Using LinkedIn Like a Pro (Going Past 50 Groups & 100 Search Results)

You could really have a whole volume of books on the power of LinkedIn to assist in the search for a new opportunity (maybe that’s why there so many in publication right now) , however, with all that comes with LinkedIn there are also some limitations.

Two examples that can hinder how you use LinkedIn are the fact that you are limited in the number of groups you are allowed to join and the number of search results you can see if you have a free account.

Today we are going to take a look at how to get past that and really use LinkedIn to your advantage.

PLEASE NOTE – everything discussed below assumes that you have at least a moderate understanding of all things LinkedIn. If you do not please look at the following resources first.

How to Get Started With LinkedIn
How to Use LinkedIn
Starting a Conversation With Groups
100+ Smart Ways to Use LinkedIn
LinkedIn Groups Add Marketing Power

GOING PAST 50 GROUPS. Groups are (in my opinion) one of the most (if not THE most) important piece of what LinkedIn has to offer both the job-seeker and recruiter. They allow you to start / follow / respond to discussions, view job opportunities, and message members of the group for free within LinkedIn.

Two big limitations within groups are that you can only join 50 which can be a real bummer and the fact that in some groups it is hard to get people fully engaged in dialogue with you if they are very diverse geographically or in function/industry.

The best (and only way) to get around both issues is to join sub-groups (a sub-group of a main group). Now, not every group will have subgroups but many do.

LinkedIn describes subgroups like “breakout sessions at a conference” – they are a space within a group where members can collaborate based on a function, project, topic, location (really anything you wish) within personalized audiences.

In addition to the 50 groups mentioned earlier you can also join 50 subgroups for a total of 100 groups combined. That is a lot of networking potential!

Here are some resources on subgroups that give additional ideas on how to use them:

Good Idea: LinkedIn Subgroups & How to Use Them
Using LinkedIn Subgroups for Business
Linkedin Sub-Groups – Just Like a Group, Just Special

GOING PAST 100 RESULTS IN A SEARCH. If you are using the free version of LinkedIn (which you should be using) one of the biggest limitations is the fact that you can only view 100 results in any search you do no matter how many come back.

The easiest way to get around that is to use on of my favorite recruiting tools – the site: (aka x-ray) search command within Google combined with some basic Boolean search (for a full list of Boolean and Google commands check check this out).

To x-ray LinkedIn with Google you would type site:linkedin keyword(s) into the Google search box. The search below used the search string site:linkedin.com (“recruiting manager” OR “recruiting director) “greater nashville area” -dir -jobs to come up with 951 results that are all viewable (again, you would be stopped at result number 100 within LinkedIn). 

If you are really into understanding how stuff works here is a breakdown of the commands:

• site:linkedin.com told Google that the results had to come from within LinkedIn
• “recruiting manager” (the word recruiting followed by the word manager) OR “recruiting director” (the word recruiting followed by the word director) search within LinkedIn for profiles that had either because of the word OR
• “greater Nashville area” limited those results to those that were in the Nashville, TN area (greater Nashville area is LinkedIn’s way of defining the Nashville metro area)
• -dir -jobs limit the results to actual profiles only by telling Google to leave out any directory pages (-dir) and jobs pages

If you are not utilizing LinkedIn heavily into your job-search strategy you are missing the boat (and probably the Pacific Ocean as well) in terms of the here and now. It seems like whatever the limitation associated with have a free account there are ways around it if you have a little know-how and do a little digging.

In closing I wanted to share a couple of videos with you on LinkedIn that we found pretty useful.

 

Until next time – good hunting and good luck!

Searching Out Gold

In terms of the job-search and recruiting processes there is no greater treasure than finding a good candidate or a good recruiter – both can have a positive effect on a search.

There seems to be some level of confusion amongst both sides as to where to put themselves to be searchable online by the other which is why in our recent survey of (again) 633 job-seekers, 553 recruiters (264 corporate, 215 contingent, 72 retained) and 119 career coaches / counselors we asked how often recruiters and job-seekers use a wide variety of online tools to search out the other.

A couple of things to keep in mind:

1) On graphs below - the higher the bar, the more frequently used the tool

2) It is a good idea to have a general understanding of how the different types of recruiters work – click here for an overview

The first graphic below shows a wide variety of tools that many job-seekers and recruiters use to search the other side out. I think it is important to notice here that job-board databases are used nearly as much by both sides as corporate websites/internal databases.

Below you will find how often both sides use social networking tools to find the other for hiring/search purposes.

No surprise that LinkedIn was number one and that both groups and answers rank highly but it was a little surprising to see Facebook ranked so high and that MySpace still has any audience for professional purposes.

If you were to look at the two charts side by side you would find that LinkedIn and LinkedIn Groups rank up there with job-board sites, internal databases, and corporate career sites, and that Facebook ranks up there with Google/Yahoo and the other databases from the first chart.

A few take aways are important here:

1. Recruiters are using job-board databases so all of you job-seekers who refuse to post your résumé on the job-boards take note and read our previous post on the topic here.
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2. Both recruiters and job-seekers need to realise the importance of the social networking tools to find the other (including Facebook and Twitter).
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3. Recruiters are using search engines to find candidates who own and maintain their own website. If you have not invested in that yet it is worth your time.
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4. Many college and community career centers and outplacement providers have databases of both job-seekers and recruiters – be a part of them and utilize them.

Speaking of searching people out online – please feel free to connect with me on the following (click on the social network to link):

LinkedIn

Facebook

Twitter

MySpace

Until next time, good hunting and good luck!