Using LinkedIn Filters vs BOOLEAN Search

“Information wants to be free.”

― Stewart Brand

Today I did some analysis of my network and found some glitches with LinkedIn's categorising settings which confirmed the importance of using free BOOLEAN search instead of LinkedIn's "Seniority" settings.

Out of the 10,125 connections I have, LinkedIn tells me that there are 2,418 "Directors". However, when I drill into this data, I see that "Data Mining Analyst Student Loans Company" comes up in this list, along with many other non-executive titles (example in the screenshot above).

However, if I were to use a BOOLEAN search this is what I find:

VP = 1,019 (BOOLEAN = VP OR Head OR "Vice President")

CXO = 366 (BOOLEAN = Chief OR CMO OR CIO OR CTO OR CFO OR CRO)

Director = 2,014 (BOOLEAN = "Director")

“If we have data, let’s look at data. If all we have are opinions, let’s go with mine.”

― Jim Barksdale

It's interesting because the VP number goes up, the CXO count is cut in half, and the director count is cut by 20%. It's important because:

1) If you're trying to get a message out that is specific to Directors and less relevant for CXO's, the LinkedIn filters will trip you up

2) If you're trying to get an estimate on your total addressable market, LinkedIn will give you false figures

3) If you're trying to divide a territory amongst your sales team, you will have some members reaching out to people that are outside of their territory

4) If you're recruiting specific roles, you will not see your total talent pool and waste a lot of time manually triple-checking profiles and saved searches.

“It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts.”

― Sherlock Holmes

Just one plug - ManyMangoes have a Big Data solution that uses BOOLEAN search against public data on LinkedIn, Google, Stock Exchanges, and other accurate data sources. We've developed a process to surgically extract this data so that sales, marketing, and recruitment teams can build effective go-to-market strategies. $0.5 per contact minimum 500 contacts. Plug complete.

"Spend more time closing and less time prospecting"

― ManyMangoes