Social media is crucial to a recruiter’s job and LinkedIn is the go-to place. It’s where people go when they need a job, want to advance their careers or grow their professional networks, and are hiring new employees.
There are a lot of recruiters on LinkedIn. According to one source, more than 58 million companies are listed on the site, 50 million people are searching for jobs on LinkedIn every week, and 87% of recruiters regularly use LinkedIn.
How to recruit on LinkedIn
So, how to recruit on LinkedIn, break through, make your presence stand out from all the others, and get your jobs in front of the best possible candidates?
Tips for how to recruit on LinkedIn and standing out as a recruiter include:
10 strategies for recruiters to stand out from the crowd and attract the best talent on LinkedIn
Commit to making an effort
Post about topics other than your job openings
Engage
Make your own profile compelling
Join groups
Don’t send canned DMs or spam people
Use relevant keywords
Turn your success stories into advocates
Write amazing job postings
Let’s take a closer look at these strategies and examine how to most effectively recruit on LinkedIn.
Commit to making an effort. You must be committed to using the platform, updating it, sharing content, connecting and engaging with people, and growing your network. A content calendar is one way to stay on top of posts and ensure that LinkedIn does not fall through the cracks when you get busy with other things.
Post about topics other than your job openings. It’s important to use the platform not just for posting your jobs. The nature of social media is that it’s social. It’s not meant to be solely an advertising platform through which you blast out job postings. The idea is to engage users so that they think of you as an expert in your field and an ally, so that when you do post a job, they are more likely to apply for it, share it, or refer someone to you. Post articles you find about your industry and that may be relevant. Share your insights and expertise on hiring and the job search. Share things that are educational and useful to others. Doing this daily will put you at the top of people’s feeds when they log in and they will start thinking of you as an expert and connection.
Engage. Engage with users and have two-way conversations with them. Comment on other people’s posts and invite them into exchanges. Say complimentary things about articles people have written or share your own ideas – without trying to one-up people and attempting to sound smarter. If someone asks for help, offer it. Be generous with your knowledge and time. Set aside an amount of time per day just to engage with people and build connections.
Make your own profile compelling. The first thing you need to do on LinkedIn is take care of your own profile and presence. It’s your starting point for everything and is where people will go to learn more about you and the jobs you’re posting. Update your bio and experience, make sure your profile picture is a good, professional one, post relevant content, and find ways to make it unique.
Join groups (maybe). The thing about LinkedIn groups is that there is waning interest in them and they’re mostly full of spam. But there’s some consensus that once in a while you hit on a good group that can be useful. A few industry specific groups might be good places to source talent. And there are those who believe groups will make a comeback.
Don’t send canned DMs or spam people. Don’t send template, non-customized, bulk messages to prospective candidates or clients. People are sick and tired of sales messages on LinkedIn, and recruiter messages that are not specific to a candidate’s needs and goals are not wanted. Only send messages that are personalized and will be of genuine interest to a candidate or client.
Use relevant keywords. Use keywords and hashtags. People can do searches by topic on LinkedIn for jobs, content, and groups. So, use keywords that will be relevant and help you be found.
Turn your success stories into advocates. If you have good, ongoing relationships with clients and candidates you have placed, why not ask them to share their experience in a post? User generated content and reviews are highly trusted by consumers and can help raise your profile. Happy customers are any business’s best advocates.
Write amazing job postings. When posting jobs, make them stand out rather than just copy what the competition is doing. How can you do better? Use compelling language and find ways to highlight the best parts of your employer brands. Ask yourself, with every job you post, if you would want to do it. If not, go back and find ways to make the posting pop.
Be yourself – Always be authentic and, like with the job postings, don’t try to do what anyone else is doing. YOU are the only thing out there that is 100% guaranteed to be unique so find your unique voice and angle and work with it. You won’t appeal to everyone. Some people may love what you post and some not so much. But as long as you are being authentic, honest and adding value in your chosen sector, that’s totally fine. Don’t get hung up on trying to write a post that goes viral (it probably won’t) or getting on the latest LinkedIn topic bandwagon. Create content that you think is genuinely interesting and relevant.
LinkedIn is an amazing platform
LinkedIn is a great platform but it’s crowded and saturated with recruiters. Knowing how to stand out will help you succeed.
