Served HOT– LinkedIn CheatSheet #1: How to make your name visible beyond your 3rd Degree

Now that we have InMail on LinkedIn, the 4th Degree contact names are no longer visible even after paying for a Business Account [feedback from the various LinkedIn YahooGroups], although the InMail actually provides access to all degrees of contact after the 3rd [the 4th, 5th, 6th and the nth], you will not be able to see the name of the person tho whom you are sending an InMail.

For someone like me – freelance designer, small business, no corporate to pay for my networking efforts, non-recruiter [where I’d probably charge the employer for the InMail sent to prospective candidate who was eventually hired] – I will need good convincing before I sign-up for a Business Account.

So there are always workarounds and like the famous LinkedIn Cheater’s Guide by Christian Mayaud, I have a simple workaround to the problem presented to me by the above-mentioned situation.

Here’s to better networking!

First some facts:

• When you search beyond your 3rd Degree network, you do not get names of people.
• You get a short part of their profile, which includes the following:

  –Headline
  –Location [Country]–Industry [eg. Graphic Design]–Currently [what the person is doing currently – eg: Director, Indian Operations with Optimus Solutions]–Past [past employment details – 3-4 jobs – I am not sure exactly how many]–A short bit of text which contains the keyword that you searched for
  This is what an average short profile will look like [.gif file – opens in new window]

• When you click on a particular Headline to get to a more detailed view of the profile then you get to see the following:

  –Headline
  –Location[Country]–Industry[eg. Graphic Design]–Current[current employment]–Past[past employments]–Education [list of institutes/colleges]–Endorsements [from whom and how many]–Summary [the summary that you enter in your profile]–Specialities [the keywords that you enter in your profile]–Contact Settings [who you want to connect with and what kind of requests they are open to – some people also list their e-mail here – good idea if you want to be found]This is what an average long profile will look like [.gif file – opens in new window]

Here’s what to do to get your name on the search results [and there are various ways to do this – I am only presenting the one that I use]:

• Open your profile page – where you can edit your details. Edit your “HEADLINE” and include your name right at the beginning try to use brackets to seperate it from the text [See how I have done it at the end of this post]. One shortcoming of this approach is that your headline becomes shorter – you will have to remove redundant text to accomodate your name.
• On your profile, also edit your summary to include whatever details you would want – the summary is included in its entirety in the search results detailed profile so think what would benefit you the most – give accurate details to the person searching. Some people could even paste their complete profile – including past employment/groups etc.

You’re done!

Remember, it’s the “HEADLINE” that you need to edit and include your name in so that when others search by keyword and you are not in their network, they can still see your name.

This is what my short profile looks like to someone who is not within my 3rd Degree contacts. [.gif image – opens in new window] and this is what the detailed profile looks like [.gif image – opens in new window]. My name and e-mail are included in the Headline itself – which is ofcourse a personal choice.

And I am not advocating this as a “best practice” – we all have different views and different requirements! You are welcome to connect with me on LinkedIn – do visit my LinkedIn Profile.