LinkedIn Search: Searching for & Contacting LinkedIn Data Werewolves

I rarely read the newspaper anymore, choosing instead to get news from the Web. The only thing I miss is the comics. A couple months ago, this comic strip arrived in my mailbox from a friend. It made me laugh and I’ve been meaning to post it for all to see.

What I love so much about this strip is that LinkedIn is being used for SEARCH! So many people think of LinkedIn as a place to just post a profile. LinkedIn is a search engine— a way to find people, companies and opportunities.

Let’s put ourselves in Mordak’s place and see exactly how he used LinkedIn to find the Army of Data Werewolves.

How to Search for an Army of Data Werewolves

So the first question is, how did Mordac go about finding these Data Werewolves on LinkedIn? Most likely he performed an Advanced LinkedIn Search using keywords.

Notice how I used a Boolean search string. It’s easy to miss people because of alternative spellings or abbreviations. Using Boolean search strings allows you to get more targeted search results in just one search query. I wanted to make sure that the results included both the plural and singular form of the word. Werewolves are descended from wolves and wolves are by nature, pack animals. I didn’t want to miss the perfect Data Werewolf because he chose to use the plural.

Keywords: “Data Werewolf” OR “Data Werewolves”

And believe it or not… this LinkedIn search resulted in the PERFECT CANDIDATE!

Contacting a Data Werewolf Found on LinkedIn

Mordak found the perfect candidate, so how did he go about contacting this data werewolf? Mordak had a few options at his disposal. First he checked to see if the Data Werewolf provided his contact information. If so, Mordak could pick up the phone and give him a call immediately. If the Data Werewolf did not provide contact information on his LinkedIn profile, the next option is to see if the werewolf is in Mordak’s network.

You can see that the Data Werewolf is a second degree connection… notice the “2nd” on the upper right hand side of his profile. By checking the sidebar on his profile, I can see exactly HOW we are connected. In this example, both of us our connected to Paul. I can either call Paul and ask for an introduction OR I can initiate an introduction through LinkedIn. Both ways work just fine.

But let’s say Mordak wanted to bypass the introduction route and he wanted to message the Data Werewolf directly. Since they aren’t first degree connections, Mordak can’t message the Data Werewolf directly on LinkedIn. However, what he can do is JOIN one of the Data Werewolf’s LinkedIn Groups. By joining one of his groups… such as Data Werewolves Group on LinkedIn, Mordak can message the Data Werewolf directly because they share the same Group in common.

At this point it’s imperative to have a good message to send. Data Werewolves don’t take too kindly to spam-filled messages filling their LinkedIn inbox. Clearly Mordak sent a nice message and that’s why they decided to work together. This was clearly unfortunate for the terrible perpetrators who had their entrails eaten… but you know what? They deserved it for stealing all those passwords!