
■ Relationship
■ Interested in
■ Language
■ Company size
■ When joined
Within each of these high-level categories, you can select many subcategories, making your filtering options almost limitless. You have access to the world’s largest—and highest-quality—business intelligence database. Use it!
Saved Searches
Over time, you will create custom Advanced Lead Searches that return great results. With a free or LinkedIn Premium account, you can no longer save searches. You need to upgrade to Sales Navigator to be able to save your best searches. Once you save a search, it runs 24/7, finding new prospects literally while you sleep. This is very handy because it can take a lot of time to refine your searches to achieve your desired results. New leads are delivered to your inbox automatically when you use Saved Searches.
ADVANCED JOB SEARCH
Advanced Search is also useful for finding jobs. You can search for jobs using job title, keywords, or company name in the basic Jobs Search box. LinkedIn also provides advanced search capabilities in Jobs. The filters work the same way as the Advanced People Search filters, but they are tailored to help you narrow down your search results when looking for a new job. A great trick is to use the Advanced Job Search when you are looking to hire new employees. Search for jobs similar to the one you want to fill and see how other companies describe it, what skills and keywords they are using, and how they position the job. You can learn a lot by “spying” on your competitors.
You can filter your job search by the following categories:
■ Keywords (located in the main search bar at the top of the page)
■ Date Posted
■ Salary
■ LinkedIn Features
■ Job Type
■ Location
■ Company
■ Industry
■ Job Function
■ Experience Level
■ Title
Each of these categories has numerous subcategories to help you zero in on jobs compatible for you that will pay the salary you want. The Advanced Job Search is a great tool, considering LinkedIn is becoming the top place for companies to post jobs and for people to find new jobs.
LinkedIn Jobs also lets you save your favorite searches in the Create Search Alert tab. When you find jobs you are interested in, you can save them in the Saved Jobs tab.
CONCLUSION
You now know more about LinkedIn Search and Advanced Search than 90 percent of all LinkedIn members, even though we’ve just scratched the surface of what you can do with these advanced search capabilities and a database of more than 500 million business professionals. Play around with LinkedIn Search and see what you can uncover in the treasure trove of business intelligence.
I’ll show you some more advanced tricks later in the book when I teach you how different users approach LinkedIn, such as students, sales reps, recruiters, and job seekers. For now, take a short break and practice your LinkedIn searching while it’s still fresh in your mind. Then move on to the next chapter, where I will show you how to get found on LinkedIn.
For additional updates and how-to videos, visit https://tedprodromou.com/UltimateGuideUpdates/.
Chapter 9
Getting Found on LinkedIn
What do you do when you want to learn more about a product or service? I bet the first thing you do is go to Google and search the internet. With so much data available to us today, search engines are an integral part of our life. When you use Google, you can find information about literally anything in seconds. The word “Google” is so ingrained in our culture that it’s now used as a verb.
Search has evolved beyond the desktop computer with many of our inquiries being voice driven, through our smartphones and at-home devices. It’s only a matter of time before we pull up our LinkedIn app and request, “LinkedIn, find me a business coach in San Francisco.”
The problem with broad searches, however, is that you get a broad result. If you search for “web marketing consultant,” Google doesn’t know if you want to hire a web marketing consultant or if you’re trying to find out how to become a web marketing consultant. Google can’t read our minds yet—but it’s getting pretty close!
When you search LinkedIn for “web marketing consultant,” chances are your search result will show you a list of web marketing consultants and jobs for “web marketing consultants.” By narrowing your search, say, by searching for “web marketing consultant New York,” you can generate a more targeted list that may give you the result you need.
LinkedIn is a vertical search engine. A vertical search engine shows you very focused results based on the keywords you search for. This is why it’s so important to use your target keywords when creating your own LinkedIn personal and company profiles. You want to be found.
“What are target keywords,” you ask. Target keywords are the phrases or specific skills you enter into a search engine to find targeted results. The more specific your keyword phrases are, the better your search results will be. This is why it’s essential to use all 50 skills in your LinkedIn profile because they are the keyword phrases people use to find you. If someone did a Google search to find you or your business, what keywords would she have to enter?
Optimizing your LinkedIn profile by using these keywords is similar to the process used to optimize your website or blog so you can rank highly in Google. Optimizing your LinkedIn profile doesn’t just help people find your profile through the search function; it also helps LinkedIn recommend people to connect with, companies you may be interested in, or your perfect job. LinkedIn scans your profile and uses your keyword phrases to make targeted recommendations for you. The more targeted your profile is, the more targeted LinkedIn’s suggestions will be. Once your profile is fine-tuned, you will see targeted recommendations in your sidebar every time you log in.
The LinkedIn algorithm is a very powerful artificial intelligence tool. Let’s explore how to use it to your advantage, starting with how to make these keywords do the heavy lifting for you.
KEYWORD SELECTION
The most important component of search engine optimization is keyword selection. Search engines use keywords and phrases to find and rank websites by following an algorithm, or set of rules.
The algorithms for the various search engines are not exactly
the same, which is why searching the same keyword brings different results. However, they follow very similar processes. Most of the search engines rank websites based on where and how often a particular keyword is used on the website. They will rank a website higher if, for example, the keyword is used in the title, if it is placed near the top of the page, and if it is used often.
LINKEDIN SEO TIP
To increase your chances of having your LinkedIn profile rank highly, use your keywords in these sections of your profile:
■ Profile headline
■ Current work experience
■ Past work experience
■ Summary
■ Skills
FIGURE 9–1. Keyword Worksheet
Use the worksheet in Figure 9–1 to create a list of at least ten keyword phrases that best describe you and your expertise. The more focused your keyword phrases are, the more your profile will stand out.
If you are like most people, you have a hard time describing your skills and areas of expertise, so you’re probably struggling to come up with your keyword list. If you’re finding it difficult to come up with a list of what you’re really good at, ask your friends or colleagues. They’ll be glad to tell you what you’re good at (and what you’re not so good at, if you’re brave enough to ask!).
COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS
One of my favorite ways to compile keyword lists is to look at my competitors’ and colleagues’ profiles to see what keywords they use to make their profiles stand out.
Let’s say you’re a certified public accountant in San Francisco and you want to see which keywords are being used in the profiles of the top search results. Start by doing a search on LinkedIn using “CPA” as your keyword and your city in the Location field. Leave the rest of the search boxes empty and click on Search as shown in Figure 9–2 on page 96.
FIGURE 9–2. Advanced People Search for a CPA Located in the San Francisco Bay Area
Your search results will show the top rankings for LinkedIn members who have the letters “CPA” in their profile. In the past, you used to be able to sort by relevance, keywords, and other options, but LinkedIn discontinued the sort feature because it was rarely used. LinkedIn will rank the search results based on your search criteria, as shown in Figure 9–3 on page 97.
As you can see, the top search results have a few things in common. All the top results contain “CPA” at or near the beginning of their profile headline or in the last name field. In this search result, LinkedIn is only showing me CPAs in my 3rd degree, so the only way for me to reach them is to send them an InMail to see if they are interested in connecting or or if they want to get together do discuss referring business to each other.
FIGURE 9–3. Your Search Results for CPA
You can modify your original search so you can see 1st-, 2nd-, and 3rd-degree connections, to see how they are ranking on the first page. In the Connections tab, select 1st, 2nd, 3rd+ as shown in Figure 9–4 below, and you can see the difference.
FIGURE 9–4. Sort by Connections Search Result
LINKEDIN RANKING FACTORS
My clients and students frequently ask me what determines their search rankings on LinkedIn. Some of the ranking factors are obvious, such as using your target keywords in your last name field, profile headline, and summary. However, LinkedIn won’t officially reveal exactly what determines our search ranking, partly because it’s a proprietary secret and partly because it’s more technical than most LinkedIn users want to know.
If you’re into technical details, here’s what LinkedIn is willing to tell us. (More on search rankings can be found at https://www.linkedin.com/help/linkedin/answer/4447.)
According to LinkedIn, the site “uses proprietary algorithms to rank and order the results you get when you search for people on the site.” The site notes three main points about how the algorithm works:
1. You will not see one rank for LinkedIn search. Instead, the site generates unique “relevance scores” for each member. The order of each query is determined by several factors, including profile, activity, and connections of the person searching. It’s a good idea to track your profile views to see how they affect your ranking. You can learn more about how to do this on the Who’s Viewed Your Profile section of your homepage.
2. Searcher relevance, a proprietary algorithm, is based on several factors, including the searcher’s activity on LinkedIn, query profile results, and the history of other members who have run similar searches.
3. Choose your keywords wisely. LinkedIn advises that you “only include the keywords, including repeated keywords, in your profile that best reflect your expertise and experience.”
LinkedIn rewards you with All Star status when you fill out each profile section including Background, Skills, Accomplishments and Additional Information which includes some Recommendations from your LinkedIn network.
LINKEDIN HASHTAG COMMUNITIES
Another way to bump up your discoverability is by using hashtags. Hashtags are back on LinkedIn in a big way. Over the years, LinkedIn has gone back and forth on recognizing hashtags as a way to associate your content with specific niches and topics. In 2018, LinkedIn announced hashtag communities as the replacement for LinkedIn Topics. Confused? Me too!
Let me go back in time to explain the evolution of Topics and hashtags. In 2013, LinkedIn acquired Pulse, which was an app that let you subscribe to various content on the internet. Newsfeed apps like Pulse let you create your own personal newspaper with custom content. You could subscribe to content from The New York Times, CNBC, USA Today, and any other popular online news source. You could also subscribe to your favorite blogs and see your custom newsfeed on the Pulse app.
As LinkedIn integrated Pulse into its system, you could also follow Influencers and other LinkedIn members on Pulse by subscribing to their content. After LinkedIn encouraged its members to start posting articles, content distribution exploded. Today, more than 100,000 articles are published on LinkedIn every day.
At the end of every article you posted on LinkedIn, you could add tags, which evolved into hashtags simply by adding # at the beginning. The more hashtags you added to an article, the more viewers you might attract. LinkedIn eventually added the ability for us to follow tags, which became known as Topics.
LinkedIn then eliminated Topics and replaced them with good old hashtags. Who knows why LinkedIn keeps changing the terminology, but the concept remains the same. You can follow people and hashtags related to the type of content you want to see in your newsfeed.
Figure 9–5 below shows some LinkedIn communities based on hashtag topics. LinkedIn initially assigns you some specific hashtags or content based on your previous activity; then you can adjust the content you want to follow. Select the pencil icon next to Your Communities and pin your favorite hashtags by clicking on the pin icon.
FIGURE 9–5. LinkedIn Hashtag Communities
FIGURE 9–6. Following Additional LinkedIn Hashtags
Figure 9–6 shows you how to follow additional hashtags. They won’t be pinned to the top of your hashtag list, but relevant content will still appear in your newsfeed. If you don’t see relevant hashtags in this list, go back to the main Search box at the top of the page and type # followed by keywords or skills related to your niche. For example, type #coaching to bring up all coaching-related hashtags and follow the appropriate ones as they appear.
LINKEDIN TOPICS
As I mentioned earlier, LinkedIn keeps flip-flopping on the terminology, but the concept doesn’t change. Whether you call them keywords, skills, topics, tags, or hashtags, people want to keep up with trending news about their industry and hone their skills to remain in demand.
I love to dig into the LinkedIn website and often find hidden treasures that way. One of these is a complete directory of the Topics on LinkedIn. I don’t know why it doesn’t publicize this (maybe it’s because LinkedIn replaced the Topics tags with regular old hashtags and wanted to avoid confusion), but I’m going to show
you how to use this to your advantage. You can see the full directory at www.linkedin.com/directory/topics. Figure 9–7 on page 101 gives you a quick snapshot.
FIGURE 9–7. LinkedIn Topics Directory
Let’s dig deeper into the Social Media Marketing Topic, shown in Figure 9–8 on page 102. On the initial screen, LinkedIn shows the top companies that provide social media marketing. As you can see, there are a total of 10,466,744 LinkedIn members—including 82,498 freelancers—who focus on social media marketing or have that skill and/or keyword in their profile. That’s a lot of competition.
How do you position yourself as an expert in social media marketing? Look at the Top Skills below the Social Media Marketing at a Glance diagrams. These are the skills you need to be a top social media marketer, including email marketing, social media measurement, pay-per-click (PPC), mobile marketing, online advertising, and more. You can scroll to the right to see additional skills you need.
LinkedIn also shows you the top universities where you can learn these skills and a broad breakdown of the skills your competitors display in their profiles, including social media, marketing, marketing strategy, customer service, and Microsoft Office.
FIGURE 9–8. Social Media Marketing Topic
LINKEDIN PROFINDER
If you aren’t interested in learning how to do social media marketing (or any other field of expertise), you can hire a professional with those skills using LinkedIn ProFinder. Chances are you aren’t familiar with LinkedIn ProFinder unless you are a freelancer. You can create a profile for your business to promote your services, and LinkedIn adds you to the LinkedIn ProFinder directory. When people search for the kind of skills you offer, they will see your profile and may reach out to you to see if you are a good fit for their project. Figure 9–9 on page 103 shows what LinkedIn ProFinder looks like.
Ultimate Guide to LinkedIn for Business Page 9
