How to Use a Boolean Search for Successful LinkedIn Prospecting

Posted by Ben Kniffen in Uncategorized

Have you ever tried to do a simple keyword search for your top prospects in a LinkedIn group only to be met with a ton of crappy results that are of no use to you?

If only you could refine that search by combing or limiting terms to remove those crappy prospects and/or competitors.

This is where knowing how to do a Boolean search comes in handy.

What exactly is Boolean and how does it work with LinkedIn?

Boolean logic is an algebraic system of showing relationships by using two variables that are denoted as “true” and “false” – pretty simple, right?

In short, it allows for more detailed and exhaustive searches by combining or limiting the search terms…even when you've only got one search bar.

It is a pretty powerful tool for finding and contacting your top prospects within LinkedIn groups or using the Advanced People Search.

The Boolean parameters supported by LinkedIn are:

 AND 
OR,
NOT
"Quotation Marks"
(Parentheses)

To search members of a group, open the group that you are prospecting within and click the number of members located in the top bar:

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 What do the parameters mean?

Entering “AND” between two search terms will require that the profiles you are finding have both the first term and the second term, for example:

Missouri AND CEO 

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Entering “OR” between two search terms will populate profiles with either one of the two terms you are searching for. For example:

CEO OR CFO

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Entering “NOT” between two search terms will populate results that contain the first term, but not the second, for example:

CEO NOT Owner

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Quotation marks will find terms that have multiple words in an exact order, for example:

“VP of Marketing”

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Parenthesis are the most powerful aspect available in Boolean searches, as they are useful for grouping searches using the other parameters. This gives you the capability to seek highly targeted prospects with multiple key words in their LinkedIn profiles, for example:

(“VP of Marketing” OR “Marketing Director”) AND (“Canada” OR “United Kingdom” OR “Australia”)

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Putting it all together

Now that you know how to use all of the parameters available for Boolean searches on LinkedIn, you can build anything from a simple Boolean search to an extremely complex search to find your prospects.

Here is an example of a highly targeted complex search:

(“Head of IT” OR “VP IT Service” OR “IT Service Manager” OR “IT Service Desk Manager” OR “Director of IT Service” OR “IT Service Delivery” OR “CIO” OR “CTO”) AND (“Denmark” OR “UK” OR “France” OR “Spain” OR “Norway” OR “Sweden” OR “Finland” OR “Switzerland” OR “Belgium” OR “United Kingdom”) NOT (“CEO” OR “COO “)

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Now you can use these powerful search tactics to find highly target prospects to send messages to or connect with on LinkedIn.

Happy searching!

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