How I increased my exposure on Linkedin by automating
Disclaimer: I did not use Linkedin Premium
To keep our professional network on top of our game, it is imperative that we maintain a solid presence on LinkedIn, The professional social networking platform. Just like companies build their brands, we must have a professional brand.
Having a presence on LinkedIn helps in professional settings and boost tap into its sturdy job board.
Before I walk you through how I was able to get a massive increase in my views and engagement on LinkedIn, I want to point out my motivation behind it.
I created an account on LinkedIn long back, and I have had been using it to post content related to startups and programming to help my small networks get exposed to knowledge. My posts were indeed gaining a decent amount of views and engagement. I realize all those views and engagement were not much of a help to me as they were coming from people I already know or college students.
I wanted to expand my circle and reach out to other people and diversify my network. I was coming closer to graduating with Computer Science Master’s degree. I knew I have to find a job soon and sooner I start the better it will be.
My research led me to believe the best way to get a job was by getting a referral from someone inside the company. I have had tried a few ways to get interviews. From applying on a company website to reaching out to technical recruiters and the most successful I’ve had luck with was someone inside the company vouching for me.
And, the only way to make that happen is to reach out to various people on LinkedIn. People usually suggest buying Linkedin Premium to increase the chances of getting hired. While that may seem an ideal thing to do for many but in my case, I didn’t want to spend money or at least spend less money and yield the most output out of it.
Phantombuster — is a tool used by businesses to generate leads. There are lots of use cases for phantombuster but the one I’m keen to talk about is the one that can help in growing your LinkedIn presence.
Now, my trick wasn’t to use it as a way to get ineffective attention. It was to translate into a meaningful connection. I discovered phantom buster while scouting for tools to generate leads for a startup I was running a few years back. I didn’t give much thought on how I can make it useful for building connections and in turn hunt jobs.
But, before I start talking to about what to do. I’ll like to first show how my standings changed completely. I went from receiving 20–30 views to 200+ views per day in just a week. That’s 10x!
This wouldn’t be possible without Phantombuster and a little bit of my creative effort.
What is PhantomBuster?
Phantombuster gives you the tool to generate business leads, marketing audiences, and overall growth. Consider it as a bot that acts on your behalf to do actions.
How would you go about growing your network if it had been left for you to do? The ideal approach would be to search for a job title or a company name and then add them on LinkedIn. You would typically go on their profile, click on the Connect button and then probably send a message introducing yourself to better your chances of getting accepted.
Well, that’s how most people make connections on Linkedin. But, Imagine if you want to do this thing for like 100 people every day? If each connection to add takes you 2 mins then 2mins x 100people = 200 mins which is more than 3 hours to spend on LinkedIn and given how we humans are not so persistent, our quitting rate can be a lot higher in a few days.
A lot of people know Phantombuster but a lot of them don’t know how to capitalize on it. Let me walk you down the road of enlightenment.
First, Sign up on Phantombuster by going on to https://phantombuster.com. They offer 14 days free trial, you will have to enter your credit card details but don’t worry they won’t charge you.
Once you’re in, you’re going to see a menu on your navbar shown below.
Head over to the store section. You will see tons of cards but in this section, I’m particularly interested in talking about a specific Workflow that I want you to use to grow LinkedIn followers.
Our objective is to grow our network from industries that are relevant to us. We are going to pick cards that can help us achieve that.
Choose Linkedin Search Export by clicking on Use this Phantom. You will see a settings page asking for a few details. The very first will be a LinkedIn session cookie. You need to give Phantombuster permission to act on your behalf on LinkedIn. The safest and most efficient way for Phantombuster to authenticate as yourself is by using your session cookies. To make that process as easy as possible you can download Phantombuster’s browser extension. After installing chrome extension you would be able to automatically fill your session cookie.
Enter the search term, for example, Software developer. This is basically the search you are making on LinkedIn to find people who hold software developers as their jobs. Name the CSV file you will be saving.
Anyway, most of the form fields are self-explanatory. After you’re done filling the necessary information, click on Save.
Launch your automation and download the CSV file generated by the bot. The CSV file will contain the search scrapped by the bot. Depending on the limit set by you, it could put out 100 profiles or 1000 profiles.
Open the CSV file on Google Docs and set it to public. Select another phantombuster card. This time LinkedIn Network Booster card. This card is used to automatically send invitations and connects to a list of LinkedIn users with a personalized message.
Go through the same process. In the Spreadsheet URL field, put the Google docs link. Enter the message you want to send out to the person you will be adding (All the LinkedIn profiles collected from our previous automation.)
Since I was looking for getting an internship. I searched for all the people who already had one so that I can take tips from them and if they are working in a company of my interest then eventually ask for a referral.
On the next page of settings, Choose to launch your automation with the ability to run it 8 times per day. This is like the bot doing your work while you’re sleeping. The automation is going to run for 8 times per day regardless of your computer running or not cause the bot runs on the phantombuster server.
Launch the Phantom and wait for it to do the automation. I sent 80 connections per day with getting 3 or 4 replies back, which isn’t bad.
The idea is to send out mass messages to people personalizing their first name (Phantombuster allows you to do that) and engaging with those that reply back. For example, I initiated conversation when I got a reply back.
This is one of many instances in which I automated to get plenty of referrals. If you ask me then I’d prefer spending $30/month on phantombuster than LinkedIn Premium.
Linkedin Premium doesn’t provide much value besides the ability to send 5 InMail message which I think doesn’t do anything great for people searching for jobs.
The coronavirus has taken a big toll on the job market and I would like to help in any way possible for people to get a job. This was my loose attempt at helping people. I’m sorry if this post confuses you. Please shoot me an email at sharjeel at gmail dot com and I will be happy to assist further.
