April Kelly Feb 25, 2008
There is lot of information available on the internet. Some of this information may be generated
through your LinkedIn profile. We have provided you with tools which enable you to control your LinkedIn information.
Below are a few tips on how to control your data and establish the desired level of privacy with your profile.
To start, log into your account and go to your Account and Settings and take a look at the following features.
1. Public Profile (Edit your Public Profile now)
This feature gives you control over the exact amount of information you want displayed on the web. Search engines index LinkedIn and display elements of your profile. Please note that under Public Profile you are enable things such as; summary, interests, and many others.
2. Profile Photo (Edit your LinkedIn photo settings now)
LinkedIn also allows you to add photographs to your profile. You may select who has the ability to see
your photo. You can select your connections, your network, or everyone.
3. Profile Views (Edit your Profile Views settings now)
LinkedIn has created a feature called “Who’s viewed my profile”. This feature displays a notification describing some information about the individual who viewed the profile. You have the control as to what
information is displayed if you view someone’s information.
4. Display Name (Edit your Display Name settings now)
With this setting you are given the choice to just have your
first name and last initial displayed publicly. This setting is intended to
stop people you have not connected with from knowing your last name. People you
have already connected with see your last name in their connections list.
Display names are important to have set correctly because this is how people
will find you within LinkedIn. Additional information in the name fields is
against the Terms of Service and could lead to a suspension or termination of the
account. This includes email addresses, phone numbers, or even information
pertaining to the size of your network.
Fine-tune your privacy settings on LinkedIn now!
Your privacy is of the utmost importance to us. I hope these tips helped. Please do not hesitate to contact privacy@LinkedIn.com with further
questions.
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Kay Luo Jan 17, 2008
The last time I blogged about three ways to network right, I had great responses from the readers so here's my New Year's resolution post. Many of you have probably either created, broken or still working on a final list of resolutions for this year. Here are five resolutions that professionals can make and keep this year, to jump start their career.
1. Build your online brand
Your online image can affect the way other professionals see you, just as much as your offline image. Create your own online professional brand by developing a LinkedIn profile. Make sure to keep information on your professional experience and other relevant information up-to-date. You may be surprised to learn how many recruiting executives use online networks to locate potential candidates. Also, if you're keen on building an impressive professional brand, make sure personal information intended for close friends stays private on the web. You don't want coworkers and potential employers looking at personal photos of your vacations and party shots. If you're curious about who is checking out your online brand, you can use LinkedIn's "Who's Viewed My Profile" feature to find out.
Check out the "Who's Viewed My Profile" feature on LinkedIn
2. Be at the forefront of people's minds
In order to get leads and recommendations through your network, it's important to keep in touch with former colleagues as well as your present circle. LinkedIn allows professionals to remain at the forefront of people's minds by easily and efficiently keeping in touch. Using LinkedIn, it's easy to see who's been promoted, switched jobs, moved, won an award, and more. LinkedIn's InMail messaging system is a perfect way to reach out and keep your connections fresh, without cutting into your personal time.
Have you checked out the leaner LinkedIn Inbox?
3. Make smarter decisions
Being a great leader is not always about becoming an expert at everything -- it's really about knowing where to find knowledge and expertise when you need it. The LinkedIn Answers feature allows professionals to quickly and easily solicit input and gain perspective from their own connections or from the broader LinkedIn community. Learn how others approach new markets, revamp processes, and resolve problems. Draw on the collective knowledge of your trusted connections -- and their connections -- and benefit from the experience of others.
Check out LinkedIn Answers in our new redesigned homepage
4. Prioritize how you spend your time
Everyone understands the importance of time management in today's accelerated workplace environment. Successful people are often sought after with requests from unknown people for meetings, events, speaking engagements, and more. The LinkedIn network can be used to quickly and efficiently check out these contacts and requests before committing. A quick search reveals anyone you might know in common, gives you a capsule impression, and helps you allocate your valuable time wisely. And if you need to prepare for a meeting, the Advanced Search feature can also save time by allowing you to find specialists on almost every topic, industry, or company you want to research.
Check out LinkedIn's powerful Advanced Search tool
5. Stay on top of what's going on in your world
If you want to be truly great at what you do, it's essential to stay on top of industry news at all times. LinkedIn News makes it easy for every professional to read the articles they need to read, by leveraging the power of their business connections. It starts by delivering news about key daily topics: a user's company, industry, and competitors, drawn from more than 10,000 publishers and blogs. Then, LinkedIn News uses the wisdom of each user's "crowd" of colleagues to determine the handful of articles that are the most important to their business -- the articles they need to read that day. LinkedIn News is currently available in beta to a select group of users, and will be expanded to all LinkedIn members in the New Year.
Check out the newest addition to our feature set - LinkedIn News
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Also, check out Surya's 8 ways to make LinkedIn work for you in 2008 here. Feel free to leave a comment, on what your career resolutions are for this year.
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Adam Nash Dec 27, 2007
I've been a LinkedIn user since June 2003, but even as an active user I keep finding new ways to get things done on the site. Since we continue to roll out new features and functionality on a weekly basis, I guess it's not that surprising. Still, it's always fun when I find a new way to use LinkedIn.
Since everyone is getting ready for a great 2008, I thought this might be a good time to share one new trick I learned a few weeks ago: How to do mutual introductions on LinkedIn.
I am sure you know the scenario: you have two connections, A & B. A & B don't know each other, but you know each would benefit from the introduction. The question is, how do you do it?
The answer: LinkedIn messages.
In November, LinkedIn introduced on-site messaging to the platform. This means that you can go to any profile page, click the "Send a message" button right next to the photo, and send a quick message to any of your direct connections. This type of one-to-one messaging is incredibly valuable, and has become one of the ways that I easily keep in touch with contacts when I need to communicate with them.
However, LinkedIn messaging also supports one-to-many messages, which means you can send a single message to up to 20 of your connections. Simply click the "include others on this message" link on the message window, and you'll be taken to a full form where you can add other connections or email addresses to your message. A very speedy type-ahead feature automatically guesses the name that you are typing by looking at all of your connections.
So, now, when I want to make a mutual introduction, I just follow these steps:
- Go to the profile of Person A
- Click "Send a message"
- Click the link "Include others on this message"
- Type in the name of Person B
- Write my message
As soon as I click send, both of my connections get a message in their LinkedIn inbox and through email with the message. As an added bonus, if I select the checkbox on the message form, both people can also get easy access to the other person's email address. Person A & B can either respond to everyone using a LinkedIn message, just to me, or even reply through normal email.
As a shortcut, you can actually do this even more quickly by just clicking directly to your LinkedIn inbox on the site, and then clicking the menu item to "compose a message".
When we launched messaging, we didn't intend it to be used specifically for mutual introductions, but it's a common enough request from our users that it's great to see that you can now do it on the platform. We'll be looking for ways to make this even easier and more effective in 2008.
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Jane Corrigan Dec 18, 2007
Whether you’re out front stumping or behind the scenes running a political campaign, LinkedIn should be an effective part of your e-campaign strategy. LinkedIn can connect your candidate with voters, fundraisers, and volunteers.
It can communicate your campaign’s message to highly influential business professionals, targeting voters in specific geographic areas. And it can trigger conversations that mobilize grassroots support for any candidate.
1. Create a positive online brand.
Use the “Profile” sections to distinguish your candidate from the pack, to extend the communication lines of a government official, or to tout the successes of a campaign consultant.
Check out these examples: John Ensign (Junior Senator from Nevada), Barack Obama (US Senator, Presidential Candidate), David All (Media strategist). Claim the “name plate” web link like these profiles do, and move your profile to the top of a Google hit list.
2. Communicate effectively with key voters
Use LinkedIn’s “InMail” or “Invitation” functions to reach influential voters, including high-level executives and professional audiences. The average LinkedIn member has a household income of $109,000; 75% are 29 or older.
3. Identify voters and key contributors.
Use the “Advanced Search” function to find and target voters and potential contributors in specific geographic areas, at specific companies, or within specific industries.
4. Research business issues.
Use the “Answers” feature to get pertinent input from LinkedIn’s 16 million engaged business professionals on issues that matter to them—and to answer their questions.
5. Highlight endorsements.
Use the “Recommendations” feature on your candidate’s profile to post endorsements from key interest
and constituent groups.
6. Drive traffic to your site.
Use the “Websites” link on that profile to direct viewers to your candidate’s or campaign consultant’s website or blog.
7. Mobilize support.
Create a “Groups” page for your candidate or official to promote top issues and concerns directly to supporters.
8. Generate virtual word of mouth.
Create a digital bumper sticker on your candidate’s “Groups” page that supporters can add to their profiles.
9. Provide greater access to voters
Add a LinkedIn logo to a candidate's home page that will allow voters to one click to get to your LinkedIn profile and connect with like minded voters.
10. Recruit staffers and volunteers.
Use the “Jobs & Hiring” feature to turn up the right people to work on your campaign.
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April Kelly Oct 05, 2007
Starting this month, April Kelly who runs Customer Support will highlight the question that's on top of mind for users. So, this week, we've a question that a few users had raised in a recent blog post. "Why do I receive the "You're not the intended recipient" message?". Here's why:
On LinkedIn
your primary email address serves as your account number. This email
address will also be the one that all LinkedIn correspondence is sent to, such
as invitation notifications. If you have more than one active email
address it is important that you register all of them on one LinkedIn account
to ensure that you receive all of your communications and establish all of your
connections on one account. If a friend sends you an invitation at an
email address that is not registered with your LinkedIn account, you may
inadvertently create a new account with that email address.
Here are a
couple of tips on making email modifications.
To add a new email address to your LinkedIn account:
* Click
the “Account & Settings” link at the top of almost any page
* Under
“Settings,” find “Personal Information” and click “Email Address”
* On
the “Email Address” page, click the “Add Email Address” button
* Enter
the new email address and click “Add email address”
To change the primary email address for your account:
* Click
the “Account & Settings” link at the top of the home page
* Under
“Settings,” find “Personal Information” and click “Email Address”
* On
the “Email Address” page, click the “Add Email Address” button
* Enter
the new email address and click “Add email address”
When you receive the confirmation message at the new email
address:
* Click
the confirmation link in that message
* You
will be taken to a web page on the LinkedIn site
* Click
“Confirm”
* Sign
in to your account using the new email address
* The
new email address will be confirmed and can be used to sign in to your account
To make the new email address your
primary email address for all LinkedIn communications, return to the “Email
Address” page, select the new address, and click “Make Primary.”
Remember
one of the largest problem areas which evolves if you do not house all of your
email addresses within one account is that you end up with multiple
accounts. Currently we do not have the ability to merge accounts and our
only alternative is to close accounts and re-establish connections. We
would like to help you avoid this problem area through consolidation of all of
your email addresses onto one account.
Have you subscribed to LinkedIn's blog yet? Subscribe here
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April Kelly Aug 30, 2007
April Kelly runs our customer support team and hears thousands of questions each week from users. Here she answers five frequently asked questions on privacy that may be on your mind as well. Have more questions. Leave a comment on this post.
- I found myself when I searched my name on Google. How does that happen?
One of the benefits of having a LinkedIn
profile is the ability for you to take control of your online identity, thus
making it easier for your public profile to be found by non-LinkedIn members on
the Web. By default your publicly searchable profile contains only your name,
industry, and region. This is described in our
Policy under "Information Sharing".
In addition, you can turn off the publicly searchable version of your profile
by selecting the top option "None (off)". That will
remove your public profile from our site. Your public profile may remain in a search engine cache for a short time
until the cache is refreshed
- I received an invitation from this person and I do not know them, how did they get my email?
If you publish your email publicly as many bloggers and journalists normally do then the chances of your getting invitations via email multiply.
If you have not published your email publicly and are receiving invitations please
report that to us or leave a comment.
You can also prevent unwanted invitations from other LinkedIn users whom you do
not know well by using our "Invitation Block" feature. This feature blocks invitations from people
who are not in your LinkedIn "Other Contacts" address book. Invitations that are blocked will go into the
"filtered invitations" section of your LinkedIn InBox. You can periodically look through your
blocked list to see if there are any invitations from people, you actually
know.
- How secure is LinkedIn Data?
Our privacy policies are certified and monitored by TRUSTe (www.truste.org),
“an independent, nonprofit organization dedicated to enabling individuals and
organizations to establish trusting relationships based on respect for personal
identity and information in the evolving networked world.” I would also encourage you to check out our online
privacy policy
- Is there anyway for other people to find out who my direct connections are?
Only your
direct connections can know who your other direct connections are on LinkedIn. LinkedIn allows you complete control over
your direct connections and we strongly recommend that the best protection is to
only connect with people whom you trust to respect your interests.
Your direct connections can see a list of your connections
when they view your profile, however you can turn that setting to off by looking for
“Connections Browse” within your "Settings".
Direct connections will never get any contact information
for your other connections from LinkedIn, unless they get it directly from the
other party. Instead they will have to request an introduction through
you, or through some other party, or to obtain contact information (email
address, etc.) from somewhere else.
5. I am out of
Invitations, how can I get more?
LinkedIn allows users to send out a cumulative maximum of
3000 default invitations over the lifetime of a user. For people who had
already exceeded 3000 at the time the limit was put into place, we
automatically increased their limit to equal their current cumulative number
sent (not including bounced invitations, but including withdrawn invitations).
Hope these answered some of your questions around privacy but if you have more, please let us know, by leaving a comment on the blog.
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Mario Sundar Jul 31, 2007
Lisa Takeuchi Cullen is a New York-based staff writer for TIME Magazine. She writes about workplace trends on her blog called "Work in Progress" - a daily look at life on the job. The following tips are an extract from Lisa's post on tricks and tips for networkers, job hunters and hirers (Source: Lisa's workplace blog via TIME).
-
Get to know the "advanced search" function.
This is a great and probably underused tool. The page allows you to
narrow a search with industry categories and titles, but the most handy
search weapon is the keyword search. Say you're looking for a new job
in your industry and you want to find out about corporate culture at
Apple. Type in "'IT consultant' and Apple" (you can use quote marks to
search for a phrase and the connectors "and" and "or"), and you'll get
two categories of people who define themselves as such: those in your
network of connections, and those in the wider LinkedIn universe.
-
Scale the six degrees of separation.
Whenever you view someone's profile, LinkedIn shows you in a handy
chart on the right the degrees of separation between you and the person
profiled. I, for one, respond more friendly-like to friends of friends,
so if I'm going to say whazzup to Steve Jobs, I know it would help if I
had an intro from his nephew, who went to school with my next-door
neighbor. (That didn't happen, btw. But you get my drift.)
-
Check out a person's history.
You can learn a lot about someone on their profile page, if they let
you (LinkedIn's "accounts and settings" function lets you set privacy
controls). For instance, a little dinky called the "one-click
reference" at the top of the page tells you all the people on the
network who worked with the person at the company. That's hugely useful
for journalists digging for sources, but also if you're expanding your
business contacts.... (continued on Lisa's blog)
Check out the other three tips and tricks for networkers, job hunters & hirers on the TIME Magazine post. Topics ranging from seeking answers to raising your online brand capital. Lisa's other posts on workplace, business and society trends include snooping bosses, teen interns and cubicles of the future.
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Mario Sundar Jul 25, 2007
When Guy Kawasaki blogged about the Ten Ways to Use LinkedIn, LinkedIn had 8.5 million users in 130 industries. Since then we've grown to over 12 million users covering 147 industries, but many of Guy's suggestions on using LinkedIn (see below), still remain a great way for professionals to strengthen their online brand reputation and leverage their professional network. Happy Reading!
Increase your visibility.
By adding connections, you increase the likelihood that people will
see your profile first when they’re searching for someone to hire or do
business with. In addition to appearing at the top of search results
(which is a major plus if you’re one of the 52,000 product managers on
LinkedIn), people would much rather work with people who their friends
know and trust.
Improve your connectability.
Most new users put only their current company in their profile. By
doing so, they severely limit their ability to connect with people. You
should fill out your profile like it’s an executive bio, so include
past companies, education, affiliations, and activities.
You can also include a link to your profile as part of an email
signature. The added benefit is that the link enables people to see all
your credentials, which would be awkward if not downright strange, as
an attachment.
Improve your Google PageRank.
LinkedIn allows you to make your profile information available for
search engines to index. Since LinkedIn profiles receive a fairly high
PageRank in Google, this is a good way to influence what people see
when they search for you.
To do this, create a public profile and select “Full View.” Also,
instead of using the default URL, customize your public profile’s URL
to be your actual name. To strengthen the visibility of this page in
search engines, use this link in various places on the web> For
example, when you comment in a blog, include a link to your profile in
your signature.
Enhance your search engine results.
In addition to your name, you can also promote your blog or website
to search engines like Google and Yahoo! Your LinkedIn profile allows
you to publicize websites. There are a few pre-selected categories like
“My Website,” “My Company,” etc.
If you select “Other” you can modify the name of the link. If you’re
linking to your personal blog, include your name or descriptive terms
in the link, and voila! instant search-engine optimization for your
site. To make this work, be sure your public profile setting is set to
“Full View.”
Perform blind, “reverse,” and company reference checks.
LinkedIn’s reference check tool to input a company name and the
years the person worked at the company to search for references. Your
search will find the people who worked at the company during the same
time period. Since references provided by a candidate will generally be
glowing, this is a good way to get more balanced data.
Companies will typically check your references before hiring you,
but have you ever thought of checking your prospective manager’s
references? Most interviewees don’t have the audacity to ask a
potential boss for references, but with LinkedIn you have a way to
scope her out.
You can also check up on the company itself by finding the person
who used to have the job that you’re interviewing for. Do this by
searching for job title and company, but be sure to uncheck “Current
titles only.” By contacting people who used to hold the position, you
can get the inside scoop on the job, manager and growth potential.
By the way, if using LinkedIn in these ways becomes a common
practice, we’re apt to see more truthful resumes. There’s nothing more
amusing than to find out that the candidate who claims to have caused
some huge success was a total bozo who was just along for the ride.
Increase the relevancy of your job search.
Use LinkedIn’s advanced search to find people with educational and
work experience like yours to see where they work. For example, a
programmer would use search keywords such as “Ruby on Rails,” “C++,”
“Python,” “Java,” and “evangelist” to find out where other programmers
with these skills work.
Make your interview go smoother.
You can use LinkedIn to find the people that you’re meeting. Knowing
that you went to the same school, plays hockey, or shares acquaintances
is a lot better than an awkward silence after, “I’m doing fine, thank
you.”
Gauge the health of a company.
Perform an advanced search for company name and uncheck the “Current
Companies Only” box. This will enable you to scrutinize the rate of
turnover and whether key people are abandoning ship. Former employees
usually give more candid opinions about a company’s prospects than
someone who’s still on board.
Gauge the health of an industry.
If you’re thinking of investing or working in a sector, use LinkedIn
to find people who worked for competitors—or even better, companies who
failed. For example, suppose you wanted to build a next generation
online pet store, you’d probably learn a lot from speaking with former
Pets.com or WebVan employees.
Track startups.
You can see people in your network who are initiating new startups
by doing an advanced search for a range of keywords such as “stealth”
or “new startup.” Apply the “Sort By” filter to “Degrees away from you”
in order to see the people closest to you first. [Republished from: Ten Ways to Use LinkedIn via "How to Change the World" -- Guy Kawasaki's blog]
Guy is known for bringing the concept of technology evangelism to the masses through his pioneering work at Apple's Macintosh group. In addition to blogging the above post earlier this year, he has also blogged on topics ranging from LinkedIn Profile Extreme Makeover to LinkedIn and the Art of avoiding an Asshole Boss. [Source: Guy Kawasaki's weblog -- How to Change the World]
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Mario Sundar Jul 19, 2007
Because LinkedIn sponsors Brazen Careerist, I have had the
opportunity to pepper LinkedIn mavens with random etiquette questions.
So at this point, I have a few opinions of my own. Here’s my advice:
1. Don’t say yes to an invitation from a person you don’t really know.
LinkedIn works best as a way to leverage your professional circle of
people you know well or know their work well. I love looking through my
friends’ professional networks to get an idea of what introductions I
could possibly get from a friend. My friend can say to her friend,
“This is Penelope, you should get to know her because of x.” But this
only works if my friend actually knows me and the other person well.
Otherwise, I may as well make the introduction myself.
In that respect, your network on LinkedIn is really only as strong
as your ties to the people in it. You will get more benefits from
LinkedIn if you have a network of 30 people you know well than 300
people you don’t really know.
2. Don’t send invitations to people who don’t know you.
I feel like I kinda know Mike Arrington.
I know I’d like to have dinner with him (does he ever stop blogging to
have dinner?) I read his blog every day, and I know the type of
connections he could offer me. But he doesn’t know me. Even if I have
emailed him three times and posted ten comments on his blog, he doesn’t
know who I am. He probably reads 400 emails and comments a day.
3. Don’t put your email address under your name on your profile.
When you appear in other peoples’ lists, if someone wants to connect
with you, they have to go through your mutual connection, or they can
email you directly. There is a reason LinkedIn works this way - the
point is not to connect with everyone, it’s to connect with people you
know. Someone who puts their email address right under their name is
announcing that they will connect with anyone, and for the purposes of
LinkedIn, this will weaken their network.
4. When you send an invitation, don’t apologize.
I get a lot of invitations that say, “Sorry for the form letter” but
you’ll have to trust me that the most well connected, high-level,
experienced people I know send the form letter. It’s fine. Also, people
send invitations to me that say something like, “Okay, I’m doing the
LinkedIn thing.” But it makes you look bad to invite someone to
something you feel uncomfortable with, so if you can’t think of
something good to write, just send one of the form letters.
5. Remind me how I know you.
Sometimes, I do actually know someone, but I communicate with so many
different people every day, that I don’t remember. Yesterday I got an
invitation that said, “It was great to do the podcast interview with
you today” right before the standard LinkedIn invitation text. That was
great. I knew exactly who the woman was and I connected. This also
brings up another point, which is act immediately. The best invitations
come right after you’ve made one, solid connection with a given person.
For example, if you go back and forth in email six times, send an
invitation that day.
6. Think about LinkedIn from the other person’s perspective.
Journalists, for example, will be harder to connect with. They are
notoriously adept at telling people they have no time to talk. Also,
journalists already have good access to a wide range of people. However
a journalist will be happy to connect to, say, the managing editor of
the New York Times. Know who you’re dealing with and where you fit in
and then you’ll understand how well you need to know the person in
order to connect. (Note: Here are good ways for Journalists to use LinkedIn.)
7. Keep things a little informal.
LinkedIn is a group of people coming together to help each other. More
cocktail party than job interview. So, for example, make your resume a
little chatty. The best LinkedIn profiles
are a little more casual than a formal resume. I think I could actually
fix mine up a bit in this regard. When I read a resume on LinkedIn, I
am not scanning to see if I want to hire the person (which is the
purpose of the formal resume format). Instead, I would like a sort of
cocktail-party introduction about the person and what they are doing
with their life. Don’t write paragraphs in your resume, but a short
paragraph on LinkedIn is sort of nice.
Penelope Trunk the author of the book Brazen Careerist: The New Rules for Success. She is a career columnist at the Boston Globe and Yahoo Finance. The 7 Rules of LinkedIn etiquette is culled from Penelope's blog, Brazen Careerist. Here are some popular posts.
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Adam Nash Jul 15, 2007
As LinkedIn has been growing at an incredible pace, we've been actively using the platform ourselves to find great people to fill our open roles. For example, we've been actively hiring developers with strong backgrounds in Java-based web development. (See here for the open job listings at LinkedIn).
One of the most powerful things about the LinkedIn platform is its
search capability, although it takes many people a while to discover
the power of people search. This seemed like a perfect opportunity to share some of the less obvious features of LinkedIn search, which when mastered can take your efforts to a whole new level.
The following tips are pretty technical. However, I'm sharing them because I have found them immensely useful in the past few weeks, and hopefully some of you are interested in becoming power users of LinkedIn search.
So, using the example of a search for Java engineers for LinkedIn, here are five tips on how to search LinkedIn like a pro:
- Jump right into advanced search. One of the biggest advantages of the LinkedIn platform is that the data about people is in a structured format. This means that you don't have to combine everything into a generic keyword query - you can actually specify query terms for specific fields. For example, if I'm looking for people who currently work at Oracle, I could just search for the keyword. Unfortunately, that will match everyone who has "Oracle" on their resume, either from a former job, or just to say that they know how to work with Oracle databases.
Instead, using advanced search, you can specify "Oracle" in the field directly for positions, even specifying the "current position only" check box. That will give you a tight search that only returns people who currently have Oracle in their current role.
You can access advanced search by clicking the link next to the search bar on the header of the LinkedIn website.
You can also find many of the advanced search tools just by clicking "Refine Search" on any LinkedIn search results page.
- The Magic of Boolean Search: OR. People use different words to describe similar concepts on their
profiles. For example, a Java engineer might have "Java" on their
profile. However, they might also have "J2EE" or "JSP". LinkedIn
search supports the concept of OR, which means that you can have LinkedIn return people who have any one of those terms in their profiles. (Please note, the "OR" has to be in capital letters)
So, in our search for a Java engineer, we might do a search for:
Java OR J2EE OR JSP
This search will return people in your network who have any one of those terms in their profile.
- The Magic of Boolean Search: AND. If you thought OR was fun, get ready for a real party when you add AND to the mix. AND allows you to insist that a person have both terms in their profile.
So, if you want someone who has both Java and Engineer in their profile, you would type:
Java AND Engineer
This becomes incredibly powerful when you combine it with OR. For example, if I am looking for a good Java engineer, I might split each term into several possible words:
(Java OR J2EE OR JSP) AND (Engineer OR Architect OR Lead)
Note the use of parentheses to group the OR terms together, so the AND will apply correctly to any of the words in each group of terms.
- The Magic of Boolean Search: NOT. The last function in the Boolean search trio is NOT, and it is a tricky but powerful operator. It can't be used alone, but in conjunction with other terms it will exclude people from your search who have that term in their profile.
So, for example, when I run the search above in my network, a lot of the engineers closest to me who fit that description are actually already at LinkedIn! That's no good for a recruiting search. NOT is here to the rescue. With the following search:
(Java OR J2EE OR JSP) AND (Engineer OR Architect OR Lead) AND NOT LinkedIn
You will get back every person who matches the original query, but without people who have LinkedIn on their profile.
- Leverage the sorting functions. By default, LinkedIn sorts your search results by keyword relevance. In many cases, this is the best option, because it will prioritize results based on the keyword matches from your search. However, LinkedIn does offer other options.
For example, LinkedIn has the ability to sort search results by number of degrees from you, which is particularly useful if you are trying to find people closest to you in your network.
To use the sorts, just click "Refine Search" on the header of any search results page.
It may take a bit of practice at first, but it is amazing how quickly the above tips can really take the effectiveness of your searches to a whole new level. It is very easy to do a quick search on LinkedIn, and then, using Refine Search, constantly optimize the results with the techniques here to get to a very rich and accurate set of profiles.
I hope these tips prove useful to you. I'll be back again with more tips and tricks on how to make use of both existing and new features.
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Mario Sundar Jul 12, 2007
Chris Brogan, over at Lifehack (a productivity site that is built around the theme of hacks, tips and tricks) outlines his five personal productivity tips on maximizing one's usage of LinkedIn. I thought this would be a good way to continue the conversation right here on the LinkedIn blog and address the five tips he recommends. Given below are Chris' five tips with a LinkedIn take on them:
(1) Fill out your profile
Seems like a no-brainer, but spending time to build your profile 100% is an essential step forward in helping you take control of your professional brand. Don't forget that LinkedIn Public profiles tend to get indexed on all major search engines. So, when opportunity knocks and a manager or prospective employer finds your profile through a search, it's always good to have the most accurate, up-to-date and impressive stats from your career displayed.
Check out what a LinkedIn Public Profile means and other FAQs
Take control of your online identity by tweaking your LinkedIn public profile
(2) Add plenty of passion (and may I add, professional character & humor)
A LinkedIn profile not only defines your professional identity on the web, but also helps differentiate and position your unique personal brand. A LinkedIn public profile is the easiest way to define your unique skill sets and so it's worth spending time on crafting a unique LinkedIn profile. A suitable start would be updating the following three profile categories with relevant information (example provided):
* Profile Summary --
My personal mantra is "empower entrepreneurs." When all is said and done, I'm a marketing guy.
I established my professional reputation as a software evangelist at
Apple back in the 80s. Now I lead a peripatetic (peripathetic?)
existence: blogger, venture capitalist, author, and speaker.
* Specialties --
Marketing, evangelism, new-product introduction, keynote speeches, and wrist shots.
* Additional Information (Interests) --
(Source: Guy Kawasaki's LinkedIn profile)
(3) Recommend and be recommended
Let's assume you've joined LinkedIn and have just built out your profile, the proactive way to follow-that up would be to substantiate your career history by obtaining recommendations from your colleagues who've always appreciated your work and more importantly recommending peers whose work you've admired as well. It'd also be a great way to reconnect with those coworkers you'd always wanted to stay in touch with.
(4) Ask and Answer questions
Whether you're a consultant or someone looking for a job, users would rather connect with or hire an expert. A great way to establish credibility in any given field would be to answer questions in categories that you're passionate about. What's interesting is that this is also a great reason for your peers to recommend you since it validates their recommendation. The feature also allows you, as Chris says, to get in front of your peers and colleagues you've always wanted to connect with but haven't had a chance to do so until now.
(5) Should you add your email address to your last name?
As enticing as it is to publish your email address in the Name field, we've received numerous complaints of abuse in the past ranging from spam to harassment. As stated in our user agreement (under user conduct), we believe in protecting sensitive information shared by over 12 million users and posting content in fields that aren't intended for that content would be a violation of that trust.
The best way for someone to reach you would be through the power of mutual connections. So, if you'd like to connect with me, find someone we both know who can recommend you and ask them to introduce you to me. And, don't forget to recommend that friend of yours who made that introduction!
(Source: Chris Brogan's Lifehack post titled "Five LinkedIn Tips")
About Chris Brogan: One of the prolific bloggers at productivity blog Lifehack; here's how Chris practices what he preaches: "I don’t watch commercial TV. I don’t follow professional sports. I
don’t sleep as much as most people. I don’t waste much time online. I
type really really fast. I’ve got a great ability to compose my
thoughts as I type them, the way sculptors say they see their artwork
hidden in the marble".
---
Related links on "Using LinkedIn":
1. My post last week on "Best Practices for Consultants" on using LinkedIn, based on my presentation at the Software Developers Forum.
2. Guy Kawasaki's extreme profile makeover
3. LinkedIn Answers section on "Using LinkedIn" | RSS Feed to access all "Using LinkedIn" Q&A
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Kay Luo May 17, 2007
Jory Des Jardins from BlogHer had a great post yesterday on how to avoid bad e-networking, based on a recent experience of hers. The post resonated with me since one of my focus areas is educating our users on how to network effectively. Here are three things to keep in mind when using LinkedIn:
Set your own guidelines: A LinkedIn invitation means "I will potentially help you with my network." It's an offer of value, so be judicious about who you extend them to. Here's my own personal criteria when it comes to sending or accepting invitations: coworkers (since I want all my coworkers to be as successful as possible), friends (ditto), people that I have reciprocal business relationships with (i.e. business partners), people whom I collaborate with as part of my job (in my case, the media), people I've worked with and trust, and anyone else who I respect and/or want to help out. When in doubt, I hit the “Decide Later” button to give the relationship more time to develop.
Be thoughtful: Connecting means you're agreeing to collaborate. It's a gesture of trust and means that you can now ask me to introduce you to someone I know. This doesn't mean I will, but it means I will seriously consider it. A good rule of thumb for making introductions: "Is this a credible opportunity for both people? Will they thank me even if the specific business connection doesn't happen?"
Karma works: Give before you ask and build your network before you need it. The worst time to network is when you need something. If you find ways to help other people achieve their goals the laws of reciprocity will generally work in your favor. People who have zillions of connections and pass along requests indiscriminately don't understand how to use LinkedIn as a trusted tool. LinkedIn's designed to help you build upon existing relationships and leverage the trust that you have with these people to reach others.
That's been my experience thus far. Feel free to share your LinkedIn experience in comments below.
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