The right contact at your target company is probably on LinkedIn right now. The challenge is finding them among the platform’s billion-plus users without spending hours scrolling through search results.
Most people type a company name into LinkedIn's search bar and hope for the best. While this does work for simple searches, complex ones often get you a messy mix of current employees, former staff, and people who just mentioned the company in passing.
Thankfully, LinkedIn has quite a few search function layers to help narrow your focus. Boolean operators can, for instance, slice through irrelevant results fast. Similarly, advanced filters can shrink your hunt to specific departments, seniority levels, and locations.
The difference between random searching and strategic employee hunting comes down to technique. Here’s how to locate employees of a company in minutes instead of hours.
How to Find Current Employees With LinkedIn
If you've found a company you want to research or reach out to for opportunities, you can find their employees by following these steps:
Direct Company Page Search
One of the fastest ways to find employees is by checking a company’s LinkedIn page. This method works best when you know the company's name.
Type the company name into the LinkedIn search bar and click on the official account you’re looking for. From your search, you’ll already start seeing samples of people who work at the company.
Click on the company’s name to access the full page and click on the "People" button (1). On this tab, you can filter based on location, education, occupation, and even connection strengths (2).
Advanced Search Techniques
If you're looking for someone with a specific role, you can refine your search with Boolean search operators like AND, OR, and NOT. Here are a few examples of how to use these operators:
- AND: This operator ensures that profiles that include both keywords will appear in the search results. For example, "marketing AND manager" will return profiles that contain both words.
- OR: This operator broadens the search by including results that have at least one of the keywords. For instance, searching "sales OR business development" will show profiles that include either "sales" or "business development" or both.
- NOT: This operator helps to exclude unwanted results by removing certain words. For example, "engineer NOT senior" will show profiles that mention "engineer" but exclude those with the word "senior”.
Use LinkedIn Recruiter Lite
LinkedIn Recruiter Lite is a paid search tool that makes it easy to find the employees of a company. It offers advanced filtering options that allow you to search and message people outside your network.
How to Find Former Employees on LinkedIn
Aside from finding current company employees on LinkedIn, the platform also makes it easy to find former employees. Here's how to go about it:
Use Alumni Filter
To find former employees of a company on LinkedIn using the Alumni filter, start by typing the company's name into the LinkedIn search bar and pressing Enter.
Next, click on the school's official page and select “Alumni” on the page (1). Once you're in, you'll see a variety of filters, including where they work, what they studied, what they do, and how you're connected with them (2).
To narrow down your search, you can also type in the job title and college name for more information.
Why Finding Company Employees Matters
Finding a company’s current or former employees can provide valuable insights that go beyond what’s available on a company’s website or its public reports. Some of these benefits include:
- Market Research: You can get valuable insight into a company's culture, strengths, weaknesses, and potential challenges from current and former employees. With this information, you’ll know what working at the company is like.
- Lead Generation: If you're a sales professional, finding a company's employees is one of the best ways to identify potential leads.
- Recruitment: As a recruiter or hiring manager, identifying and reaching out to employees from competitors or within the same industry can help you attract top talent.
- Networking Opportunities: Finding employees of a company on LinkedIn, whether past or current, can open doors to new professional connections for you.
How Botdog Helps Build Strong Employee Connections on LinkedIn
Finding the right employee on LinkedIn is just the first step. Building a meaningful connection where you take things further. If your sales team manually reaches out to clients and engages with content, it can lead to inconsistencies in your brand’s messaging.
Botdog helps by automating key LinkedIn engagement activities (invitations, messages, follow-ups), freeing up your team’s time and resources to focus on tasks that move the needle.
Here are just a few ways you can use Botodog to create impactful LinkedIn connections effortlessly:
- Personalize Connection Requests: You don’t have to draft every message from scratch. Botdog offers a library of proven templates tailored to diverse audiences and industries. Simply select a template that fits your prospect’s profile, and begin outreach.
- Initiate Warm Introductions: Thanks to Botdog’s automated sequences, you can send timed messages like, say, a thank-you note once a connection is accepted. You can also request an introduction through shared connections. This helps foster a sense of familiarity and boosts the chances of leads accepting your requests.
- Engage Meaningfully: With Botdog, you can consistently interact with potential leads by liking, commenting, or sharing their posts, all set to mimic human pacing. Smooth, natural engagement plays well with LinkedIn’s algorithms, which makes your direct message more effective.
Key Takeaway
Whether you're searching for networking opportunities or potential hires, using a company's LinkedIn page and keyword techniques can help you find their employees. But remember, the key to making the most of these connections is to build lasting, beneficial relationships.
- To find a company's employees on LinkedIn, you'll need to use the company’s pages, advanced search filters, and keyword tricks.
- Once you’ve found an employee, take time to build a connection for lasting results rather than sending a barrage of irrelevant cold messages.
Ready to put these strategies into action? Botdog helps automate your LinkedIn outreach efforts and build connections that matter. Sign up for free today.
