How to get found on LinkedIn
I’m updating all my books at the moment and the one I’m working on now is “How to optimize your LinkedIn profile”. I’ve learnt a lot since it was first written, and one of the questions I get asked time and time again is: why aren’t I getting jobs, offers, business etc? In most cases the answer is quite simply: they just are getting found on LinkedIn. So how do you actually get found on LinkedIn?
Getting found by people who know you
If someone knows you then the ways that they will find and connect with you on LinkedIn include:
- When a person’s profile was created and you were already an email contact.
- When the person carried out a name search for you e.g. because you are a friend, colleague, classmate or because they know you from some online or offline activity.
- Because you had a direct link to your profile on your business card, email signature, website etc.
In this case, just being you is enough to get found. To make it easy for people to find you, make sure that you have an image on your profile and have a personalised URL that you can share with other people. This will make a major difference to driving traffic to your profile. If you haven’t personalised your LinkedIn URL yet, then this blog post will show you how.
However, what about the people who don’t know you? How do they find you?
Getting found by those who don’t know you
If someone doesn’t know you e.g. a potential employer, recruitment agent or business partner, then they will find you because you:
- Are in their network of connections i.e. you are the friend of a friend.
- Appeared in search results e.g. having a specific skill or keyword.
- Are a member of a shared group.
- Started or joined discussions in a group.
- Posted an update and or made comments in someone else’s post or update.
- Published a post on LinkedIn
Most of the things of this list you can do something about, simply by being active on LinkedIn, but one thing that you have little control over is where you appear in search results. However, understanding how LinkedIn sorts its search results will help.
How LinkedIn search works
- You appear in search results because a word or words that were in the search criteria. These keywords have to be an exact match.
- There isn’t a ranking system on LinkedIn. It sorts the results to make them relevant to the person doing the search. LinkedIn states that “Even though a query will return the same results for everyone, the order is determined in part by the profile, activity, and connections of the person searching.”
I’ve been experimenting with searches and what becomes clear is that:
- 1st and 2nd degree connections get priority, then group members, then everyone else.
- How much you have in common with the person e.g. skills, locations, school, company, location, connections etc matters. The more you have in common, the higher you appear in search results.
- How connected you are to the person matters. What do I mean? Well, it’s how much your network overlaps the person doing the searches network, and that includes groups.
- People with 100% profiles get prioritised over those that aren’t.
How does this translate? Well, I did a quick search for “project manager” and there were nearly 5 million results. So then I had a look at some of the people on the first page, and this is what I found:
The person displayed first had:
- 1st degree connection
- 100% complete profile
- 6 skills, 2 groups and 2 connections in common
The person displayed next had:
- 2nd degree connection
- 100% complete profile
- 5 skills, 1 group and 1 shared connection
- Same industry
In 10 pages viewed, only 1st and 2nd degree connections appeared.
So what does this mean for you?
- Make sure that your profile is complete, including your image.
- Create a personalised URL and use it everywhere. Make it easy for people to connect with you directly.
- Know which groups to belong to. You need to travel in the same circles as those you want to be found by.
- Network on LinkedIn. You’re not going to get found by people who don’t know you unless you are in their network.
- Most of all, be active on LinkedIn. If someone in your network shares content or comments, then someone in their network will notice you.
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If you’ve found this useful, or have any questions relating to this post, then let me know. I also have lots of free resources to help you with LinkedIn, and my Mastering LinkedIn ebook is free to download.