What are the Boolean search modifiers for LinkedIn?

LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional network with over 810 million members worldwide. With so many profiles on the platform, using advanced search techniques can help you find exactly who or what you’re looking for. One of the most powerful ways to refine your searches is to use Boolean operators. Boolean search allows you to combine keywords with modifiers like “AND”, “OR”, and “NOT” to filter your results. This gives you more control over your search so you can eliminate irrelevant profiles and home in on just the right people or jobs. In this guide, we’ll explain what Boolean search is, the key Boolean operators that work on LinkedIn, and examples of how to use them effectively. Mastering Boolean search is a must for recruiters, sales professionals, marketers and anyone else who relies on LinkedIn to connect with relevant prospects and opportunities.

What is Boolean Search?

Boolean search operators allow you to combine keywords in your search while defining the relationship between them. There are three main Boolean operators:

AND – Results must contain both keywords
OR – Results can contain either keyword
NOT – Results must not contain the keyword after NOT

By using these modifiers between your keywords, you can refine and filter your searches to pinpoint exactly the profiles, jobs or companies you want to find. For example, searching for “sales AND recruiter” would only return profiles that contain both the words sales and recruiter. Boolean search gives you more specificity than just entering keywords without operators.

Why Use Boolean Search on LinkedIn?

There are a few key reasons why Boolean operators are so useful for LinkedIn searches:

– Precision – Connect with the most relevant prospects by filtering out non-targeted profiles

– Efficiency – Save time by eliminating the need to scroll through hundreds of irrelevant results

– Quality – Find better qualified candidates, customers or business partners that align with your criteria

– Simplicity – Boolean search is easy to use once you know the basic operators

Combining keywords with modifiers allows you to cut through the noise and hone in on exactly who and what you want to find on the platform. The ability to refine and filter your searches will improve your LinkedIn sourcing and relationship building.

LinkedIn’s Boolean Operators

LinkedIn supports the standard Boolean operators AND, OR and NOT. Here’s an overview of how each one works on LinkedIn’s search function:

AND – Both keywords must be present for a result to appear. For example, “sales AND recruiting” would display profiles that have both words somewhere in the profile.

OR – Either or both keywords can be present for a result to appear. For example, “sales OR recruiting” would display profiles with sales, recruiting or both.

NOT – The keyword after NOT cannot be present for a result to appear. For example, “recruiter NOT engineering” would display profiles with recruiter but exclude any that also mention engineering.

In addition to these standard operators, LinkedIn also offers some advanced variants:

AND NOT – The first keyword must be present but the second keyword after AND NOT must be excluded. For example, “sales AND NOT retail”.

“” – Using quotation marks around a phrase will search for the exact phrase. For example, “business development manager”.

() – Using parentheses around words with Boolean operators will combine them properly. For example “sales OR (recruiting AND hiring)”.

These additional Boolean modifiers give you even more options to craft targeted searches. Now let’s look at some examples of how you can use Boolean operators effectively on LinkedIn.

Boolean Search Examples on LinkedIn

Here are some examples of Boolean searches you can use on LinkedIn to filter your results:

Find Profiles

Sales AND Recruiting – Profiles with both sales and recruiting experience
Marketing OR “Public Relations” – Profiles with marketing or PR experience
“Social Media Manager” AND NOT intern – Social media managers, excluding interns
(Sales OR Business) AND Development – Sales or business development profiles
NY AND NOT NJ – Located in New York but not New Jersey

Search Jobs

Sales AND (NY OR NJ) – Sales jobs located in NY or NJ
(Marketing OR Communications) AND Manager – Marketing or communications manager roles
Remote NOT “on site” – Remote jobs, excluding on-site positions
(Recruiter OR Headhunter) AND Hiring – Recruiter or headhunter roles focused on hiring

Find Companies

“Information Technology” AND (Healthcare OR Pharmaceutical) – IT companies in healthcare or pharma industries
(Media OR Publishing) AND NOT News – Media or publishing companies, excluding news
Startup AND AI – Startups working with artificial intelligence
(Cloud OR SaaS) AND (500-1000 employees) – Mid-sized cloud computing or SaaS companies
Automotive AND Manufacturing AND Midwest – Automotive manufacturing companies located in the Midwest

These examples demonstrate how Boolean operators can zero in on precisely the LinkedIn search results you want. The key is choosing relevant keywords for your search goals and combining them logically with AND, OR and NOT modifiers.

Crafting Effective Boolean Searches

Here are some tips for creating effective Boolean searches on LinkedIn:

– Start broad – Begin with a wide keyword like “sales” then narrow using modifiers
– Know your goal – Pick keywords that will filter to your ideal prospects or opportunities
– Specific is better – “Social media manager” is better than just “manager”
– Relevant keywords – Pick words that closely relate to who or what you want to find
– Location matters – Add location names or abbreviations like NY, Midwest, etc. if relevant
– Avoid overcomplicating – 2-4 modifiers is usually sufficient for most searches
– Check your results – Review the filtered profiles/jobs to ensure they are relevant
– Iterate and adjust – Tweak keywords and modifiers to refine the search over time

投入一些努力来玩转Boolean搜索可以提高LinkedIn的搜索效果。但切记不要过度限制搜索词,以免错过潜在的匹配项。熟练运用这些技巧可以节省大量时间,直接锁定最相关的LinkedIn用户和工作。

LinkedIn Search Syntax Comparison

For reference, here is a comparison of LinkedIn’s Boolean syntax versus Google’s syntax:

While LinkedIn uses the same Boolean operators as Google, the syntax differs slightly. The key operators function the same, but Google substitutes a “+” for AND and a “|” for OR. Keep this in mind as you use both search engines to avoid any confusion switching between the two.

Advanced LinkedIn Search Tips

In addition to Boolean operators, here are some advanced search tips for LinkedIn:

– Use quotes for exact match – “Social Media Manager” returns that precise phrase
– Filter by profile language – lang:en returns profiles set to English
– Search within companies – “Anthropic” /software engineer finds software roles at Anthropic
– Look up company sizes – (employees:501-1000) finds mid-sized companies
– Target seniority levels – (senior OR executive) finds senior professionals
– Connect with alumni – university:”Stanford University” finds Stanford alumni
– Search current employers – currentCompany:”Google”
– Find profiles with media – (pdf OR ppt OR “slideshare”) finds profiles with those attachments
– Target by industry – (industry:”Information Technology”)
– Search within groups – group:”Marketing Analytics” /discussion finds discussions within that group

Tap into these advanced tactics to uncover the most relevant people, jobs and companies for your needs.

Conclusion

Mastering Boolean search is critical for getting the most out of LinkedIn. The operators AND, OR and NOT give you the power to filter your searches and home in on the profiles, jobs and companies that align with your specific criteria. Start broad then narrow down your keywords and modifiers. Craft targeted searches using location, companies, skills and other filters. Check your search results and continue refining over time for the most precision. With the proper Boolean search techniques, you can cut through LinkedIn’s hundreds of millions of profiles and uncover the connections that matter most for your professional goals.