When it comes to LinkedIn, we actually have a longer history with the platform than the #31DaysOfLinkedIn. We have been offering training courses and presentations on LinkedIn for years.
Through organizations like MINK Midwest MD and other hiring and human resources based organizations, we have talked through the strategies of recruiting on LinkedIn. We’ve been invited back many times so something we said must be clicking!
To recruit effectively on LinkedIn, you need to consider it takes more than an open job placement to attract applicants to your business, organization, or nonprofit.
You need to do these things on LinkedIn to attract applicants
Be active. Your LinkedIn hiring placement cannot be the first time LinkedIn has ever heard of you and yours. One of the first things a qualified, and cautious, applicant is going to do is look for more information about the place they see is hiring. If there is no digital footprint on LinkedIn, or other places, about your place of employment…it’s a huge red flag. It is an even larger red flag if the information about you online is infrequent or all within the week leading up to the opening. It is the 21st Century and most of us are well-versed in using Google as a detective agency.
Have a page. Beyond the personal profile of you, the hiring person or the recruiting agency person, you need to make sure the hiring organization is represented by an active LinkedIn business page. Refer to the point above for the real reasons why but it boils down to social proof and digital strength. Also, having an active Page on LinkedIn is good for your SEO. Just don’t look at our page for inspiration.
Have testimonials. Referred to as “Recommendations” on LinkedIn for personal profiles and business pages, this is where people who know you give their $0.02 about their professional experiences with you. If you are a Fortune 100 firm, this may not be as important as it is to a twenty-person accounting firms in the middle of Nebraska but it is something which applicants look at and will consider when reviewing openings. Also: If the testimonials are all from employees, you are painting a certain kind of picture. If the testimonials are from customers, community leaders, and peers, well, that is a different kind of picture entirely.
Have a digital trail. In addition, to your LinkedIn page you need to be active in telling your story (related to hiring or not) across at least Facebook and YouTube. Facebook is where the majority of the online population is active and if you have no impact there, it is telling. Additionally, you should be taking advantage of the best camera you own (probably the phone you are probably reading this on) and creating video content about your operation, the job you are hiring for, and the environment of the company, etc. you want then to come to work for. Why is this important to mention in a post about LinkedIn? Trailing families will take to the web to research on their own the company which is about to be involved in their lives. If that research turns up with minimal results, you have a hiring problem.
Internal advocacy. They say most jobs are filled by people the hiring party already knows. I am not sure who “they” are, but I do not they are not incorrect. If you have an open position and have posted it online, encourage your best (read: internal) customers to share that opening across their own social channels and let networking do some of the recruitment work for you. The job opening could be from CEO to lead bottle washer and, chances are, your employees will have someone in their own networks to bring into the process for you. Plus: the more social media content of your organization your employees share for you the larger audience you can attract to Like, Follow, Connect with your profiles so they are aware of your other news besides job openings.
Lead your community. This point is critical to the trailing families we mentioned before. If the children of the potential applicant Google (or LinkedIn search) your community and find nothing to their liking, then they will lobby against the relocation. On the flip side, if the trailing spouse searches you, your business, and your community and finds things to their liking, it becomes an easier sell for you to make the hire. How can you control what they find out about the geographic community or region you do business in? Be active in promoting local good news on your social channels, be an integral part of sponsoring your community activities so your name turns up in searches related to “things to do in Mayberry, NC” (if you are located in Mayberry, NC), and create photo/video content promoting not just your organization and the opening but the community you are trying to recruit hires to relocate to. Selling your community is a huge part of your real world recruitment activities and it should be just as large a part of your online activities.
How have your hiring and recruiting activities gone on LinkedIn? We have heard plenty of good, bad, and indifferent stories over the years and would like to hear yours in the comments below, on social media, or privately.
If you found this to be an interesting piece of LinkedIn information, please hit the Share tools to the side of these words so your networks can take a look at is as well.
Many thanks for reading this far down the #31DaysOfLinkedIn page and if you have any LinkedIn (or other) questions or obstacles, let me know and we will see if we can tackle them together!
PS: If you are interested, here is a full presentation on LinkedIn and recruiting I gave recently.
The #31DaysOfLinkedIn Posts from @RocketGroup
#31DaysOfLinkedIn – Introduction and Recap
A Look at LinkedIn Endorsements and Recommendations
Add Project Details to Your LinkedIn
Building Relationships on LinkedIn
Comparing LinkedIn Audiences to Other Social Platforms through @GaryVee
Educate, Inform, and Entertain Yourself with LinkedIn Groups
Kids, LinkedIn is for Professional Stuff
LinkedIn Premium: How Do They Work?
LinkedIn: Connect with the Right People, the Right Way
Manage Your LinkedIn Activities
Optimize Your LinkedIn Headline
Professionally Mingling on LinkedIn
Recruiting and Hiring on LinkedIn
Say No to the Default on LinkedIn
Setting a Schedule for LinkedIn Activity
Share (Professional) Stuff on LinkedIn
Sharing and Getting Shared on LinkedIn
Sharing Content on LinkedIn Effectively
Spread Out Your LinkedIn Posts
Taking LinkedIn to the Real World
To Pay or Not to Pay for LinkedIn
Want to Get Found on LinkedIn?
What We Learned During #31DaysOfLinkedIn
