Recruit Anyone on LinkedIn

Here is another part in my series about how to recruit anyone using social media.
We've all heard about social media over the last few years, but not everyone is using it or know how to recruit on it. In case you've missed the last few articles in brief we've covered for all social media:

1. catchy job title that either describes the position, or captures attention
2. don't use industry jargon in the ad-not all jargon is the same
3. be clear about the duties and expectations you are looking for in this person
4. remember the difference between PUSH media (i.e. Twitter) and PULL media (i.e. Facebook)
There are other basics that need to be in place, however the tips above and below should be enough to get you started.

This post is about how to get started using LinkedIn to recruit.
Once again there are some things that will be in common with Twitter and Facebook, however unlike those two sites, LinkedIn tries to be more of a business and business networking site as opposed to a social site.
It does provide the benefits of being both a push and pull media. The fun of it is you can use the site either way (or both) to reach the candidates you would like.

Some general ideas to get started:
1. Use the status tool to update every few days something new about the job. Post the job title one time. A few days later post one quality needed or one benefit about the job. Continue to do so until you have a good pool of candidates. Changing the status keeps the job top of mind in the network.

2. Link with others who do the same job or in the same industry. Birds of a feather hang out together and they can spread the word about the opportunity.

3. Use the applications section to post information about the job and company. Post a power point with details about the job, list books you want the salespeople to read or have read, post videos, link to the company blog.


4. Post the ad in the job section. The new apply using LinkedIn feature makes the postings more effective than they were a few years ago and less clumsy to use.

5. Anytime you mention the ad, have a link to the ad available.


6. Shorten the URL of the ad (I'm not getting paid to endorse bit.ly but they are the one I use the most, I'll take two checks please!). It is not as critical on LinkedIn I believe because the title can help people see what the job is about since this is a site for business, however the status box does limit the amount of characters so a shorter URL can be helpful if it is a long job title. Twitter and other media are now tied into LinkedIn so it can help as you cross post from LinkedIn.

7. Use the groups section to start a discussion. Mix up how you post your message. This is where the pull and push media definitions come into place. Sometimes post the ad as "I'm looking to hire..." and post all the details. You won't get much response very often in terms of people posting a response, however you will get people thinking that they know someone in their network with the skills you want and may forward the discussion link or ad onto them.

Sometimes post a discussion topic that people who have the experience you are looking for will find interesting and want to comment on. When comments are posted you'll be able to see who is posting and who they are and where they are and you can reach out to them directly with your job.

Try these tips to see how they improve your results!
Everet
"A Heck of A Nice Guy"


Using-twitter-to-recruit
Using-facebook-to-recruit
Recruit-anyone-on-linkedin
Tip #1
Tip #2
Tip #3