Yes, you can search companies by industry on LinkedIn. LinkedIn allows you to search for companies and filter your results by industry, location, company size, and other criteria. This can be useful for researching companies in a particular field, connecting with relevant professionals, exploring career opportunities, and more.
Searching by Industry on LinkedIn
To search for companies by industry on LinkedIn:
1. Go to LinkedIn.com and log into your account.
2. Click on the search bar at the top of the page.
3. Type “companies” in the search bar. This will bring up the company search page.
4. On the left side of the page, you will see filter options. Click on “Industry” to expand the list of industries.
5. Select the industry or industries you want to focus your search on. For example, you could select “Computer Software” or “Information Technology and Services”.
6. You can further refine your search with other filters like company size, location, when the company joined LinkedIn, etc.
7. Once you’ve selected your desired filters, hit enter or click the blue “Search” button.
8. You will now see a list of companies on LinkedIn that match your industry search filters.
9. You can scroll through the list and click on any company to view their LinkedIn company page and learn more about what they do.
10. On the company page, you can follow the company to get updates, view employees who work there, related jobs, and other information.
So in summary, LinkedIn’s robust search and filter functionality allows you to easily search for and find companies by industry. Give it a try next time you want to research companies in a specific field!
Benefits of Searching Companies by Industry on LinkedIn
Here are some of the benefits of using LinkedIn to search for companies by industry:
– Discover new companies and expand your business network. LinkedIn has over 15 million company pages, so you can uncover companies you may not have heard of before.
– Research competitors. Check out what other businesses in your industry are up to on their LinkedIn company pages.
– Learn about company culture and values. Company pages often showcase information about their mission, values, office culture, and employees.
– Find relevant job opportunities. Search for companies hiring in your desired industry and location.
– Connect with the right people. Identify and reach out to key employees who work at the companies you want to connect with.
– See company updates and news. Follow company pages to stay up to date on new products, events, job listings, and other announcements.
– Showcase your expertise. Engage with company pages and employees by commenting on posts, giving recommendations, and sharing content.
– Conduct market research. Analyze company size, locations, services, clients, and other attributes of competitors.
– Prepare for interviews. Research companies you’re interviewing with to better understand their business.
Overall, LinkedIn provides abundant information on companies so you can research industries, find opportunities, network intelligently, and stay in the know.
Tips for Effective Company Searches on LinkedIn
Here are some tips to help you get the most out of searching for companies on LinkedIn:
– Use specific industry terms and categories when filtering your search. For example, “investment banking” or “computer software” instead of just “finance” or “tech”.
– Try searching by location if you want to find companies headquartered or operating in a certain city, region, or country.
– Refine your search further by company size – small, midsize, large enterprise – depending on your goals.
– Sort company search results by number of employees, followers, date joined, or other metrics.
– Look beyond the biggest, most well-known companies in an industry to discover lesser known firms.
– Check out company lists and selections curated by LinkedIn like “Top Startups” and “Best Places to Work” for ideas.
– Follow companies you’re interested in to get their latest updates in your LinkedIn feed.
– Click through to company pages and employees to learn as much as possible about their work.
– Use LinkedIn’s advanced search operators like AND, OR, NOT, and QUOTES for more precise searches.
– Personalize your searches by saving them – just click “Save this search” at the top of the results page.
Spending some time experimenting with LinkedIn’s company search will uncover a wealth of information and opportunities tailored to your professional interests.
Searching for Companies to Work For
One very popular use of LinkedIn’s company search is to find potential employers. Here are some tips for job seekers:
– Search for terms like “hiring” or “jobs” along with the industry and location filters to find actively recruiting companies.
– Look for company pages with the LinkedIn Career Pages badge – this means they have active job listings.
– Filter by company size, especially if you have a preference for small, midsize, or large business environments.
– Research company culture and values on their pages to assess fit. Look for awards, CSR initiatives, mission statements, and employee photos.
– Follow their LinkedIn page and set notifications to stay updated on new job postings.
– Identify and connect with employees who work in your desired role or department. Reach out to ask about their experience.
– Check LinkedIn Salary data and company reputation ratings on Glassdoor to evaluate compensation and employee satisfaction.
– For recent grads, search for industry terms like “graduate program”, “rotational program”, “leadership development program” to find formal entry-level hiring initiatives.
– Save any searches you want to recheck frequently for new job opportunities.
Doing thorough company research on LinkedIn is a valuable step in identifying employers you may wish to target and getting insights to help you stand out in the hiring process.
Researching Competitors on LinkedIn
LinkedIn also provides extensive information to research competitor companies:
– Search for your direct competitors by name as well as similar companies in your broader industry.
– Analyze competitors’ services, products, marketing content, special programs, and thought leadership on their company pages. Identify their positioning.
– Check for new hires at competitor companies – especially senior level executives – to determine strategic plans.
– Look for employees switching between your company and competitors. This can provide intel on competitive offers and recruiting tactics.
– Follow competitor company pages and employees to receive their updates and monitor announcements, achievements, initiatives, and events.
– Evaluate their social media presence and follower counts on LinkedIn and other platforms to benchmark against your own company.
– Search by geographic location to analyze penetration in certain markets and expansion plans.
– Assess company size and growth over time – number of employees, offices, followers, revenue when available.
– Read through employee skills, experiences, and recommendations to gain insights into their capabilities.
Regular competitor research gives you an informed perspective on your industry landscape and helps shape strategic decisions and direction for your own company.
Finding Clients, Partners, and Vendors
Business owners and sales professionals can also leverage LinkedIn company searches to identify potential clients, partners, vendors and other key connections:
– Search for prospects by industry, product/service category, and location/region filters.
– Look for company size, growth trends, and funding status to qualify leads.
– Follow company pages and set notifications so you see relevant updates in your feed.
– Identify key decision makers – founders, executives, managers – and connect with them directly.
– Comment on and share prospective clients’ content to establish a connection.
– Search for companies mentioning challenges your product/service can solve.
– Discover clients of competitors who may be open to alternatives.
– Find companies without a LinkedIn presence to uncover untapped prospects.
– Connect with promising startups early on to build lasting relationships.
– Search by technology stack or other keywords to find companies using relevant tools.
– Save searches on LinkedIn to continuously surface new potential customer, channel and technology partners.
In summary, LinkedIn is a goldmine for business development, sales, and partnership opportunities in any industry when you search companies strategically.
Showcasing Thought Leadership and Expertise
Beyond searching and researching companies, professionals can use LinkedIn company pages to boost their personal brand and thought leadership:
– Follow companies in your industry to quickly see and engage with their updates, articles, case studies, and other content.
– Share company status updates, news articles, blog posts, and other content with your network, along with relevant commentary.
– Congratulate companies on milestones, awards, new funding rounds, product launches, hires, etc.
– Provide recommendations for companies and products/services you use and love.
– Join and participate actively in LinkedIn Groups related to the companies and industries you target.
– Comment on company posts with useful insights, data points, and strategic advice.
– Offer helpful tips, best practices, and suggestions to companies based on your expertise.
– Share multimedia content – video, images, presentations, PDFs – that companies in your network would find valuable.
– Post original articles and content focused on your niche and highlight relevant companies.
– Partner with companies to co-create content like guides, infographics, and slide decks.
– Monitor conversations and provide thoughtful contributions when constructively critiquing companies.
Positioning yourself as an industry thought leader takes persistence, but interacting meaningfully with companies on LinkedIn serves that goal while nurturing beneficial connections.
Advice for Personal Branding on LinkedIn
Here are some additional tips to strengthen your personal brand through your interactions and activity with companies on LinkedIn:
– Complete your LinkedIn profile 100% including summary, experience, education, skills, accomplishments etc. to establish credibility.
– Highlight relevant certifications, awards, publications, volunteer work, and speaking engagements.
– Showcase your expertise, thought leadership and unique value proposition in your summary and posts.
– Use a professional headshot and background photo on your profile.
– Publish your own long-form written content – articles, blog posts, white papers.
– Participate actively in comments sections of company pages and posts. Offer insights vs. overt self-promotion.
– Share content from your company page or blog focused on your niche.
– Join industry groups and contribute best practices, personal experiences, and advice.
– Follow influencers and thought leaders in your target companies and industries.
– Leverage multimedia posts – video, audio, images, infographics – to vary your content format.
– Tag relevant companies when featuring them positively in your content.
– Give recommendations and endorsements to former colleagues and business connections.
– Don’t overdo promotions – focus on value-add for your network and connections.
Developing an authoritative and trustworthy presence on LinkedIn takes time but boosts your visibility and impact with target companies and audiences.
Key Takeaways
– LinkedIn provides powerful company search features to find companies by industry, location, size, growth, keywords and more.
– Research companies for networking, business development, partnership opportunities, competitive intelligence, recruiting and more.
– Follow target company pages and employees, engage with updates and content, and set search alerts.
– Develop subject matter expertise and thought leadership by sharing valuable insights and content related to targeted companies and industries.
– Build connections with key employees and decision makers at companies that align with your professional goals.
– Continuously expand your industry knowledge and use company/competitor intel to inform your career and business strategy.
In summary, leveraging company research and engagement on LinkedIn provides tremendous advantages for professionals, entrepreneurs, recruiters, marketers and anyone seeking to grow their business or career opportunities.
