Now that LinkedIn® has been around for more than 13 years, most employers have at least considered using the online platform as one of their avenues to find talent. Using social media for recruiting can have several benefits.
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First and foremost, it’s often more cost-effective than more traditional routes—especially given that some types of recruiting activities on social media are free—and even when there are costs attached, they are often lower on a cost-per-hire basis than other venues. Let’s take a look at some tips for using LinkedIn as part of the recruiting process.
Tips for Effectively Using LinkedIn for Recruiting
These tips are primarily focused on internal recruiters working for one large organization, but they can be broadly applied to other recruiting scenarios as well.
- Ensure that the company has a professional LinkedIn page. This allows potential candidates to find and follow the organization. Include relevant information that helps potential candidates find you even if they haven’t heard of your organization before. Think of what words someone might use when searching for your company and ensure those words are in the profile page to make it easier to find via keyword searches. Remember that this is an opportunity to highlight the reasons why the organization is a good place to work. Be sure this profile is consistent with other marketing efforts, too. (Individual recruiters: ensure your own LinkedIn page is 100% complete and showcases not only your recruiting capabilities, but it also is a way you can be reached by potential candidates).
- Take advantage of the extensive search features available within LinkedIn. There are search features allowing anyone to search for individuals based on location, keywords, title, and more. This can allow you to easily search for passive candidates. (Note, however, that in the absence of a premium LinkedIn subscription, you will be limited in which profiles you can see. More on that in a moment.)
- Utilize LinkedIn’s job-posting options. This allows anyone who comes to your company’s LinkedIn page to quickly see what jobs are available in your organization. (Individual recruiters: the same applies, but make it clear that the job-posting is not for your company but for one of your clients).
- Consider utilizing LinkedIn’s various recruiter-focused tools and programs. Some of these programs come with fees attached, but they may have good return for some organizations. There are various tools and options to consider. It could be as simple as having a business account— – which opens up additional features and functionality—or as comprehensive as having the full suite of recruiting tools LinkedIn offers. For example, “LinkedIn Recruiter” is a premium subscription option with a lot of benefits like unlimited access to profiles and advanced search capabilities. It’s important to note that “LinkedIn Recruiter” is just one of the many types of premium subscription options on offer by LinkedIn for this purpose. As a professionally-focused social network, they have multiple levels and means of supporting recruiters. They have ads, premium subscriptions, career pages, online resources like recruiting guides and reports, and more.
- Don’t forget about current employees. LinkedIn profiles of current employees may be a resource to let HR see the breadth of talent and experience already available in-house. This has the added benefit of improved retention. LinkedIn also has ways to reach out to internal employees directly through highlighting job opportunities within the organization. Employees can also be beneficial to the organization’s recruiting efforts; by having a large network of employees connected to the business’s LinkedIn page, the networking opportunities grow. Employees also can share job-postings on their LinkedIn pages, potentially furthering the post’s reach—and possibly improving response rate.
- Consider using LinkedIn’s advertising options to reach out to potential candidates. These are available as part of the recruiting options noted above, but they’re also available as a stand-alone service that can be targeted to reach specific types of profiles.
This is just the beginning. Now that we’ve covered a few of the ways to use LinkedIn for recruiting, come back tomorrow to see more.