LinkedIn Tip Sheet Error And a New Hack

We shouldn't be mixing the level of service, quality of software, and changes in features and pricing as a reason to use or not use LinkedIn. OK, LinkedIn has taken us along for a ride, adding and removing features the platform used to have years ago and making it "news". BUT - it would be silly and unproductive of us to walk away from the incredible pool of self-entered professional data. It's just not an option. Besides, we may be getting an adequate search system back, after all!

Apparently, it is hard not just for us, uninformed users, but for LinkedIn itself to ride through so many redesigns and individual roll-outs within such a short period. Let's take a look at the screenshot above, which is THE guide for advanced searching at the moment. This syntax, as in the example, doesn't work; please take a note of it.

There needs to be one correction in LinkedIn's search tip sheet. This syntax -

title:(CMO OR "chief marketing") (wrong!)

- doesn't do what you think it should do, i.e. look for one job title or another. Compare with searching for

a:(CMO OR "chief marketing")

or just

CMO OR "chief marketing"

- and you will see the same results. That means that the operator in front of an OR statement does. The first search above does just a keyword search, not a title search. To search for one title or another, we need to write it differently than LinkedIn tells us -

title:CMO OR title:"chief marketing" (correct, at the moment).

Our friends from Social Talent have also noticed the discrepancy and reflected in a recent post. Unfortunately, the wrong tip sheet gets propagated by bloggers copying it:

It would be nice if LinkedIn either implements the syntax it documents or fixes the tip sheet to reflect what it does. Agree?

And here’s a new LinkedIn HACK for you.

Step 1. Let’s take the original string (like in the tip sheet) title:(CMO OR “chief marketing”). Now, replace the : for =

title=(CMO OR “chief marketing”)

Step 2. Run a search for people – for example, this.

Step 3. Append what we got in Step 1 to the end of your search URL, after a &. And here is a search for the current job title:

Given that there are multiple UI versions out there and things are still in flux, this may or may not work for you.

Tip. If you examine how we have changed the search URL to perform the job title search, you may come up with other “hacks” that will expand the search functionality.

We will tell you how to work with and work around the newly redesigned LinkedIn in the Overcome LinkedIn Limitations webinar – Wednesday, March 15, optional practice Thursday March 16, 2017.

Don’t miss it!