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LinkedIn Recruiting: Do’s & Don’ts For Recruiters

As one of the largest professional networking sites out there, LinkedIn is one of the prime platforms where talent hangs out and cannot be ignored when it comes to social recruitment. With over 774 million members in more than 200 countries, LinkedIn recruiting is a necessary activity for both recruiters and job seekers.

While LinkedIn recruiting should be a very important part of the process in the realm of social recruiting, it is equally important to be aware of certain do’s and don’ts to avoid misusing the professional networking service. LinkedIn has been around the Internet space long enough for recruiters and job seekers to start figuring out the social network faux pas.

Companies should use LinkedIn recruiting to promote their brand as a company and to make valuable connections; yet making mistakes along the way could seriously harm a company’s image, and its prospects of nabbing great talent.

Below are some etiquette rules for best practices while using Linkedin for recruiting and sourcing talent:

DO: Personalize Messages

LinkedIn knows professionals are busy. This is why the site has supplied auto-generated responses for some of the top actions users take on the site. As noted by Fast Company, this can lead to a lot of duplicate, impersonal messages flooding people’s inboxes. If you want to congratulate a contact on a new position or reach out to a potential candidate to build your company’s talent community, take the extra few seconds to write a personalized greeting.

When using LinkedIn recruiting to connect with job seekers, getting personal can demonstrate your company’s commitment to your talent community. Using Linkedin to give your open positions a signal boost is a great way to attract top candidates. If you are sharing a job with a specific pool of talent, make sure to personalize your message. These top-notch candidates will be impressed with your engagement and more likely to apply.

DO NOT: Overshare

It might be tempting to use social media dashboards to post your updates everywhere on the social web, but you need to rein in that impulse when it comes to LinkedIn recruiting activity. Share relevant, professional content with your connections. Your contacts on LinkedIn, for instance, might not be as interested in the funny YouTube video you just shared with your friends on Facebook.

LinkedIn is a platform used mainly for professional networking and in that respect quite different from many other social networks. Keeping this in mind, the content you share on LinkedIn should be relevant to your industry. Sharing job openings on Linkedin via Simplicant, for instance, is a great way of leveraging your professional network in your Linkedin recruiting efforts. You can even select specific candidates from your LinkedIn connections to share your open positions with, based on who you think will be the right fit for the job.

If you are sharing a great open position with a targeted talent community, make sure you don’t over-promote. Not everyone in your talent community will want to apply no matter how many times you post, but you will still attract candidates who are interested in your industry. Remember, you want to use your LinkedIn recruiting activity to promote your company as a great place to work, without flooding your contacts’ news feeds.

DO: Encourage Candidates to Apply Through LinkedIn

With “apply with LinkedIn”, a standard feature on the Simplicant platform, job seekers can easily apply to your open positions from your careers site using their established LinkedIn profile. This can cut down the application process length while allowing candidates to spend more time answering questions specific to the position. LinkedIn profiles are also kept more up-to-date by the candidate than profiles stored in most applicant tracking systems.

DO NOT: Connect with Strangers

When building up your network to find great potential employees, it is easy to get a little connection-happy. Try to resist the urge to connect with anyone and everyone in your industry. Instead, use LinkedIn groups to develop relationships with job seekers who may be perfect for a position.

You want to use your LinkedIn recruiting efforts wisely to establish yourself and your company as thought leaders in your industry. Great candidates who might otherwise be interested in your company could get a bit unsure about whether they should respond if there is no prior communication. Instead, share job openings directly with your own connections and with your company’s talent community to reach qualified applicants.

By reaching out to professionals interested in your industry through groups and professional networks, you can start building relationships that could lead to your next great employee. It makes sharing open positions with a talented pool of candidates easier than ever. After all, LinkedIn is all about connections. A great passive candidate could introduce you to an even better candidate actively seeking new opportunities. The more you engage with the top talent in your Linkedin recruiting campaign, post and share open positions, and grow your connections organically, the more useful your network becomes.

What are some of your LinkedIn recruiting best practices? 

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