LINKEDIN FOR RECRUITMENT
LinkedIn for Recruitment and HR
by Bill McCartney, Think Social. Bill McCartney was LinkedIn’ s
Professionals only official EMEA talent solutions partner in Northern Ireland.
good go to heaven and the bad go to hell. It’ s a saying that I became aware of
Twhen in crutches this summer after rupturing my Achilles.
When going up steps lead with your good leg and going down steps lead with your bad leg. Hobbling about on crutches opens your eyes to a new world. It forces you to think differently.
Luckily when it comes to LinkedIn you don’ t have to injure yourself to think differently. A different approach to LinkedIn will give you a competitive edge. This is especially true for recruitment and HR professionals using LinkedIn.
“ Have an open mind – allow different ideas into your way of thinking” – Peter Diamandis
Contrary to popular belief LinkedIn is not primarily a site where people post their CVs, are unhappy at work, desperate to move to another company or are unemployed.
Most people on LinkedIn are happy in their work and not looking for another job. They do not view their LinkedIn personal profile as a CV. They spend very little time or effort completing their profile. Many people are simply on LinkedIn to network, learn from key influencers and access current articles on subjects that are especially interesting to them.
In fact some of the best talent on LinkedIn deliberately create a sketchy profile to avoid recruiters and unwanted attention from other members.
Can you find this best talent that others miss? What do you do differently that gives you a competitive edge?
“ Only he who can see the invisible can do the impossible” Frank Gaines
Unfortunately in many cases it is people with a fully completed and keyword rich LinkedIn profile that appear high in search. These people are constantly being hit on and naturally get cheesed off with job offers.
They are not necessarily the best talent. A few of their profiles would do fiction writers proud.
With very little effort and a different approach to search you can find hidden talent. The great advantage is they are not constantly being hit on and are usually more open to an approach.
I come from a technical background and we are famous for TLAs: Three Letter Abbreviations.
Most specialisthidden talent use TLA, so use them in your search.
Misspelling keywords is a classic search approach to find hidden talent. Some of the best talent just spends a couple of minutes creating a profile with little attention to spelling.
They don’ t think of their profile as a CV rather just a basic requirement to join LinkedIn.
Try this: go to LinkedIn search and use the misspelling“ Enginer”. It will return over 32,000 profiles, go figure?
Search is not the only way to find hidden talent. Grow your network with people who know the talent you seek.
If the banking sector for example is important to you then start building relationships with estate agents and solicitors. They all move in the same circles and can introduce you to hidden key talent in banking.
A big challenge is probably your company page. In many cases it is the most undervalued and neglected place on LinkedIn. Company pages are important to LinkedIn. They help sell their premium accounts, job adverts, career pages, sponsored adverts and lead gen form adverts, etc.
LinkedIn are therefore investing in company pages and offer several free benefits to encourage their use. They allow your content to reach targeted followers, harness your employees as brand ambassadors, develop your company as an employer of choice, support free showcase pages for campaigns or products, allow different levels of administrators and provide excellent analytics.
“ Opportunities are often things you haven’ t noticed the first time around.” Catherine Deneuve
I am shocked at the number of businesses in Northern Ireland that have failed to capitalise on the many benefits LinkedIn Company Pages offer. Perhaps it is an obsession with LinkedIn profiles?
The purchase of LinkedIn by Microsoft in 2016 for $ 26.2 billion dollars was another shock. Microsoft is a Tech Titan with over one billion customers.
They have some of the most popular software products on the planet with email and CRM coming to mind. Microsoft is also a world leader in the leading edge technology AI, artificial intelligence. LinkedIn has already started to use AI in messaging.
LinkedIn and its members will benefit from the huge opportunities to integrate Microsoft products. They will capitalise from Microsoft’ s competitive advantage of huge scale and incredible reach.
I have only touched on a couple of areas that I will be covering in my September Linkedin Workshop For Recruitment And Hr Professionals. Visit here for details www. businessfirstonline. co. uk / linkedinhr
I hope to see you there.
10 www. businessfirstonline. co. uk