Keynote Speakers: Tips on browsing through a wide variety of Professional Keynote Speakers to find the perfect fit for your internal event via LinkedIn People Search.

The best way to hire someone is to hire someone you already know and when this does not work, go to LinkedIn. Within the mesh of social media options, LinkedIn still stands strong as a professional network that can be relied upon. Its strength comes from personal connections that show how we all are indeed only a few degrees away from everyone else in the world and from the perfect Keynote Speaker for your event.

The goal of this article is to give you practical tips on how to scan through a wide variety of Professional Keynote Speakers on LinkedIn People Search so you can find the perfect fit for your internal event. (This article works with the assumption that you already have a LinkedIn Profile and are familiar with the platform.)

1. ‘Keynote Speaker’ should be in their title description.

Start by typing the words ‘Keynote Speaker’ into the Search field on the top menu of your LinkedIn profile. This takes you to the general Search Results Page, so immediately refine this by clicking on ‘People’. You will now see about 230,000 results!

Linkedin encourages the use for a limited number of words in title descriptions of profiles to make sure that they are clear and concise. If these words ‘Keynote Speaker’ is not in the title description of the profile you are looking at then you already know that the person has a different focus in their work and giving a Keynote Speak is something they do on the side.

Make sure the words ‘Keynote Speaker’ are the main title description.

So the first thing to refine your search, and hire the best Keynote Speaker, is to make sure the words ‘Keynote Speaker’ are the main title description of the profiles you are looking at.

2. Apply Filters

Next click on the ‘All Filters’ option in the submenu. This takes you to a set of filters you can use to refine your search.

Start by choosing 1st Connections. This way you can see who you might already know as a Keynote Speaker. After the first round of search widens it to include 2nd & 3rd Connections.

Next chose your Location. While the best Keynote Speakers will travel almost anywhere in the world, it is easiest for you to look close to your location as you can save on travel costs. After the first round of search widens it to include other Locations.

Finally, choose the Profile Language you want the Keynote Speech to be in.

The other Filters of ‘Current Companies’, ‘Past Companies’, ‘Industries*’, and ‘Schools’ are not important as they do not help in refining your search to find the best fit for your internal event.

The most common mistake made when choosing a Keynote Speaker for an internal event is to start looking for a speaker based on the topic of the event or speech. A Keynote Speech is always tailor-made so the first quality to look for is how well they can align with your organisation. Check out this article for more on How to choose the best Keynote Speaker & speech for your internal management (corporate) event?

3. What to look for on a Profile Page.

Once you have Profiles with ‘Keynote Speaker’ in the title description and some Filters applied, you can now scan each Profile Page by looking at the following elements:

Start by looking at the Articles & Activity section to see how many Followers they have. Professional Keynote Speaker profiles will have at least 10,000 Followers. While there is some vanity involved in the number of followers, this will give you an immediate indication of how serious a Speaker takes their LinkedIn Profile.

Next, skip down to the Recommendations section. This is one of the most important indicators on their profile and one of the strengths of LinkedIn. Because the best profiles on LinkedIn are active profiles it is more important to have Recommendations that are up-to-date rather than having a few from important people.

The best profiles on LinkedIn are active profiles.

Then scroll back up to the Experience section to make sure that ‘Keynote Speaker’ is their current and main activity. You can read a brief description here about their approach and past clients.

By scanning these elements on a Profile Page you can very quickly have a Yes, No, or Maybe decision. If you are still not sure, spend a moment reviewing their videos (attached usually in their general description at the top or in their Experience section), their Articles and Publications.

When you have found a Keynote Speaker Profile that seems to fit your event, scroll to the top of the page and next to their Name will be ‘See Contact Info’. Click on this to open a Pop-up window that should have a telephone number and email address to contact them directly. Send them a mail or call them to ask for a quote.