With a user base of, according to Statista, 230 million in the U.S., LinkedIn has become a powerful tool for building connections. It is little wonder that many businesses rely on this platform to find leads, hire staff, source vendors, reach out to investors, and perform countless other activities that involve connecting with new people.
LinkedIn can be a valuable resource for individuals, too. Let’s say you want to find a mentor, reconnect with a former coworker, keep in touch with someone you met at an Expo, or meet like-minded people to share experience and know-how. In all these instances, you can easily turn to LinkedIn’s over 1 billion global users.
But how can you find a LinkedIn profile when you don’t know the correct handle? Here are seven effective ways to help you out.
1. Ask Around
Before you dig online, let’s start with the obvious question. Ask yourself, who could direct you to the LinkedIn page of the individual you are searching for?
Go through your first-degree connections to identify shared contacts. It might be a coworker, friend, associate, or even a family member. Once you find a mutual connection, drop a direct message on the platform or just go through their network. Of course, you can do this offline as well: If you know someone in contact with the person in question, give them a ring or text and ask for information.
But remember, word gets around. So, don’t expect discretion when using this method.
2. Try LinkedIn’s Search Bar
LinkedIn has some of the top-notch search facilities among networking platforms.
However, without logging in, what you can access is fairly limited. So, if you don’t have an account, it is best to create one first. Then, type a first and last name on the search bar and hit Enter. Once you do that, a whole lot of search filters will appear on top of the search results. Out of these, click People to filter user profiles.
If you want to refine the results further, select the “All filters” tab at the top. This allows you to find people by their connection degree, location, current and past company, industry, school, and the like.
3. Check LinkedIn’s “People You May Know”
Being a networking site, LinkedIn wants you to build as many useful connections as possible.
To make it easier for you, the platform suggests people you may know and want to connect with. This is done by algorithms, taking note of your interests, work background, mutual connections, previous searches, and various other criteria.
Now, there are several ways you can find the “People you may know” section on LinkedIn. It usually appears on the right side of your profile page. You can also click My Network on the top menu bar and scroll down the first page that turns up.
4. Sync Your Contacts
Yes, LinkedIn has a syncing option that lets you find and connect with people you already know from elsewhere.
It is a pretty useful tool for identifying who’s on LinkedIn and discovering their profiles. Plus, you get to invite those not on the platform to create an account and connect with you. (This is a win for LinkedIn, too, since it gets to effortlessly expand its user base).
To use this feature, go to Settings & Privacy and select Account Preferences. Then, find Sync Options and click Sync Contacts. There, you will see the option to sync contacts from Google, work and personal Outlook address books, and your phone’s contact list.
5. Go Through Their Other Social Profiles
Many people cross-promote their social profiles to direct audiences to accounts on other networking platforms. This practice allows them to build a solid follower base on each social media site while making it easier for followers interested in a particular type of engagement to find them on the right platform.
Because of all these reasons, promoting multiple social media handles has become commonplace.
So, if the person you are searching for is on any other networking platform, head over to their profile page there and check under the About section. You are likely to find their LinkedIn handle with a link.
6. Search on Google
Google comes equipped with simple yet impressive text and voice-based search capabilities. Therefore, there is a high chance it could dig up a LinkedIn profile (or something else that could lead you to it) within the trillions of pages the search giant has indexed.
The most straightforward way to search using Google is to type [first and last name] + LinkedIn. This could retrieve LinkedIn pages related to the name you have typed. If it doesn’t work, enter a few other personal details, like a school, workplace, and location, to identify the relevant individual.
Sometimes, people list their LinkedIn handles on their personal blogs and work websites, too. So, don’t just limit yourself to LinkedIn-related results. Be sure to check all the top search results that link to other sites as well.
7. Look Them Up on a People Search Directory
People search engines or directories are in the business of providing people records. For this, they source all kinds of publicly available data and compile it into meaningful profiles.
You can search these using a first and last name, email, phone number, address, username, and a variety of criteria, depending on the platform you use.
Keep in mind that many of these search services are only available for a one-off or monthly fee. But, in return, they provide detailed reports with a range of helpful information about a person. In addition to LinkedIn handles, they can uncover an individual’s age, marital status, associates, contact information, asset details, and even criminal history.
In a Nutshell
Finding someone among LinkedIn’s over 1 billion users can seem like a mammoth task in many instances. But using the techniques we have discussed in this article, you can substantially simplify the search process and discover relevant profiles with minimal hassle.
Of course, asking mutual contacts is the simplest way to find a profile. If remaining anonymous is important, we suggest using LinkedIn’s search bar, checking “People you may know”, and syncing your contacts. Using the platform’s privacy settings, you can discreetly browse profiles without users ever finding out.
Google’s search services and people search directories can also help, especially in widening your search to include other sources and improving the likelihood of finding information.