17 LinkedIn Ninja Tricks Experts Haven’t Taught You Yet
It’s common knowledge that LinkedIn is an incredible platform for lead generation and relationship building.
But are you using it in the most efficient way to get the best business results?
Whether you are a LinkedIn novice or an advanced user, it can be challenging to stay up to date on the many features LinkedIn adds and improves as well as the strategies to use them effectively.
Thankfully, you don’t have to. I have you covered.
My team and I make sure we stay up to date on all the changes on LinkedIn as well as LinkedIn tips and tricks on a daily basis.
In this article, I share some of the best-kept LinkedIn secrets (old and new). They include some extremely advanced LinkedIn ninja tricks to make your LinkedIn activities as efficient and useful to you as possible.
Each of these 17 LinkedIn tips are simple and easy to implement right away.
LinkedIn Ninja Tricks: 17 Little Known Features on LinkedIn
1. Accepting and replying to new connections
LinkedIn is the perfect place to not only find your ideal clients and showcase your authority in your field but also build relationships with your connections.
While you can quickly hit Accept in response to a new connection request and move on to other tasks, this won’t help you get to know or build a relationship with your new connection.
I recommend taking a minute to reply personally to new connection requests you decide to accept. And, of course, click Ignore if you don’t want that person in your network.
1. Start by going to your My Network tab. All requests will appear in a box at the top of the page.
2. Click See all, located in the top right corner of the page.
3. Do NOT click Accept
4. If the person has sent you a personalized connection request, you’ll see a See more link in the box. Click it to see their message.
5. Click the Reply to NAME link located at the bottom of their connection request. Accept their request, and reply accordingly.
6. If they did not send a personalized message and they are someone you want to connect with, you can accept their request.
7. You can send them a note after you accept their request.
2. Individually promote each of your services in your Experience section
Want to shine a spotlight on a new or existing service you offer?
You can do this with the Position Grouping function in your profile’s Experience section.
Go to your Experience section, and click on the + icon in the top right corner to add a new profile experience.
In the popup box, add the name of the service in the Title field.
This next part is vital.
You MUST select your current company in the Company field and add the same start date to Present as the date you have for your current company position.
Next, check the I currently work in this role box.
NOTE: Make sure you unselect the Update my industry and Update my headline boxes.
Next, provide a description of the service in the description box, and add any relevant rich media (videos, PDFs, images).
When you are done, click Save.
You can do this for as many of your services as you want. But don’t get carried away – stick to the ones you really want to feature.
You can rearrange the order of your new services under your main company experience:
- hover over that experience
- grab the four-line icon in the top right corner
- drag it into the position you want.
To edit an experience, click the pencil icon.
3. Send free messages to LinkedIn Premium members you are not connected to
You can send free messages to LinkedIn Premium members who have turned on their Open Profile setting.
You can identify these members by the gold LinkedIn icon appearing on their personal profiles as well as beside their names in the search results.
LinkedIn Premium members who have not turned on the Open Profile feature have a lock icon located in the message button.
You can identify prospects who have the Open Profile turned on as they will no lock icon within the message button.
To take advantage of this feature, when searching for prospects you are interested in using LinkedIn’s Advanced Search, look for Premium members with an Open Profile. Once you find a good match, click on the Message button to send them a message.
4. Send free messages to LinkedIn group members
Take advantage of your ability to send free messages instead of using expensive InMails, to people who belong to the same LinkedIn group as you.
Start by searching for your prospects using the Advanced Search. Once you find a good match, click through to visit their LinkedIn profile. At the top of their profile in the highlights section, you will see any groups you share, if any.
Click on your Mutual Groups to see all the groups you share listed. Click on one of the groups.
On the top right side of the group page, click on the link with the number of group members. This will take you to the page that lists the group members.
On the Members page, type their name into the search box. This will bring them up in the search results. You can then click the Message button to the right and send them a message.
Note, the limit includes messages sent directly from your group to your 1st-degree connections as well, so avoid sending messages this way to people you are already connected to.
5. Showcase your best work with the Featured section
There’s a really simple way to showcase your best work to anyone looking at your profile: it’s via the LinkedIn’s Featured section.
It allows you to highlight the elements of your profile you want to draw your readers’ attention to. It’s located at the top of your LinkedIn profile just below the About section and above your Activity section.
“The Featured section allows you to showcase samples of your work to people who view your LinkedIn profile. This is a great way to provide evidence of your skills and experience.”
Unlike the Activity section of your profile, which highlights all your activity of the past 45 days and lists it in reverse chronological order, LinkedIn’s Featured section allows you to choose the content you want to showcase to those who view your profile.
Any media you previously included in your About section has been moved to the Featured section.
In this section, newly added featured content will show up first by default, but you can easily reorder it. You can also edit or delete content within this section at any time.
Note that LinkedIn allows you to add as many samples of your work as you want, but most will be hidden. Be strategic when choosing what to include. Remember that people’s attention spans are short, so include your most impactful examples here.
You can include a wide variety of items in your Featured section. For example:
- popular LinkedIn posts you have shared
- articles you’ve authored and published on LinkedIn
- links to external websites, lead magnets, blogs or samples of your work
- media files, such as your images, documents, presentations and videos.
If you don’t have any content to feature, don’t worry. Your Featured section on LinkedIn will be hidden from people who view your profile until you add something to it.
6. Boolean search on LinkedIn
As with Google, most people have no idea that LinkedIn search allows the usage of modifiers to help you get even more targeted results.
This makes finding your ideal prospects on LinkedIn highly effective.
If you want to find results containing an exact phrase, use quotation marks to enclose the phrase. For example, “LinkedIn Trainer.”
AND
If you want to search for LinkedIn profiles that include two separate terms, use the word AND in capital letters between both terms when doing your search. For example, “LinkedIn Speaker” AND “Social Selling Expert.”
OR
If you want to combine the results of two separate search terms, type OR in all upper-case letters between two or more terms. For example, “LinkedIn Expert” OR “Social Selling Expert.”
Parentheses (round brackets)
This is where things get interesting. You can combine multiple modifiers to get even more complex search results using parentheses. For example, if you are searching for both LinkedIn Speaker and LinkedIn Trainer, type in LinkedIn AND (Speaker OR Trainer).
NOT
Want to exclude results containing a specific term? Use the word NOT in upper-case letters before the terms you want excluded from results. For example, “LinkedIn Speaker” NOT Coach.
7. Use saved searches, and LinkedIn will automatically send you leads
When you find a set of particular search criteria that provides highly targeted results for you, you can save your search using the Save Search option.
You can see the Save Search feature on the Search Results page on the right side near the top of the page.
LinkedIn will send new leads to your inbox, based on the preferences and the search criteria you specify.
You can also click on the number in brackets beside the search name to go directly to the results of that search. This is a fantastic feature – be sure to take advantage of it.
8. Search for a specific position within a company
If you have a list of prospective companies and are looking for a specific position or title within the company, go to the Company’s page and click on the See all employees link, located in the bottom right corner of the introduction card.
This will take you to LinkedIn’s Advanced Search page.
Next, if you are looking for a VP of Sales, for example, type VP Sales into the keywords section. This will bring up a list of the employees with VP Sales in their profiles.
To further improve your results, if you are looking for new prospects, search only for 2nd– and 3rd-degree connections.
9. Use the People Also Viewed feature
If you find a good prospect, be sure to check out the People Also Viewed feature down on the right-hand side of the page (some people may have this turned off). This can be an excellent source of other prospects.
10. Adjust your privacy settings
While the feature mentioned in the previous section can be handy for you to find prospects, it can also work against you.
Why?
Because it displays your competitors to your prospects visiting your profile.
Don’t let people leave your profile to view your competitors. Here is how to turn it off on your profile:
- Go into your Settings & Privacy
- Click on Privacy in the top navigation area.
- Locate Viewers of this profile also viewed in this list.
- Make sure this is set to No.
11. Find warm prospects
If you post articles on LinkedIn Publisher, you can see those who have reacted, commented on or shared your article.
These are people who have some idea of who you are and have had a positive interaction with the content you create. Some could be ideal prospects you have not yet connected with.
Everyone who has commented on your article can be found at the bottom of the article. There you can reply to each person as appropriate.
You can also access the list of people who reacted to your post (like, celebrate, love, insightful, curious) at the bottom of the article. Simply click the reaction number beside the reaction icons.
You can easily see who you are not connected to (your 2nd and 3rd-degree connections). Click on each person you are interested in, to go to their profile, and see if they are someone you want to connect with.
If you are already connected, and they are an ideal prospect, do a little research about them first, before sending them a message. Thank them for their like, comment or share and perhaps ask them a question related to the topic or recommend another article that they may be interested in.
If you are not already connected, and you think they might be a beneficial connection, go to their profile and send them a personalized connection request, thanking them for their interaction with your article.
You can also find who shared your article by clicking on the View stats link, underneath the article title. This will open a pop-up. Click on reshares to see the list of people who shared your post and their comment about it.
Take a couple of minutes to thank each person for sharing your article.
Again, you can easily see to whom you are and are not connected. Reach out with a personalized connection request to anyone you want to connect with.
12. How to reorder your LinkedIn skills
Have you ever received LinkedIn endorsements for useless and off-topic skills then had them appear on your profile?
This used to frustrate the heck out of me (especially as only the top three are visible). Thankfully, LinkedIn has provided a way for you to re-organize the endorsements in your list.
- Click the pencil icon in the Skills & Endorsements section.
- Click on the four lines icon located to the right of each skill to move it up or down the list.
- Arrange your skills in the order you want them to appear. Remember that the top three are visible when people scroll through your profile.
- To remove a skill from your list, click the trash can icon located to the right of that skill.
- Click “Save.”
That’s it!
13. Send follow up messages
Don’t just collect connections – build relationships. The best way to do this is to create a lead generation message sequence designed to build relationships and move conversations offline.
Social selling on LinkedIn can be highly effective when you use my proven system The LINK Method™.
14. Get your account unrestricted
Has LinkedIn restricted your account and banished you to LinkedIn jail?
If you are not sure, here is how to tell. The most obvious sign is you are now required to know the email address of every single person you try to connect with.
This happens when five people have clicked the I Don’t Know This Person option.
If this happens to you, you can ask the support team to remove the restriction, letting them know you understand the issue and ask for forgiveness.
Additional Reading: Help! I’ve Been Put Into LinkedIn Jail [LinkedIn Account Restriction]
15. Personalize connection requests on mobile
Today, many people are connecting on LinkedIn from their mobile devices.
But far too many people are still hitting Connect right on the person’s profile, resulting in a default – instead of personalized – connection request sent to their prospects.
Don’t make that mistake. Take the time to craft a personalized connection request.
To send a personalized connection request from your device, tap the “…” button on a person’s profile page.
Next tap on Personalize invite.
Create your personalized connection request in 300 or fewer characters, and hit Send Invitation.
16. Send voice messages
One of the best ways you can stand out and build relationships with your connections is to personalize all your communications with them.
The LinkedIn mobile app provides a fantastic way to send personalized messages to your 1st degree connections through the Voice Message feature.
With this feature, you can record and send voice messages 20-60 seconds long.
Voice messages allow you to communicate in your own voice with your connections, which helps them to know, like and trust you.
Here are some great reasons for sending a voice message:
- Easily message on the go: People speak about four times faster than they type, making voice messaging a more efficient way of explaining lengthier ideas, eliminating the need to type and edit your message.
- Get to it when you can:Leaving a voice message instead of calling your connection can often be better for them as they can listen and respond to your message when they have the time.
- Better express yourself:Speaking in your own voice allows you to communicate more effectively. It also prevents miscommunication, which often occurs in written communications.
To send a voice message on the LinkedIn app:
- Go to the messaging area in the mobile app, and select the person you want to send a message to.
- Tap the microphone icon located in the bottom right corner to open the voice recorder.
- Hold down the blue Record button, and record your message. LinkedIn will notify you if your message is too long or too short. Slide the blue icon away from the center to delete the message.
- If you haven’t turned off the Send voice message notification, you can tap Send to send your message or Cancel to delete it and rerecord your message.
17. Embed social media posts into your LinkedIn Publisher articles
Make your LinkedIn Publisher articles more interesting and engaging by embedding social media posts from other platforms, such as Twitter and Instagram, right into them.
Start by finding the social media post you wish to include. Click the down arrow in the top right corner of the post. Click on Embed Tweet.
You want to grab the actual link to this post, not the embed code. Scroll to the top of the page. Highlight and copy the link in the box.
Next, go to your LinkedIn Publisher article, and click on the box with the plus icon on the right side of the screen (where you want to add the social media post). Click the Links option.
Paste the URL into the space provided, and hit enter.
The live, continually updating social media post will now appear within your article.
Did I miss any LinkedIn ninja tricks?
Do you know of any LinkedIn ninja tricks and tips not mentioned in this article? Let me know in the comments below.
Want more?
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