How to use LinkedIn to find the right suppliers on marketplaces via advanced searches

In 2022, you should already know about LinkedIn, the professional social network with 660 million users. United States alone has 167 million users. It’s also the network where more than 30 million companies are present, and different content in the thousands is broadcasted daily.

LinkedIn is the place where you can be informed about news from your sector, as well as from other professionals and groups in your field of activity.

As an operator of a service marketplace, one of your main concerns is developing a relevant and qualitative choice of service providers for your service requesters. This is one of your concerns regardless of your level of development and strategy you have decided to adopt.

In a previous article, we shared advice on how to carry out an acquisition campaign for your online booking site or online appointment scheduling site.

LinkedIn is the digital space on which professionals, companies, training centers, interest groups, announcements of events, and content sharing (images, articles, videos, testimonials…) can be found.

As a professional, whatever your sector, LinkedIn is the ideal place to discover and get in touch with new profiles. In your case, with new service providers!

Before starting your search session, here are some tips to consider for your LinkedIn page. If you have a LinkedIn page with job offers it is a page that people want to follow.

 

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How?

→ Update your LinkedIn page.

There are too many incomplete professional pages. Make sure you provide as much information as possible on your page. Include the type of company, presentation, links to your platform, location, etc…

The more information your page has, the faster your prospects will be able to get to know you. Now you can even propose a search from your LinkedIn page thanks to the customization feature on the LinkedIn button. This is a good way to highlight the richness of your community!

→ Maintain your page regularly.

According to many experts and studies, the most popular and most-searched pages on LinkedIn are the most active. So don’t hesitate to share content and articles related to your business sector. Share posts from your collaborators too, this will show that you are a committed player and up to date with the issues in your field of activity.

→ Maintain your network. 

Having a good network is one of the best ways to facilitate your research. From its creation, LinkedIn has capitalized on the network effect as well as the connection between users. Being linked to a professional in your sector of activity has the effect of bringing you closer to colleagues. Therefore, the more you increase your connections with professionals in your field, the more likely you are to get in touch with new ones. We will see later on that your network will also determine the results of your research.

 

 

There are two methods to consider for each search you perform:

→ Advanced searches and Boolean searches

  • Advanced searches 

This type of search allows you to add filters to your search.

Since their creation, search methods have often been changed. Fortunately for you however, the free version of LinkedIn now allows you to search with ease due to numerous filters and tools.

Let’s imagine that you are looking for freelance graphic designers based in Strasbourg for your online service marketplace.  If you type in the search bar “freelance graphic designer”, there will be far too many results to be relevant.

Here are the steps to follow to refine your search:

To begin, go to the LinkedIn search bar at the top left of your window. Then click on the magnifying glass  for easier access to all the filters.

From there, you can use filters to refine your search and specify what you’re looking for:

  • Person
  • Employment
  • Events
  • Schools
  • Companies
  • Content
  • Groups

When looking for new service providers, it is easier to search for a person.

After doing this, click on all the filters so that you can increase precision. Here is an overview:

bolean-searchbolean-search-2

  • Boolean searches

Like with a classic search engine, Boolean searches allow you to refine a search with the text you enter.

Therefore, you can exclude or include terms or target fields of your search.

Here are ways to do this:

  • Quotation marks: you enter several words that will be joined together and taken into account as a phrase.

If you type freelance graphic designer, the results will take into account people whose profile contains the word freelance and graphic designer without associating them.

If you type “freelance graphic designer”, the results will take into account people who are freelance graphic designers.

  • Parenthesis: this allows you to indicate a succession of conditions to your search. For example: (“multimedia graphic designer” OR “freelance graphic designer”) NOT (“trainee” OR “alternating”)

  • AND: this word allows you to associate several indications in your search. For example, if you are looking for a freelance graphic designer in the field of advertising, you would type: “freelance graphic designer” AND advertising.

  • OR: this lets you indicate that you are looking for a profile containing one term or another. For example you can type “3D graphic designer” OR “multimedia graphic designer”.

  • NOT: this means you want to exclude a term from your search. For example “freelance graphic designer” NOT multimedia

However, it is important to avoid having searches with too many words, as they will not generate any results.

It is important to know how to use both the filters of advanced searches, and Boolean searches for your searches.

Caution! The number of searches in the free version of LinkedIn is limited, so it is all the more important to use the filters during your explorations.