LinkedIn is an essential tool for most recruiters but not everyone uses it to its full potential. It’s such a powerful way of networking, connecting with new people and managing your talent pipeline so it’s vital that you use it effectively.
Understand who you are targeting
The first part of recruiting on LinkedIn is understanding if your potential candidates are even on there. As we mentioned in our blog post about why social media doesn’t always work for recruiters, not everyone is active or even has an account on LinkedIn so you need to think carefully about who you can target and how you’re going to do it. If your potential candidates aren’t present then how are you going to advertise your jobs to them?
Showcase your company
Your company page could be someone’s first impression of you so you want to make it the best it can be. Ensure you have all your company information on there including your website, specialities and a description of what you do. Everything on it needs to showcase your company and jobs and one way of doing so is to share all your blog posts and interview tips for people to read and interact with. You should also make use of the pinning feature and pin your latest job or blog post to the top of the page.
Post on groups
As a recruiter, you should utilise every piece of functionality you can to help you attract passive candidates. This includes posting jobs into groups which can be achieved so easily. Firstly, think about who you are targeting, what groups would they be a member of? Are they actively looking for a new role? For example, if you are posting a job ad for a Marketing Manager role then you could post it onto the jobs page of the Chartered Institute of Marketing group. That way, you are specifically targeting it at the right people.
Go premium
There are different options for you to upgrade your LinkedIn account to either a premium or recruiter account. These incur costs but can make the world of difference when it comes to highly targeted searches, Inmail messaging, finding out who exactly has viewed your profile and a whole host of other features. They claim that 75% of recruiters said they were more successful when they upgraded to the recruiter package so it could work for you too? However, bear in mind the cost of an account because for some agencies, it can be hard to justify.
Engage with passive candidates
A passive candidate is someone who is already employed and not actively looking for a new role. They can be harder to attract or find in your recruitment ATS for this reason but great to network with. Instead of approaching them with “Are you looking for a new role? Please send me your CV if you are,” try explaining why they stand out to you and the opportunities the job could entail. You can also utilise the information they have on their profile to help you personalise your message, this will ensure you stand out amongst the rest straightaway.
There are other ways of engaging with passive candidates other than directly messaging which include posting on groups (as previously mentioned), building relationships and posting engaging job ads.
With over 500 million users on LinkedIn (according to their website), it’s essential that you use it as a platform to recruit on and use it effectively. Networking and building relationships are two of the most important aspects of the social platform and the base for any lead so once you start doing them, then you can work on the other ways mentioned in this blog post.
