Have you ever wondered if you're missing some of the functions on LinkedIn that may help you with your business? It's hard to keep up with all of the changes and functionality on social media sites. It's something that my team and I do daily to make sure we stay up-to-date on all of the tricks, tips and changes.
Here are some of the best kept secrets (old and new) that include a special backdoor for adding new connections, how to send messages instead of paid InMails, extreme advanced search ninja tricks and much more. Each of these 19 LinkedIn tips are easy to implement immediately!
1. The Secret Backdoor To Adding Connections
If you want to connect with someone on LinkedIn, you've always had to say how you know them in your connection request. If you're trying to meet new people on LinkedIn, selecting a group you share in common was previously an option for saying how you know that person when connecting. That option has recently vanished.
Fear not. Brynne Tillman recently shared an excellent article showing you a backdoor trick for getting past it:
- Visit the profile of the person you are looking to connect with
- Click the star (relationship) button to save them as a connection
- Copy their name
- Click on Connections on the top bar
- Paste their name in the search bar in the middle of the page
- Hover below their location and click connect
- Type your note and send
(Source: Brynne Tillman)
2. How To Select "Groups" Under How Do I Know This Person
I also stumbled across another ninja trick to get around the missing Groups option when sending a connection request, after reading about another LinkedIn tip from Stacey Zapar. While trying out her advice, I discovered another backdoor to access the otherwise missing Groups option under the "How I know this person" prompt that comes up whenever you try to send someone a connection request.
If you want to select the group you share in common under How I know this person when sending a connection request, go through a LinkedIn Group and find someone you want to connect with and click on the name of the person (Do NOT hit Connect).
Instead click on their name to go directly to their profile and then click on the Connect button within their profile.
In the address bar, copy the part of the link that looks like this:
profile&key=5189572&firstName=Jason&lastName=Morrow.
Now you will paste the link provided below into your address bar, replacing the section from profile&key to the end of the last name.
http://www.linkedin.com/inviteFromProfile?from=profile&key=TheirIDNumber&FirstName=TheirFirstName&lastName=TheirLastName.
So if I was going to connect with Jason, it would look like:
http://www.linkedin.com/inviteFromProfile?from=profile&key=5189572&firstName=Jason&lastName=Morrow
This will open up a connection request where you can now select the Group you have in common.
3. Free InMails To LinkedIn Group Members
That's right, you can send FREE messages instead of expensive InMails to people that share the same LinkedIn Groups as you.
Go to any LinkedIn group you are a member of. Click the "Members" tab.
Look at your 2nd level connections inside the group's member list and you'll see an option that says "Send Message".
When you select "Send message", a message box will instantly open up that gives you a direct line to that individual's inbox.
4. Access More Than The First 500 Members of a Group
You might have noticed that when you go into the Members section of a group, that each page contains 20 members on it and you can click up to the first 25 pages. Of the connections listed on these first 25 pages, it lists your 1st degree connections first. This can make it difficult to find fellow group members to connect with, once you have connected with everyone you want to from the first 500 people.
To access the remainder of the members in your group or to find a specific set of people (for example based on location or title), use the search box on the top right side of the member's page.
For example, if I wanted to find people with the title VP Sales, type that into the search box. Now you can see 500 people based on this search term. You can also add a location or try searching using a first or last name.
5. View Your Group Activity
If you are a member of a lot of groups, it can be tough to remember what you posted or commented on in each Group. To get a quick view of your group activity, go to the group you want to look at and on the Discussion page, you will see the link "Your Activity", under your image.
Click on this link to see a list of everything you have posted, replied to, are following or have pending in that group.
6. Boolean Search
Similar to Google, most people have no idea that LinkedIn search allows the usage of modifiers to help you get even more targeted results.
Quotes
If you want to find results containing an exact phrase, use quotation marks to enclose the phrase. For example, "HR manager" or "environmental consultant".
AND
If you want to search for LinkedIn profiles that include two separate terms, use the word AND in capital letters between both terms when doing your search.
OR
If you want to combine results of two separate search terms, type OR in all upper-case letters between one or more terms. For example, Pepsi OR Coca-Cola.
Parenthetical
This is where things get interesting. You can combine multiple modifiers to get even more complex search results. For example, "software AND (engineer OR architect)".
NOT
Want to exclude results that contain a specific term? Use the word NOT in upper-case letters between terms you want excluded from results. For example, NOT "customer service".
For more help with LinkedIn Boolean Search, download this free PDF tip sheet. (Right-click and select "Save link as")
7. Use Saved Searches & Have LinkedIn Send You Leads Automatically
Once you've got advanced search settings that perfectly target your prospects on LinkedIn, you can save your search using the "Save Search" option.
LinkedIn will send new leads to your inbox based on preferences you decide and the search criteria you specify. Pretty awesome, huh?
8. Search For a Specific Position Within a Company
If you have a list of prospective companies and are looking for a specific position or title within the company, go to the Company's page and click on Employees.
Then, for example, if you are looking for a VP of Sales, click on Advanced on the left, just below Search and add VP Sales into the keywords section. This will bring up a list of the employees with VP Sales in their profiles. To further improve your results if you are looking for prospects, only search for 2nd degree connections and Group Members.
9. Use The "People Also Viewed" Feature
If you find a great looking potential prospect, be sure to check out the People Also Viewed feature down on the right-hand side of the page. This can be an excellent source to locate other similar potential prospects.
10. Adjust Your Privacy Settings
While this feature mentioned in the point above (#9) can be handy for you to find prospects, it can also work against you. This broadcasts your competitors to potential prospects that visit your profile.
Don't let people leave your profile to view your competitors! Go into "Privacy & Settings" and disable the "Viewers of this profile also viewed" box.
11. Find Prospects In Your LinkedIn Publisher Followers
Another great place to look for potential prospects is in your list of LinkedIn Publisher Followers. While your total list of followers do include all of your 1st degree connections, they only show those followers that you are not already connected to on your Followers page. Prospects in this list have great potential, as they already know who you are and have found enough value from your previous posts to take the time to follow you.
But remember, when connecting with these followers, do NOT say that you are connecting with them because you saw they are following you. In your connection request, give them a good reason to connect with you.
12. Ask For Introductions
Look to see who in your network already knows the people you want to meet on LinkedIn and ask them if they'd be kind enough to do an introduction or if you have their permission to mention them as a mutual connection in your connection request message.
13. Using The Relationship Tab
If you're already connected with someone, you will see the "Relationship" tab on their profile. This tab will also show up for 2nd degree connections when you save them to your contacts.
The "Relationship" tab lets you:
- Put contacts into custom categories with tags
- Add notes that only you can see
- Create reminders for follow up
14. Adding Your Keywords To The Skills Section
Your skills section is an easy place to add more keywords to help improve your search rankings on LinkedIn.
Why are keywords so important? Check out this article: The Secret To Getting Found on Page 1 of LinkedIn Search.
15. Follow Up Messages
Create a lead generation message sequence that's designed to build relationships and move conversations offline. Don't just collect connections...build relationships with something I call the LinkedIn social selling funnel.
Click here for a more detailed breakdown on the LinkedIn social selling funnel.
16. Get Your Account Unrestricted
Has LinkedIn restricted your account and banished you to LinkedIn jail? The most obvious sign is that you are now required to know the email address of every single person you try to connect with. This happens when five people have clicked the "I Don't Know This Person" or "Report Spam" link after declining your connection request.
If this happens to you, you can reach out to support and ask for forgiveness to have them remove the restriction. Stacey Zapar wrote a great guide to getting out of LinkedIn jail if you want more info.
17. Use Premium Filters
While you can access a lot of advanced filters with the free version of LinkedIn, the premium filters give you unparalleled detail.
Premium Filters Included with Business & Business Plus
- Select multiple groups
- Company size
- Interested in (i.e. Potential employees, entrepreneurs, hiring experts, etc.)
- Seniority level
Premium Filters Available Exclusively With Executive Plan
- Function
- Years of experience
- Filtering Fortune 1000 companies and under
- Join date
18. Personalize Connection Requests on Mobile
One annoying thing about the LinkedIn mobile app is that it never let you send personalized connection requests...until now!
Android Users:
Go to any LinkedIn profile on your mobile app and press the three dots in the top right corner to make the menu appear and select "Customize invite".
iPhone Users:
Go to any LinkedIn profile on your mobile app and press the button in the top right corner.
Select "Customize invite" from the menu.
19. Including Multiple Keywords In Headline & Title Fields
Include between 2-3 keywords in your headline as well as your "Title" field for your current position in your experience section. This is key to helping you rank high for your chosen keywords in LinkedIn search.
Did We Miss Anything?
Do you know any special LinkedIn tricks that we missed in this article? Let us know in the comments below.
LinkedIn ninja / shutterstock