3 ways to get seen more often in LinkedIn Search

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Donna asked:

I read your article before about LinkedIn and the various features to focus on in order to get the most of the site and had a question. I have tried to revamp my profile, change my title, change words and although I am receiving notices for jobs that I would be interested in my search results are not doing so well. On average I only seem to appear in about 11 times a week. How do I improve? What am I doing wrong?
Thanks 🙂

A great question. LinkedIn Profile Search, unsurprisingly, is governed not only by content, but by network. This is the foundation of social media strategy for most things these days (grab Social Media Strategy in One Slide if you haven’t already).

The short answer to Donna’s question is that you have to first optimize your profile for the content you want to be found for, and then you have to build out your network like crazy. Get your existing network to add endorsements (or recommendations if you can get them) so that your profile is more weighted in the search algorithm. Then build, build, build your network.

Showing up in search works better when you have more connections and a larger network, because LinkedIn not only measures content relevance, but how many degrees away a person is. The larger your network, the more likely you are in that magic 3 degrees or less radius of the people you want finding you.

How do you build your LinkedIn network? Here are 3 straightforward tips:

1. Ask. Ask people regularly to connect. Ask in every channel where you can.

2. Load up your address book into your GMail account and use the Add Connections feature to locate them.

3. Add it into your existing email programs, from your signature to your personal newsletter.

You should be using these 3 ideas regularly and frequently to grow your network. That will improve your appearances in search and generate the results you want to achieve with your LinkedIn efforts.

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