LinkedIn Tips & Insights: “Using Advanced LinkedIn tools at a Basic Level” – Guest Blog from Jillian Bullock!

The Crazy Persian (me) and LinkedIn Ninja Jillian Bullock. It’s an honour having her guest blog right here on ‘The Edward Files!’

As you know, at “The Edward Files” we have nothing but quality content (if you can assume my rants are “Content” lol).

I like to write about my own raw experiences, Marketing Insights and of course invite key Guest Bloggers / Experts to contribute.

This time we have a new colleague of mine, “LinkedIn Ninja” Jillian Bullock generously contribute with her knowledge. I do a lot of LinkedIn training and work myself – so you may think “Edward you are nuts promoting a competitor” on your blog.

To that I say “Peh” – Jillian is awesome and she is an Speciality Expert in the platform who knows her way around it better than I do.

I invited her to blog, as even though Facebook is certainly the “Flavour of the Month” – LinkedIn is making a huge comeback especially with it’s latest platform updates.

So without further ado – it’s time to appreciate Jillian’s knowledge here!

“Using Advanced LinkedIn tools at a Basic Level” – Guest Blog by Jillian Bullock

One of the smallest buttons on LinkedIn is also one of the most powerful. It’s the ‘Advanced’ button, located just to the right of the white rectangle at the top that usually says ‘Search for people, jobs, companies, and more…’

“That’s nice Jillian, but what can you do with it?” I hear you mumble under your breath. Alrightee then. The question is like asking a cheetah what to do with an antelope. You simply locate your target, initiate contact, and then go for the chase. Some you’ll win, some you’ll lose, but once in a while you’ll get a big fat one that makes all the effort worth it.

Now, just as a side note, I’ve never ever view LinkedIn or the people on it as prey, but locating and honing in on your target market is what the ‘Advanced Search’ section is all about. Plus I got a little giggle out of these images! (Thank you Rollin Safari for the image use!)

The simplest way to get started here is to use the filters on the left hand side.

For example, you may have 300 first connections, but if you are wondering why there is a very large number at the top there saying 20,000 results, that’s because it is giving you your extended network. That network is your first connections, second connections those who they know, third connections those who your second connections and then people whom you share groups with.

A secret Ninja technique here is to be a member of a lot of strategically chosen groups and switch off the notifications via the Privacy and Settings so that you don’t get all their emails. This extends your network without the hassle of ALL the updates.

Next thing to do is think of your ideal client or referral partners. If you are unclear about this perhaps a session with Edward is in order :o).

For example, lets say you are a bookkeeper. Your ideal client would be small business owners and your ideal referral partners would be accountants. (There might be more than this but lets simplify for this example).

Using the filters on the left in the Advanced section is where you metaphorically use your precision catlike eye sight to narrow your search from 20,000 hopefuls to under 100. Start by typing ‘accountant’ into the ‘keywords’ space and see what results you get. If you did this exercise right next to someone else, you would both get different results. This is because it is searching your individual network of 20,000 not the entire 332 million worldwide database. It’s all about who you know.

Let’s say the results gave you 5,000 potential accountants. Now this is a big list and fairly useless if you have a free basic account, as LinkedIn will only let you see the top 100 anyway. So lets make that top 100 be highly targeted. Scroll down the page just a little and right above the the blue search button is the field ‘location’. Switch that from ‘Anywhere’ to ‘Located in or near’. This will then bring up all the countries to choose from, and of course we want an Australian Antelope don’t we. I mean accountant! A new box will then pop up prompting you for a postcode. Don’t be so specific here and put your exact postcode, your capital city will do well. Remember, this is an American platform so it doesn’t cater down to the every suburb of every country in every city of the world.

Now your results should be nice and narrow with maybe less than 100. If there is any chance you still have a big list you can always add something like ‘Managing Director’ into the ‘Title’ box.

So from here you have a couple of options, depending on your style. You can jump straight in and start connection and messaging these people and arrange appointments to visit their offices. Second option is to InMail (LinkedIn’s own email system) and introduce yourself. Maybe an even softer approach is more you and you’re rather ask the person you have in common to introduce you. (Just remember on a basic account you can only request 5 of these introductions per month). Another option is to go from a cheetah to a chicken and admire your list but do nothing. Not highly recommend though.

Just remember you can play with these filters for ages, once you get the general idea. And if by chance you are a Premium member even more filters are available. Have fun.

You have just been Ninjafied by the Jillian Bullock the LinkedIn Ninja Down Under!

Jillian Bullock
The only fully certified LinkedIn Ninja in Australia
www.linkedinninja.com.au

Edward’s Post Blog Commentary:

This is one of my favourite features for LinkedIn that I have recommended for many clients. I really like doing the search of “2nd Layer” connections in what I am doing.  That for me has been very valuable and I have got some great results from that type of thinking / approach. Love your work, thanks for the read – and drop Jillian a line if you need a hand!