Professional service firm marketers know that LinkedIn is designed for the business community and that it can be an excellent tool for recruiting. Businesses can post jobs, stay in touch with colleagues for employment opportunities, and search for particular candidates using keywords.
According to recent research by Business Insider, LinkedIn now has over 500 million registered users in 200 countries, meaning businesses can reach candidates all over the world on this one platform alone.
In order to optimize LinkedIn for recruiting, businesses should build a compelling and informative profile, establish their company as a thought leader, and create a network.
Build a Compelling and Informative Profile
Company descriptions should provide a concise but helpful overview of your company, describing your services, target clients, and benefits you provide to those clients.
It is also important to make sure you include visuals that are on-brand. We have seen many instances of fuzzy banner images, disproportionately sized logos, or photos that are not in keeping with the firm’s branding. It’s important that your LinkedIn page look consistent with your website, as many prospects will click from one site to the other. Consistent imagery will build your brand awareness and is crucial to create a professional image.
Businesses can also create showcase pages that spotlight areas of expertise. These pages act as an extension of your LinkedIn page and can highlight the specific services that you offer.
An additional step taken by many successful companies is to create a job subsection, which makes potential jobs much easier to find for prospective employees. Within the job subsection, post open positions and link directly to full job descriptions to make the process more convenient for prospective applicants.
Establish Your Company as a Thought Leader
Businesses can establish their company as a thought leader by including relevant, educational articles on LinkedIn specific to their industry. Doing so will help your company develop and continually build a relationship with your community.
Updates can include valuable statistics about your industry, client alerts, news about your firm as well as relevant general news stories, thought-provoking questions, and more. Repurpose headlines from your blog, linking back to your main site to read the full story. Also, comment on other articles to further boost their reputation.
Another helpful tactic is to include multimedia in your posts. Many businesses will link out to videos and share posts with employees.
Deloitte, a multinational professional services network, created a LinkedIn profile that is well-designed and eye-catching and includes many visuals which draw users to their page. EY also does an excellent job presenting relevant content in interesting ways.
Potential hires want to see what your business has to offer, and will be more likely to apply to a company that seems reputable, knowledgeable, and interactive with its industry.
Create a Network
When using LinkedIn, it is essential to connect with different companies to create and continually build up your network. To quickly build up your network, friend all of your employees to boost your legitimacy and encourage users to trust your business.
Companies should also join LinkedIn groups that are relevant to their business and industry. Be active on group pages by sharing your company’s blog posts, relevant industry news, and liking and commenting on other’s posts.
It is also important to create a community for your employees to interact with your business. Encourage your employees to post reviews about their experience at your company. Potential hires like to see that employees enjoy where they work, and value their opinions highly as they make decisions.
Make Your LinkedIn Profile Valuable
LinkedIn has become a vital tool used by over half a billion people and now appears to be growing in popularity especially for recruiting purposes. Using it to its fullest will help your firm attract the best candidates in today’s competitive job market.
Additional Reading:
What you can do with Showcase Pages
Showcase Pages – FAQs
Posting a Job on LinkedIn
How Social Media Helps Businesses Increase Website Traffic
Vanessa’s article also appeared in SMPS Boston’s Outlook, May 3rd
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