Using LinkedIn’s advanced search can give you an ever growing – but targeted – list of potential prospects, according to Mike Veinot, vice president, regional sales, Atlantic Canada, BMO Global Asset Management.

“It’s not necessarily the quantity of referrals that [advisors] get…it’s more so the quality,” said Veinot, who spoke at the Canadian Institute of Financial Planners (CIFPs) annual conference in Halifax on Monday. “And one of the best things I’ve seen [to find that] hands down has been LinkedIn.”

At the top of a LinkedIn profile page is a search bar that allows you to do a general search for people on the social media platform. Next to that bar is the word “advanced” that allows you to do a more targeted search of your connections for prospects.

Here are Veinot’s tips for a successful advanced search on LinkedIn:

Search for keywords:
Putting the right descriptive words in the “keywords” section of the advanced search tool allows you to find people who use those specific terms in their profiles. Veinot recommends searching for words such as: “business owner,” “CEO,” “doctor” or “EVP.”

Other words to search for are “”new position,” “in transition” and “seeking new opportunities.” People with these keywords in their profiles are likely to be recently unemployed and looking for work, said Veinot. As such, these individuals may need a financial advisor for the first time in their lives to help them with severance packages or to replace lost insurance policies.

Target a location:
Enter in a location in the advanced search tool to make sure you can actually visit the potential prospects you find.

“[You] don’t want to do an across-Canada search – certainly not across the world,” said Veinot. “I’m guessing people don’t want to be travelling all over the world to meet with clients.”

Find a specific occupation:
Use LinkedIn to find people in a specific industry.

For example, by using the advanced search tool you can look for specific engineers or teachers.

Make the right connections:
Be specific about which connections you want LinkedIn to search through to avoid cold leads.

LinkedIn divides connections into four categories: first connections, second connections, third connections and groups. First connections are individuals you are already connected to via LinkedIn. Second connections are your connections’ connections and groups are connections from groups (such as an alumni association) that you have joined on the social media platform. Third connections are essentially everyone else on LinkedIn.

“I would never click third connections,” said Veinot, “you might as well open up a phone book.”

Save your searches:
Make future advanced searches easier by saving all your criteria.

The basic version of LinkedIn (which is free) allows you to save three searches, according to Veinot, which can be set up to automatically repopulate on a weekly or monthly basis.

“Every time you connect with somebody new the search is going to be automatically searching all two hundred of their connections and so on and so on,” said Veinot, “and so this will grow very, very quickly – exponentially in fact – in many situations.”