Recruiting

Yes, You Can Recruit on LinkedIn

Special from BLR’s Advanced Employment Issues Symposium

Fifty percent of Fortune 100 companies use LinkedIn for hiring, says expert Dan Ryan of Ryan Search and Consulting in Nashville. And you should be using it, too, he told attendees at the Advanced Employment Issues Symposium in Nashville, Tennessee.

Need more reasons to use LinkedIn? It’s the largest “business-focused” social networking site, with over 130 million users, and more than 80 percent of them are decision makers. The people you want to hire are surely there.

Search Function Most Effective

The search function on LinkedIn is particularly helpful, Ryan says, and it’s how most employers will use LinkedIn for recruiting. This tool allows employers to search on keywords (for example, a programming language), or by name, organization, industry, school, and seniority level (manager, owner, VP, director, entry, students, etc.). In addition, you may search by LinkedIn terms for 1st connections, 2nd connections, or all users.

You can also check by ZIP code or area, indicating how many mile radius you want to include, Ryan notes. In addition, you can use Boolean search terms if you are familiar with that system.

Although this searching is available free, Ryan recommends that employers buy at least the lowest level of paid service because that allows you to save searches, and gives notification weekly of new additions that meet your search criteria.


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Groups—Find One or Make Your Own

Another great feature of LinkedIn is groups, Ryan says. There are groups for most any imaginable type of job, he notes, and they are a good way to reach specific types of people. They often allow you to reach people who are not actively looking for new jobs.

Ryan is a member of 50 groups, he says, because that’s the LinkedIn limit. However, you can get around the limit, because most groups allow you to move in and out, so if you need more than 50 groups, you can just swap them in and out.

If there’s no group for your specialized needs, create a group, Ryan says. He had one specialty that he was recruiting for that didn’t have a group, so he started a group. It now has 1500 members. (Groups of less than 1000 are usually not too helpful for recruiting, Ryan advises.)

Company Pages Worth a Visit

Visiting company pages often allow you to drill down to make a connection, Ryan says.


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Job Posting Available

Another feature of LinkedIn is the ability to post jobs. There is a modest fee, he adds, but if you post through a group there’s no fee.

Use Your Own Connections

You just do a status update “I’m looking for X,” and it goes out to all 1st order connections, he says.

In tomorrow’s Advisor, recruiting on Facebook, Twitter, and Skype, plus an introduction to a unique collection of pre-written policies.

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3 thoughts on “Yes, You Can Recruit on LinkedIn”

  1. LinkedIn is actually one of my favorite recruiting and resume sourcing tools. The search function is amazing. I don’t know how i ever survived without it.

  2. As a seasoned provider of staffing solutions, i can tell you first hand that Linkedin is a goldmine for sourcers. There are some tricks to it, (like adding groups that relate to the position so that you may message them for free as opposed to buying inMails,) but if you do it right, you will find that it is a great source for candidates. 

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