Help your team member apply Boolean searches

Explain to your team members that they can use Boolean searches on LinkedIn to create a filtered list of 1st or 2nd level connections on LinkedIn.

You can visualise your explanation as falling into 2 parts:

1. Explaining the Boolean operators and how they work.
2. Discussing how they can use these operators to find great network-building partners.

One of the best ways to accomplish this is to copy a search you have used, paste it into the chat function of Zoom and then ask your new team member to paste it into the Search box of LinkedIn. You can then help your new team member tweak the search to make it more relevant to them.

It also helps to give a simple explanation of the Boolean operators accepted by LinkedIn. They are AND, OR, & NOT.

A good example might be to explain Tall, space, Dark, space, Handsome would result in all profiles which contain all the words Tall, Dark and Handsome.

On the other hand, Tall, OR, Dark, OR, Handsome would produce all profiles containing these words (obviously a much more extensive list).

It is essential to point out that space between words implies the Boolean AND. It is better to use space because when booleans are expressed as AND, and OR, LinkedIn will allow a maximum of 5 in the same search string.

It is also vital that your team member understand that Boolean operators must be capitalised—for example, OR (all in capitals) & NOT (all in capitals).

Now, you can help your partner see the results from the search you pasted in the chat. After they have pasted this in the LinkedIn search box and clicked Search, ask them to select “People”, then choose 2nd level connections from the Connections drop-down in LinkedIn, and finally select the Locations they are interested in.

When they click “See all results”, LinkedIn will show them all the people that meet the criteria they entered.

Ask your team member to explain to you the difference between 1st and 2nd level LinkedIn connections. If you feel they are not entirely clear, explain the difference and how just a few first-level connections expand to a much larger number of 2nd level connections.

If they are searching for 2nd level connections, they should keep the list of results to somewhere between five hundred to two thousand. Explain that this is because LinkedIn will allow them to access a maximum of the first 1000 profiles in the results.

Also, explain that when they reach out to 2nd level connections, they will be sending those contacts a connect request message with a maximum of 300 characters.

Explain to your new team member that, in many cases, their new team member will ask them what kinds of attributes they should search for on LinkedIn profiles.

Firstly they should search for words that indicate character or attitude. Words like: reciprocity, others, difference, and attitude, often indicate a person who has the type of attitude of a person they would like to have in their team.

In addition to this, they can use other words that may help them connect better with a stranger because of common affinity. For example, if you have a tech background, it may be worthwhile reaching out to others who also have a tech background.

A couple of important points to reinforce with your team member.

1. There are other ways they can find new contacts. However, we know LinkedIn works to find great team members quickly. So when your team member is getting great results from LinkedIn, they can show their team members how they are using LinkedIn to achieve fast network-building results. In other words, it will pay your team member to set the example and duplicate it.

2. As when learning any new skill, it takes time to become good at it. They should encourage their new team member to form a small, consistent habit of searching and examining profiles for great candidates. As they examine these profiles, suggest that their new member looks for words that stand out on the profiles they like. They may be able to use such words in future searches.

3. When it comes to network-building, their new member’s LinkedIn outreach objective is to meet great candidates on a face-to-face call. Also, reinforce that they are reaching out to people they haven’t yet met for the initial primary benefit of those people. In particular, they may introduce those candidates to other great people they know once trust has been established.

4. Your team member is introducing their new team members to using Booleans on LinkedIn. We also have Workshops and Syllabus items that can help them learn more about doing great searches.

5. Once a Search string has been tested, it’s a great idea to record it on the “My Searches” sheet of the Collaborators+ workbook so that it is readily available for future reference.