LinkedIn expert tip – find people without paying $25

by patrick_omalley

Summary:

Sometimes, you search for someone in LinkedIn, but it says “out of network” because they aren’t a 1^st, 2^nd, or 3^rd level connection, and LinkedIn won’t give you the person’s name.   You assume you have to pay LinkedIn $25 in order to see their name.  Not true, because you know me.

Details:

Here’s my real life example

I was talking to a potential client (for social media consulting) at Connecticut Plastics, and she mentioned to me that the owner would be calling me.  I didn’t hear his name clearly, and it would be awkward if I didn’t know him by name when he called.

I did an advanced search on LinkedIn for

Connecticut Plastics owner

and it showed that he had a LinkedIn profile, but he was “out of network”, so LinkedIn wouldn’t give his name.

Cough up 25 bucks?  Not yet.

Look in Google using a fancy trick

Realize that Google has most LinkedIn profiles, so the trick is to somehow find them on Google for free.  If you pick some unique string from the info that LinkedIn does show you, and use a special feature of Google called the “site:” feature, (which allows you to just search one site on the Internet), you may find the name and full profile through Google.

I saw the string

Engineer at Alinabal

in his profile and figured that very few other people would have that string in their profile.  Therefore, I put it into Google, along with the word owner, using the following magic search string

Engineer at Alinabal owner site:www.linkedin.com

and found the profile in the Google results.  I clicked on the link, and LinkedIn showed me the LinkedIn profile page, with name and all.

See a 2 minute sample video

If you want to see a 2 minute video that shows exactly how to do it, go to my web site at

http://www.patrickomalley.com/linkedin-find-out-of-network-profiles-free.html

This technique doesn’t work in every case, but it works in a lot of cases.  If it works for you, please send me $25 each time.

Pretty cool, huh?   Pass it on…

Shameless self-promotion

My email subscribers got this months ago – If you want these before I make them public, sign up for my email newsletter at http://www.patrickomalley.com

Speeches and seminars – I’ve been giving this tip in speeches and seminars for years.  Hire me and get WAY ahead of the curve.  And your friends will think you’re cool.

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11 comments

1 Jason Wheeler { 02.04.10 at 5:56 pm }

Thanks for the instructions. I will put this to use right away on my linkedin profile. I look forward to following your blog.

2 Patrick OMalley { 02.05.10 at 7:05 pm }

Thanks, brother

3 Patrick OMalley { 02.05.10 at 7:06 pm }

oh, and pay me my $25.

4 Karen Cusack { 02.06.10 at 3:53 pm }

Pat- thanks for that tip it worked… I owe you $25 and some…

5 Philippe { 06.22.10 at 1:21 pm }

Thanks a lot for the tip (easy ! ) : remember me to give you $25 in the future…. !

6 Patrick OMalley { 06.25.10 at 11:29 am }

Philippe, I will remember…

7 Scott A. { 06.30.10 at 2:33 pm }

the site:www.linkedin.com trick = great.
QUESTION: How about getting the person’s email address if it is not listed on their profile? The only option is “Send InMail” – which if selected brings up UPGRADE YOUR ACCOUNT. Any ideas?

8 Patrick OMalley { 06.30.10 at 3:12 pm }

SA, LinkedIn will never give out everyone’s email address. If they did, people would get spammed like crazy. One of the ways they regulate it is by charging you $25 a month to send 3 messages, or $50 to send 10 messages.

9 Mark Ryan { 12.06.10 at 8:47 pm }

I believe that the true value of a LinkedIn account is the level 2 list of connections. I have downloaded and browsed my whole LinkedIn level 2 network (35 000+ contacts) and I am browsing the new contacts every other week, it gives me new leads all the time, very easy to contact. Took me some time the first time I got it all but now it takes me very little time to spot interesting leads in the updates (I am looking for very specific type of companies). The most interesting part is that my direct connections are working for me for free; each time they connect to new people, these people end up in my database and I just have to look at them to spot my sales lead.

It’s not a feature of LinkedIn, you have to use a third party service. There are several companies out there that provide this service. I am currently using Smart Bees (http://www.smartbees.biz), they have been very helpful so far.

10 Sean Cummins { 04.12.11 at 9:47 am }

Again great information easy to follow with your step by step visual instruction.
Thanks Sean

11 Patrick O’Malley { 04.12.11 at 10:14 am }

thanks, SC

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