I work with a lot of recruiters that find Boolean logic and search engine operators difficult to get their heads around. You can still get a lot out of your search tools though, even if you’re totally bamboozled by Boolean.

I’ve been thinking about the searches I run most often and find the most useful – it turns out none of them are complicated, mile-long Boolean behemoths, they’re all pretty simple.

The Lion

Whether or not you would find this useful probably depends on how you use LinkedIn and who you connect to on this network.

I have a Linkedin saved search set up to alert me when interesting recruiters become LIONs. I have several reasons for wanting to connect to these people;

• LIONs and recruiters tend to have larger networks, helping me to grow mine.
• Recruiters are the kind of people I want to do business with.
• I’m not going to get in hot water with LinkedIn for inviting too many people I don’t know if I invite LIONs.

You might want to set up an alert for LinkedIn LIONs that match keywords related to your industry. LIONs that mention FMCG on their profiles, for example.

This will probably lead you to other recruiters, or salespeople, who work in the same field. Don’t be afraid to connect with them, and do customise your invite. You might want to hide your LinkedIn connections list first though.

The #Hashtag Stalker

This one is all about events. Social Media and industry events are a match made in heaven.

On the day of a big industry event, I will run a search for its #hashtag on Twitter.

Don’t forget – you can use other social networks to help you find industry movers and shakers to connect with.

• Search for an event tag on Instagram (pictured) to see who’s sharing pictures
• Check out the venue on Swarm to see who is checking in.

This won’t find you all the attendees, of course. What it will find you is a lot of the nodes in the network. The people sharing on social media are usually the people who really get networking. They like to connect, share, help out, and they know tons of people. These are the people to make friends with.

The Cross Reference

This is about using the names you already have to find more names. Simply head over to Google and run a search like this

You might have originally found that person on LinkedIn or a job board, been referred to them, they might have been a suggestion from the hiring manager. However you found that name, you should try to find out where they crop up on the web. You might see them

• Profiled on their company website, there could be other similar people with a profile too.
• Quoted on an industry news site – there might be more people mentioned in other articles.
• Using a niche industry forum or a social network you’re not familiar with yet.
• Many other possibilities…

This might not lead to more names every single time, but it’s worth running every name you find through a simple Google search like this and seeing where it leads.

If you find that LinkedIn is cropping up all over your search results, you might consider adapting this search, using a little Boolean/X-Ray combo like this

What simple searches are you using to get great results?

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