In this article, I introduce you to the power of Boolean search and how you can find hyper-targeted leads on LinkedIn, even with a free account.
LinkedIn's Boolean search function is a super valuable resource that can significantly enhance your ability to discover potential customers or clients for your business.
You will learn how to effectively use each of the LinkedIn Boolean search operators, such as AND, NOT, and OR, and how to use them to find leads quickly.
Stay with me as I demystify Boolean search and show you how to maximize its potential on LinkedIn for your business.
Let's dive in!
What is Boolean Search?
Boolean search is a type of search that uses Boolean algebra, a branch of mathematics invented by the English mathematician George Boole in the 19th century.
Basically, a Boolean search helps you find exactly what you're looking for by using keywords and special words like AND, NOT, and OR.
For instance, if you type 'engineer AND "machine learning"' into a search engine using Boolean logic, it will show results that contain both 'engineer' and 'machine learning'.
On LinkedIn, you can use Boolean search to find people with specific skills.
For example, 'software AND (engineer OR developer) NOT manager' will show profiles that have 'software' and either 'engineer' or 'developer', but not 'manager'.
Despite sounding complicated, Boolean search is pretty easy to use once you get the hang of it.
Why Use Boolean Search on LinkedIn?
Using Boolean search on LinkedIn can make a big difference in building your professional network and generating leads.
With 1.1 billion users on LinkedIn, it can take a long time to find the right people for your needs.
But with Boolean search, you can narrow your search results and save time.
You can adjust your search terms to find people based on their job titles, skills, industries, etc.
This makes it easy to find your target audience, whether they're potential clients, partners, or job candidates.
For example, if you're in the tech industry and need a software engineer with machine learning skills, you can type 'Software Engineer AND "Machine Learning"' in the search bar.
Boolean search strings help filter out less relevant profiles, making your networking and outreach efforts more productive.
By focusing on the most relevant profiles, you can reach out to high-quality leads.
How to Use Boolean Search on LinkedIn
Boolean Operators are specific words we use when searching on LinkedIn. Examples of Boolean Operators are quotes" ", AND, OR, NOT, and anything inside brackets ( ).
When using these operators, they must be written in CAPITAL LETTERS. This is how LinkedIn distinguishes that they are being used as operators, not just regular words.
Boolean search operators can be used within the LinkedIn search feature. However, the usage is limited to specific search fields depending on your LinkedIn account type.
- Free LinkedIn account: Only the Keyword field supports Boolean search operators.
- LinkedIn Recruiter account: Boolean search can be used in the Companies, Skills and Assessments, or Keywords filters. Job title and Project filters do not support Boolean search. To exclude a Job title or Project, enter a term into the field and click the Block icon next to the term you want to exclude.
- LinkedIn Sales Navigator account: Boolean search operators can be used in the Keyword field to refine searches based on Company and Title.
Quotation Marks
Quotation marks allow you to look for exact phrases or word combinations in a specific order.
Using quotes around words in a LinkedIn search will show results that contain those exact words in that same order. This makes your search results more specific and targeted.
For example, searching "blog editor" without quotes could result in 1,380,000 results because LinkedIn is looking for profiles containing either "blog" or "editor" in any order.
But enclosing "blog editor" in quotes reduces the results to about 4,300 because LinkedIn is now looking for profiles where these exact words appear together in the same order.
Quotation marks are useful for searching for specific skills, job titles, or qualifications. Searching for "Machine Learning Engineer" will only show profiles where this exact phrase appears.
Remember to enclose phrases within quotation marks when searching for an exact phrase or a multi-word title.
For example, searching "product manager" will ensure that LinkedIn only shows profiles with the exact title of "product manager".
However, LinkedIn search only supports standard, straight quotation marks ("), not special symbols or typographer's quotes (").
Stop words such as "by", "in", and "with" are not used in search queries for site performance.
Using quotation marks ("") makes your search results specific, allows you to specify the exact phrase or combination of words you're searching for, and makes your LinkedIn search results more targeted and efficient.
OR Operator
The OR operator tells LinkedIn to show you results where at least one of the keywords appears. This makes your search broader and helps you find more diverse results.
For example, searching for "blog editor" might get around 1.4 million results.
But if you search "blog OR editor", you could get more than 5.7 million results.
This shows you how the OR operator can widen your search.
The OR operator is really helpful when many different terms or job titles could be relevant to your search.
For instance, if you want to find profiles with either the word 'Engineer' or 'Developer', you could type 'Engineer OR Developer'.
This will show you profiles with either 'Engineer' or 'Developer', giving you more relevant results.
Another example is when you're looking for a human resources director, but you know that there might be different job titles for this role.
In that case, you could type: "Human Resources Director" OR "HR Director" OR "Director of HR" OR "Director of Human Resources".
This way, you can find more potential leads.
Remember to always write the OR operator in capital letters on LinkedIn.
For example, type "sales OR marketing OR advertising" to view results related to any of these terms.
The OR operator is a powerful tool in Boolean search that lets you broaden your search, include alternative or equivalent terms and help you find more diverse and relevant search results.
NOT Operator
The NOT operator helps you exclude certain search results.
When you add NOT in front of a keyword in your search, LinkedIn will remove all results with that specific keyword.
For example, if you're looking for "blog editor" but don't want search results that include "editor", you can modify the search to "blog NOT editor".
This will give you fewer search results that exclude the keyword "editor".
The NOT operator is useful when you want to filter out unwanted keywords from your search.
For instance, if you want to find engineers but don't want those with a focus in civil engineering, you could type 'Engineer NOT Civil'.
LinkedIn will then remove all profiles featuring the word 'Civil' from your search results.
To exclude a specific term from your search results, type the word NOT (in uppercase) immediately before the term you wish to exclude. This typically narrows your search results.
For example, if you want to find programmers but not managers, your search would be "programmer NOT manager".
Using the NOT operator is helpful for refining your search results and excluding irrelevant profiles.
However, remember that the NOT operator removes any results containing the specified keyword, which results in a more refined search.
This operator is incredibly valuable for eliminating irrelevant or unwanted search results.
AND Operator
The AND operator connects and includes multiple search terms.
When you use AND in your LinkedIn search, it tells the platform to return profiles with all the words or phrases linked by this operator. This helps you search more specifically.
For example, if you want to find Engineers who are experts in Robotics, you would type 'Engineer AND Robotics' into the LinkedIn search bar. Then, LinkedIn will show you profiles that include both 'Engineer' and 'Robotics'.
Remember that the AND operator needs to be capitalized. If you want to find a 'Human Resources Director' in 'Real Estate', use "Human Resources Director" AND "Real Estate" to refine your search.
You can use multiple AND operators in your search to get more specific results. However, the more AND operators you use, the fewer results you'll get.
For instance, in a search like "accountant AND finance AND CPA", you'll only see profiles that include 'accountant', 'finance', and 'CPA'.
Note that you don't have to use AND. LinkedIn will automatically use AND to link them if you type two or more terms without any operator. For example, searching for 'software engineer' will return results with both 'software' and 'engineer'.
Using the AND operator in your Boolean searches on LinkedIn helps you get more specific results and find the most relevant profiles for your business or recruitment needs.
Using Brackets
Brackets, also called parentheses, are important for making advanced search queries using Boolean search.
By grouping terms together, brackets let you control the order in which your search is processed.
Think of brackets as a way to tell LinkedIn what you're looking for.
For example, let's say you search for 'Engineer AND (Robotics OR AI)'.
LinkedIn will first look for profiles with either 'Robotics' or 'AI' in them and then combine this result with 'Engineer'.
This means your search results will show profiles with the word 'Engineer' and either 'Robotics' or 'AI'.
Another example is if you search for "Human Resources Director" AND ("Real Estate" OR "Mortgage").
LinkedIn will first look for profiles with either 'Real Estate' or 'Mortgage' and then combine this result with 'Human Resources Director'.
This means your search results will show profiles with 'Human Resources Director' and either 'Real Estate' or 'Mortgage'.
Using brackets can be very helpful when you're looking for professionals in similar industries.
You can also use brackets to exclude certain words.
For example, if you're looking for people with 'VP' in their profiles but you don't want 'assistant to VP' or 'SVP', you can type 'VP NOT (assistant OR SVP)'.
This means LinkedIn will exclude profiles with 'assistant' or 'SVP' from the search results.
By effectively using brackets, you can create more precise searches to find the leads you want.
Remember, the terms inside the brackets are processed first and then combined with the rest of your search query.
So, experiment with brackets and use Boolean search to its full potential on LinkedIn!
Boolean Order
When performing searches on LinkedIn using Boolean operators, it is important to understand the order of precedence.
The order in which the Boolean operators are evaluated is as follows:
First, parentheses are evaluated first, then NOT, AND, and finally OR. It is important to keep this in mind when constructing complex search queries.
- Quotes [""]
- Parentheses [()]
- NOT
- AND
- OR
Boolean Hacks
In this section, I will discuss Boolean hacks and explain whether and how they work in refining your searches on LinkedIn.
Using the + and - Operators
LinkedIn does not officially support the + and - operators that are commonly used in Boolean searches.
But you can get similar results by using the AND operator instead of the + operator and the NOT operator instead of the - operator.
This makes your searches easier to read and helps LinkedIn understand what you're looking for.
For example, instead of using "software +engineer -manager," you can write "software AND engineer NOT manager" to get the same results.
By using this method, you can be sure that LinkedIn will understand what you want and give you the right results.
No Wildcard Searches
Please note that LinkedIn does not support wildcard (*) searches.
Unlike other search engines or platforms, LinkedIn's search function does not have this feature to expand search results.
Finding Targeted Leads with Boolean Search
If you want to generate highly targeted leads on LinkedIn, I recommend considering signing up for LinkedIn Sales Navigator.
It has a ton of extra features, including the ability to save leads and accounts into lists, much more advanced search filters, and three instead of one search fields where you can use Boolean search operators (Keyword field, Company, and Title).
You can read my article on using LinkedIn Sales Navigator for lead generation here.
To master Boolean search for lead generation on LinkedIn, practice is crucial.
Here are some exercises to enhance your skills:
- Define your target audience: Identify the relevant characteristics, skills, and job titles for your leads.
- Set all none-Boolean filters: Define everything that doesn't require or doesn't support a Boolean search parameter such as Location, Degree of Connection, Current or Past Company, School, Industry, Language, etc. first.
- Use simple searches: Use basic Boolean operators (AND, OR, NOT) to create search strings, such as "software engineer" AND "machine learning" in the Keyword field.
- Evaluate results: Review the profiles returned and assess their relevance to your criteria.
- Refine your search: Adjust your search string to optimize results, experimenting with operators and keywords and additional search fields such as Company and Title if you have LinkedIn Sales Navigator.
- Use quotation marks: Specify exact phrases with quotes, like "sales manager", for precise results.
- Explore alternative terms: Broaden your search with the OR operator, using variations like "software engineer" OR "developer".
- Utilize parentheses: Group terms for complex queries, refining results further. For example, "sales manager" AND ("technology" OR "IT").
- Analyze and iterate: Learn from search outcomes, adapt your search strings, and continually improve your lead generation efforts.
With practice, you can become good at using Boolean searches on LinkedIn to find targeted leads quickly and efficiently.
Conclusion
To find the best leads on LinkedIn, you need to become an expert in Boolean search.
Boolean search uses words like AND, OR, NOT, brackets, and quotation marks to help you find exactly what you're looking for and get rid of anything you don't want.
When you use Boolean search, you can easily filter out profiles that don't match your needs, which helps you get more clients.
You can use quotation marks to search for exact phrases, OR to broaden your search, NOT to exclude certain terms, and AND to combine keywords.
It's important to practice Boolean search so you can get better results. It might take some trial and error to get it right, but it's worth it.
Just remember that Boolean search is a tool, and you might need to adjust it to fit your specific needs.
By applying the techniques in this article, you can construct more targeted searches to get better results on LinkedIn, grow your business, and achieve your goals.
