Sourcing Toolkit

Blake Cai modified based on “LinkedIn Blackbelt” by Michael Marlatt

1. How to Create & Brand Your Identity
2. Building Your LinkedIn Network
3. Mastering the Search Process
A. Rules of Engagement
B. Sourcing in Stealth Mode
C. Types of Searches

4. Mastering the Contacting Process
A. Contacting 2nd and 3rd level candidates
B. Sourcing in Stealth Mode

5. Managing your LinkedIn Activities

 Tip #1: To begin, start by creating a LI profile that is “100% complete”.
1. Provide your current employer
2. Include the last two former employers – (Allows you to further expand your network)
3. Provide your education information (university, degrees, fraternities, sororities, etc.)
4. Create a profile summary – (Summarize who you are, what you do, sell yourself, etc.)
5. Your Specialties – (This can include your key skills, interests, groups, professional associations, certifications,
etc.)
6. Obtain THREE recommendations – (Seek endorsements from trusted contacts, former managers,
colleagues, etc. This endorsements will be listed on your profile.)
 Include all your potential email addresses to avoid setting up duplicate accounts.
 LinkedIn cannot merge multiple profiles. To delete an extra profile, contact customer service.
›
 Tip #2: Create and market your personal and corporate identity
1. Branding yourself helps to build credibility within the LinkedIn community and also helps others develop trust
and get to know you better.
2. In the “Summary” of your profile, this is where you want to let others know who you are, where you are and
what you have, etc..
3. Use LinkedIn applications to create a dynamic outlook for your personal and corporate image.
4. Join and participate in applicable LinkedIn groups, discussion forums, LinkedIn blogs, etc.
5. Consider establishing a VANITY URL, using your name, skill, or company information.

 Examples: www.linkedin.com/in/INSERT_NAME, ….www.linkedin.com/in/michaelmarlatt,
› www.linkedin.com/in/.net_recruiter, …..www.linkedin.com/in/microsoft-recruiter

 Tip #1: A profile that is 100% complete should contain the following:
1. Your current position
2. Two past positions
3. Your education
4. Your profile summary
5. Your specialties
6. At least three recommendations

Include corporate Email
address and title into
display name which
enables other to find
and get connected with
you more easily

1

2

3

6

(Edit Vanity URL here)

 Tip #2: Create and market your personal and corporate identity
• The “Summary” section is a great place to provide other users (potential
candidates) a bit of insight into what business you are supporting, what kind of
opportunities you can offer, contact information, etc.

Provide three web links of your blog, company website
etc.

Did you know….. At the bottom of your profile in
the, in the “Interests” field, you can apply a very
simple Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
technique that will drive others to you?
1. Simply include a list of relevant keywords that best
describe your primary interests, or, how you would
like to be known. Listing unique keywords increases
the probability of others finding you!
2. The listed keywords also become searchable
hyperlinks that you can easily click and search!

Join and participate in applicable LinkedIn groups
which will display in additional information.

 LinkedIn Applications: Now with the Web 2.0 technology, LinkedIn released
several features which enable users to share blogs, presentations, documents,
reading list, polls etc. . We are able to provide a more dynamic outlook for
personal as well as corporate image. Click LinkedIn applications to add features
and operate them in your Edit Profile page.

 Getting started
1. Developing your network on LinkedIn should be viewed as a continual process.
2. Start with building strategic connections with members who possess skills within the domain(s) you
support (i.e., ASP.Net, SQL Server, Data Mining, etc.)
3. Invite current colleagues, as well as former work associates. (Be careful when connecting to a Microsoft
employee who does not know you, not everyone is open networker)
4. Click on the +Add Connections icon at the top of your profile to begin inviting contacts from your
Outlook, Yahoo!, Google, MSN, and/or AOL address books. (The system will automatically identify those
who are already LinkedIn users)

 Want to immediately boost your network strength?
1. For the greatest success in quickly growing your network, link to open-networkers and/or super-
connectors who possess 500+ connections.
2. To further expand your LinkedIn network, consider joining groups such as Microsoft Alumni, Microsoft
Employees, The LinkedIn Lions Forum, LinkedInnovators, MyLinkedInPowerForum, and LinkedHR,
OpenNetworkers, The Open Link Network-(for Premium Account Users Only).
3. For a list of LinkedIn Networking Groups by geography, visit MyLink Wiki.

 NOTE: Remember to always cultivate contacts with discretion. For questions and
clarification regarding LinkedIn’s general policies, click here

Did you know…. You can immediately boost your connection strength by sending an invite to RON
BATES, as well as to ALL of the TOP 10 LinkedIn Super-Connectors? Super-connectors are very
receptive to new connections and are likely to accept your invite. Visit: Topllinked.com

Click on the +Add Connections icon at the top of your profile to begin inviting
contacts from your Outlook, Yahoo!, Google, MSN, and/or AOL address books.
(The system will automatically identify those who are already LinkedIn users)

Those who are already LinkedIn
users have a blue in icon.

Also encourage candidates
Did you know….. The benefit of LinkedIn is growing and colleagues who are not
with the number of your direct connections. yet LinkedIn users to have a try
1. LinkedIn Outlook Toolbar enables you to build and let them know the benefits
network quickly and easily using Outlook, but the of using it. As the number of
performance of outlook such as runtime might be their network grow, you will also
affected. Download at LinkedIn Outlook Toolbar benefit from that.
2. Download LinkedIn Brower Toolbar, using IE to
manage your connections and search candidates. But make sure to insert a
personalized message to
prevent the image of junk mail.

A. Rules of Engagement:

1. Know Your Target….
 Be mindful that not all users want to be contacted.
 View the “contact settings” at the bottom of each profile to understand the user’s
preferences. If they do not list interests such as career opportunities, job inquiries, etc…
you run the risk of being listed as an unwanted spammer. (But occasionally even some
one who list the above interests might block you.)

2. LinkedIn’s policy - “FIVE strikes and you’re out!”….
 LinkedIn users may respond to an invite using one of the following options: Accept
Invitation, I don’t know this person, or Decide later (Archive it). Thus, design a personalized
introduction message is very important.
 If you have contacted a LI user without their email address and receive five “unfavorable”
responses, your account will be placed on restriction status.
 You can check who gives “unfavorable” report or accepts your invitation by clicking
Contacts/Connections on your profile page and view outstanding sent invitations.
 To reinstate an account that has been placed on restriction status, you need to write an
email to cs@linkedin.com and explain you understand their policies but the restriction is
made by mistake. The customer will reply normally within 24-48 hours and remove the
restriction.

3. Remember the 10 Rules of Netiquette….
 For a refresher, visit Netiquette by Virginia Shea

 Find out who “accepted” and who gives “unfavorable” reports

Doesn’t know are those who give
you unfavorable reports, your
account will be restricted when you
receive five. But the setting will be
back to zero after account
reinstating.

Sent are those who haven’t
decided yet, they are either
archived your message or haven’t
seen it.

Bounced means the registered
Email address does not exist any
longer.

Did you know….. LinkedIn will
automatically send reminder to
users who didn’t reply
“invitation” message.

B. Sourcing in Stealth Mode:

 Edit your “Profile Views” setting to prevents others from
knowing that you have viewed their profile. This will help
maintain confidentiality during your searches

 How do I do this?

1. Click on the “Account & Settings” located at the top of your
profile
2. Scroll down to “Privacy Settings”
3. Click on “Profile Views”
4. Select “Don’t show users that I’ve viewed their profile”.

 See the following pages for screen shots and details….

Sourcing in Stealth Mode:
Step 1: Go to “Account & Settings” at the top of your LinkedIn profile.
Step 2: Scroll down to “Privacy Settings”
Step 3: Select “Profile Views”
Step 4: Select “Don’t show users that I’ve viewed their profile”

C. Types of Searches

 Executing the Search
 On the “PEOPLE” tab, you can search by Keyword, Name, or Reference.
 The most common searches on LinkedIn include: Keyword, Title & Company.

 Narrow your search results by combining any or all of the following:
 Boolean Search - Example Boolean string: (“software engineer” OR programmer OR
“Development Engineer”) AND ASP.Net
 Title or Company only searches – (hp OR ibm OR Intel OR Autodesk)
 Industry – (i.e., Computer Software, Computer Networking, etc.)
 Country Search – (Sort by named country of preference, note Hong Kong and
Taiwan are not under China in LinkedIn)

 Save the Search
 Save your search using IE toolbar.

Tip#1: Each search box in Advanced
Search supports Boolean search
string with the words “AND” “OR”
“NOT”.

Tip#3: Narrow target
Tip#2: LinkedIn enables search title industries to return
and company by “Current & past”, results within target the
“Current only” OR “Past only”. Thus industry.
we could also trace the activities of
ex-microsoft by search “microsoft”,
“Past only”.

Did you know… search results will vary based on the total connections within your network.
 Do not use any keyword to search people when you just start to use LinkedIn. Having
industries select is enough to generate results.
 Search will become more useful when you have more top Linkers in the target industry.
 It’s important to become a 500+.
 Do not send InMail to people only if you are Premium user, also ask to be connected.

Save your LinkedIn search
Step 1: Go to IE tool bar and click “Add to Favorites”
Step 2: Click “New Folder” and create one for different searches
Step 3: Create a name for your search and click “Add”

A. Contact 2nd and 3rd level candidates

 How to contact 2nd level candidate
 Send InMail.
 Add to your network.
 Get introduced through a connection.

 How to contact 3nd level candidate
 Send InMail
 Add to your network
 Get introduced through a connection.
 Cold call Call directly into candidate’s company and ask to be forward. (Not encouraged)
 Online research to find company Email address

How to contact 2nd level candidate:
Send InMail Suggest to send InMail only when the candidate does not accept your invitation for connecting and
could not be reached through 1st level introduction. FREE users are not able to send InMail.
Add to your network You don’t need to enter an Email address for 1st time connecting invitation, but does not
work in the following cases.
 Those who set invitation filtering
 Those who already declined your invitation
Get introduced through a connection You can do it either through the feature on LI or send Email to your 1st
degree directly and request for the contact info.

1

2

3

Remember: You and your target might
have lots of connections in common,
select one whom you know well , ever
cooperated with or is a active networker
to forward the introduction. AVOID send
invitation to your target’s current
colleague!

How to contact 3nd level candidate:
1. Send InMail
2. Add to your network
3. Get introduced through a connection Note that using introduction is less effective for 3nd level compared with 2nd
level. Your invitation needs to go through two connections to reach your final target
4. Cold call Call directly into candidate’s company and ask to be forward. (Not encouraged)
5. Online research to find company Email address

Step 1: Get name
First name: Yujing
Last name:Qiu

Step 2: Get company
name:Pixelworks

 Go to
http://groups.google.co
m and type author:@
followed by the email
domain of the
company (usually same
as website)
Click subject link with
any recent newsgroup
 In this case, it’s post (dates are
author:@pixelworks.com displayed)
(no spaces in this string!)

 Each of these is a post
to a newsgroup – the
part of the Internet filled
with discussion lists on
every topic imaginable

 Click subject line of any
post dated within past
year (posts without a
year are from the
current calendar year)

Click the “view profile”
link beside the name of
the author

 This brings up a challenge prompt
in order to display (“unlock”) the full
email address.
 This is used to prevent spammers
from automatically gathering email
addresses.
 But all you need to do is type the
letters appearing in the graphic,
then click OK

Now we see the email is qfyu@pixelworks.com,
which means Yujing Qiu is fjwu@pixelworks.com,
and now you know everyone else’s email at
Pixelworks, too!
(Note: this rule does not apply to every company,
for example, Microsoft.)

B. Message Template Design

 Create your own message templates in Word or in Notepad. This reduces the amount of time you
spend dealing with requests. All you have to do is copy and paste and spend time wisely customizing
your responses not writing them over and over from scratch.

 You are also using your own language style and your contacts will become familiar with it... assuming
they don’t already.

 Here’s some ideas on templates you should have:

› A different kind of “invitation to join networks” for each:
 Candidates
 Clients, Customers, business partners
 Friends, casual acquaintances
 Peers and/or Co-workers
 Alumni (college, employer, etc.)

› Standard “requests to forward” responses for:
 Forwarding a reconnection request
 Passing along a typical request from a trusted connection
 Acting like the Gatekeeper approving a “second degree” request
 Politely saying “No I can’t help you but here are some other ideas”
 Saying no because of a “Conflict of interest”
 Rejecting an inappropriate request

Who you are.
What you want.
If your connections go beyond 500, it’s
important to let others know. Usually
people are willing to get connected to
Dear XXX, “super connector” although they don’t
know you.
I am from Microsoft and have 1500+ 1st degree connections of
R&D professionals in IT industry. Would appreciate your
acceptance of this invitation and become part of my growing What you can offer.
professional network. I would be honored to offer help on Show the others your generosity and
network sharing, reference offering, business partnership as well willingness to help. People are more
as inquiry on career opportunities within Microsoft. glad to connect to someone who are
helpful. But you should keep that
promise.
I do respect that you might not want to connect with someone
unfamiliar and has a different view towards open networking.
However, if you do not wish to connect, please select "Archive"
rather than "Doesn't Know", as it’s beneficial to those who are “Archive” instead of “Doesn’t know”
willing to be connected. Super important!
99% of the people are not mean enough
to give you a negative report although
Best Regards they do not want to connect with you. Of
course, there are always 1% who are
really mean…
Blake Cai
Staffing Consultant, Microsoft
 i-blcai@microsoft.com

Set your LinkedIn primary
address as your company
Email address so that you could
manage your LinkedIn
activities on your Outlook.

Create rule as with “specific words in the subject “=LinkedIn move the messages to the specific folder.
Then all Emails from LinkedIn will automatically be saved to LinkedIn folder.

Sourcing Toolkit

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