When you visit your LinkedIn profile, one of the most valuable pieces of information found in your notifications is the number of times your profile appeared in search results, and who the searcher was. While it may seem like a simple positive reinforcement that can be left alone – after all, appearing in any search results should be a good thing – you can extract helpful insights from your search appearances that will enable you to optimize your profile to achieve the results you’re looking for.
Who Found You – And Why?
When looking at your search results, you’ll typically see the organization that the searcher belongs to, along with their job title. These two pieces of information are prizes that you can put to immediate use.
Firstly, are the organizations in line with who you’d like to attract to your profile? If you’re primarily offering services in specific fields to clients, the majority of the results should be in the field you specialize in. If they aren’t, and most of the people searching for you are in unrelated fields, then it’s definitely time to tune-up your profile to better meet your needs (and your prospective searchers).
What You Need To Do
Modifying your title and your skills (which can include up to 50 skills) to precisely target your clients’ or potential employers’ needs will help to ensure that your profile is getting to the right audience. You can also add keywords to your profile to emphasize particular strengths. If you’ve gained new skills that you know will add value, don’t hesitate to make them front and center.
The more keywords you add to your profile, the more you’ll appear in search results. Not everyone who finds you will be an ideal fit, but the odds of making a valuable connection will invariably increase.
Job titles are another key indicator of whether or not your profile is working in the way that you’d like it to. If you’re looking to attract business clients, are sales managers or supply coordinators chief among the results? If not, hone your message to place emphasis on your product, its quality, and your experience with it. For those who are looking for work, the primary result should ideally be hiring or human resource managers.
It may not always be apparent why a business or person found you in their results or if they even looked at your profile once you appeared – to help encourage that to happen, be sure to have an open, approachable profile pic. Do some digging yourself and see if the company involved is hiring or potentially looking for new suppliers, both on LinkedIn and by searching through other methods. If they are, and your services are a good fit, reach out proactively.
Sometimes, even people or businesses who found you by accident can be a perfect fit for what you’re offering. If you listed “creativity” as a skill, put it to use and see how a wayward potential connection can become an opportunity by scanning through their profile and seeing if anything clicks. After all, whoever initiated the search is looking for something or someone, and they may not even be exactly sure what they’re looking for themselves.
LinkedIn Premium
Unlocking LinkedIn Premium can help you maximize the Search Appearances tool. Free users can see up to five results for who found them in searches (including industry and job title), while Premium users get unlimited results along with industry trends for your search appearances over time.
Being found in a search is the first step toward a lucrative or positive connection. Knowing how to wield the results that you’re getting will help get you where you’d like to be.
Get In Touch With Leadin Social Today
If you’re interested in boosting your LinkedIn presence and your career prospects, get in touch with us today at LeadIn Social.
