Written by: Talia Knowles
Talia Knowles is an avid reader, writer, and coffee enthusiast, with over five years of experience in writing and editing.
Reviewed by: Keca Ward
As a seasoned HR professional with over 20 years of experience, Keca is an expert in various aspects of Human Resources.
Updated on July 21, 2024
Online recruiting has become the way of the world, but with so many recruiting platforms available, optimizing content for multiple websites can be challenging. LinkedIn is a top recruiting and professional networking platform, so it’s definitely a good one to master.
This guide will explain the ins and outs of maintaining an organizational presence on LinkedIn and offer tips on maximizing your LinkedIn recruiting efforts.
Job posting sites play a vital role in contemporary recruiting, particularly with the surge of remote work. These sites make it easy to identify and contact top-notch talent, regardless of their location.
As a result, recruiters are increasingly utilizing social media and other online platforms to source potential candidates and engage with them regarding current or future vacancies.
Though there is still a place for traditional methods in the recruitment arsenal, most professional connections are forged on job posting sites and recruiting platforms.
Some job posting sites are free, but most require a subscription to access their advanced features. Still, you won’t regret the investment if they help you staff your organization with top talent. If you want to use social media to take your recruiting efforts to the next level, LinkedIn is a great place to start.
Linkedin was established in 2003 and is now the largest professional social network, offering tools to build and establish professional connections, acquire new skills, and locate talent for open jobs.
LinkedIn is a social networking site specifically catered to working professionals. Much like building your social connections on Facebook, On LinkedIn, you can connect with working professionals, message people you’d like to add to your network and browse job openings and company profiles.
Most professionals maintain an active LinkedIn profile, allowing employers to gain insights into an individual’s professional background before initiating a conversation.
In addition to employment history, LinkedIn enables recruiters to peruse portfolios and certifications and familiarize themselves with a candidate’s qualifications before reaching out directly.
The more personal a recruiter can be in an initial conversation, the more likely a candidate is to engage with them. Therefore, LinkedIn provides a valuable glimpse into a candidate’s professional life, as recruiters can review their profile before engaging directly with them.
LinkedIn also serves as an exceptional tool for promoting your employer brand. In a single platform, you can showcase your organization, share industry news, acknowledge the accomplishments of current employees, and attract a fresh pool of talented applicants.
LinkedIn’s dual role as a social professional networking site and a job board can make a recruiter’s job much easier. In addition to establishing connections, LinkedIn also offers direct messaging features.
Rather than needing to identify candidates and send them cold emails or message their personal accounts, LinkedIn provides a clear and professional way to locate talent, contact them, and even share job posts.
Once you have identified a candidate who may be a potential fit for your role, you can message them directly.
LinkedIn also makes it easy to recognize mutual connections or professional overlaps. For example, a previous employee may be connected with a new candidate, making them an excellent source for a referral.
A referral from a connection typically proves to be a much warmer lead than blindly connecting with potential candidates, so LinkedIn connections are often a powerful asset in the recruiting process.
While LinkedIn provides certain job posting features for free, employers are limited to posting only one job description at a time until they opt for additional access.
Paying to promote job listings can increase a post’s visibility through improved search rankings, ensuring a broader audience of applicants.
The promotion feature allows each job posted on LinkedIn to incur a daily cost ranging from $5 to $100. It also offers tools to manage how much you spend on promotion to ensure you don’t go over budget.
To assist employers in managing their advertising and hiring needs, the LinkedIn support team offers valuable guidance on determining the appropriate advertising budget based on their goals. However, it’s important to note that not all roles are well-suited for the platform.
Employers seeking candidates for manual jobs, entry-level positions, or hospitality roles may find that LinkedIn predominantly caters to “white-collar” professionals, potentially limiting the availability of suitable candidates.
LinkedIn makes it easy for employers to recruit great talent, but you can still take a few extra steps to optimize your recruiting process.
If you don’t already have one, start by creating a company profile. Showcasing your company’s culture and highlighting what makes your organization unique is a good place to start.
Investing the time into creating a strong profile and employer brand can help attract candidates and reassure them of your organization’s professionalism.
This page will be a candidate’s first impression of your company, so use it to highlight the top perks of joining your team. Include information about products and services, your company mission, values, culture, and anything else that makes your organization stand out.
The next step in recruiting on LinkedIn is to create high-quality job descriptions. These jobs will be visible from your company profile.
Once you’ve created a clear job description, LinkedIn will prompt you to select a list of skills relevant to the position. Not only will this help you filter applicants, but it can also allow you to reach candidates who may not have direct experience but possess easily transferable skills that will make them a good fit.
You can then choose whether you’d like candidates to apply directly through LinkedIn or on your company’s external website. Recruiters can even attach their personal LinkedIn profiles in case candidates would like to connect.
LinkedIn uses a pay-per-click model for job posting, which means that you’ll be charged depending on how many candidates click on each post. If you’re just getting started, LinkedIn’s online help feature can assist you in determining an appropriate budget depending on your hiring needs.
Though you don’t want to pay more than necessary, it’s possible that setting too small of a budget will limit how successful your recruiting efforts can be.
Before reaching out to a candidate, do as much research as possible on their previous professional experiences, qualifications, and any other factors that may impact what they’re looking for in a job.
Especially because LinkedIn clearly lists standard resume information, you’ll have to dig a little deeper to truly convince a candidate that you’re interested in them as an individual. If they read your message as generic or irrelevant to their skill set, they probably won’t respond and won’t think highly of your organization in the future.
Even if you already pay for job posts, you can up your benefits even more with additional add-on features.
LinkedIn Recruiter and LinkedIn Recruiter Lite are two subscription services that expand your access to recruiting tools. Both grant access to InMails, or LinkedIn messages that allow you to privately contact candidates without an introduction or contact information.
LinkedIn Recruiter Lite allows you to view a more extended network of connections, send 30 InMail messages per month, and see who views your company profile.
LinkedIn Recruiter is a step up from the Lite version that allows you to view all LinkedIn profiles regardless of connections, create multiple user profiles, and send 150 InMails per user per month. You can also search for qualifications more specifically to ensure you find candidates well-suited to your needs.
LinkedIn Groups is a feature that allows users with similar interests to connect, share posts, and discuss relevant topics. Because LinkedIn Groups often unite professionals in the same field, they can be a great source of talent.
For example, if you’re looking for top talent in the UX field, browsing a LinkedIn Group of passionate UX designers or other professionals on the cutting edge of the industry is fairly likely to reveal some top candidates, whether they’re actively looking for a job or not.
One of the most beneficial features of LinkedIn is its networking capabilities, so be sure to take advantage of them in your recruiting efforts.
You can ask your team to refer talented colleagues for an open position, but it may be more effective to peruse their professional connections clearly laid out on their LinkedIn profile.
Chances are, your current employees know someone who would be a perfect addition to your team.
You may also ask your team to share job postings to their personal profiles, ensuring their network will see the listing before recruiters even reach out. This can be a good way to plant the seed of an opportunity before directly contacting a candidate.
Utilizing your team’s connections will not only help you identify talent but also can boost the likelihood those candidates will respond.
If you start your message with, “Megan Jones suggested we reach out to you,” candidates may be more inclined to read your message and respond. However, be sure to double-check that the candidate truly does know Megan Jones because making mistakes in this method can cause awkward situations and reflect poorly on your organization.
If you want to simplify your recruiting tools, LinkedIn also offers a feature called LinkedIn Talent Hub. This combines LinkedIn Recruiter and LinkedIn job features into an applicant tracking system that provides all the necessary tools in one convenient place.
LinkedIn Talent Hub allows you to track applicants from attraction to onboarding using a single user-friendly platform. It also includes valuable analytical insights throughout the process to see where your strategy can be improved.
Finally, remember that optimizing your LinkedIn recruiting process is a dynamic process. Be sure to monitor your results and make changes where necessary to ensure you keep getting the results you want.
A helpful way to ensure your methods are up-to-date is to monitor the recruiting efforts of your competitors. They may be using a unique strategy that could help your team compete for top talent in your industry.
LinkedIn is already an excellent recruiting tool, but there are some strategies to keep in mind if you want to level up your results.
LinkedIn’s unique asset is its combination of social networking and recruiting capabilities, so utilize both to the fullest possible extent. Take advantage of tools for building your network, contact your current employee’s connections, and personalize all messages to draw candidates into a conversation.
Finally, don’t be afraid to invest in some of LinkedIn’s add-ons, such as LinkedIn Recruiter. Though they do cost more than the free version, job advertising and other advanced recruiting tools will quickly pay off.
LinkedIn offers various ways to find candidates. You can use the platform’s search function to search for professionals based on keywords, job titles, locations, or other criteria. Additionally, you can join industry-specific groups, participate in discussions, and review profiles to identify potential candidates who align with your requirements.
When reaching out to potential candidates on LinkedIn, it’s important to personalize your messages and highlight why you believe they may be a good fit for the role or your organization. You can send candidates messages using InMail, or invite them to connect with you before reaching out.
Yes, LinkedIn offers several features specifically designed for recruiting purposes. These include LinkedIn Recruiter and LinkedIn Recruiter Lite, premium tools that provide advanced search filters, enhanced messaging capabilities, and access to a broader candidate pool. Additionally, there are job posting options and sponsored content opportunities to increase the visibility of your recruitment efforts.
To promote your job openings on LinkedIn, you can post them on your company page, ensuring that the job title and description are clear and appealing. You can also utilize LinkedIn’s paid job posting options to increase the visibility of your job ads to a larger audience. Sharing job openings in relevant LinkedIn groups and engaging with professionals can also help attract candidates.
To enhance your employer brand on LinkedIn, regularly share engaging and relevant content related to your industry or company culture. Showcase your company’s achievements, employee testimonials, and initiatives. Encourage your employees to actively participate on LinkedIn and share their positive experiences. Engage with professionals through comments, likes, and shares to build a positive online reputation.
Yes, it is appropriate to contact passive candidates on LinkedIn. In fact, many passive candidates can be excellent prospects as they may not be actively looking for a job but could be open to new opportunities. When reaching out to passive candidates, focus on building a relationship, highlighting the benefits of your organization, and showcasing how their skills align with your requirements. Respect their current situation and be mindful of their privacy.
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