UK Recruiter s Guide To LinkedIn CONTENTS 1. Why should recruiters use LinkedIn 2. Profile and details 3. Open Networker 4. Groups 5. LinkedIn limits 6. Connections 7. Searching LinkedIn 8. Introductions vs. Inmails 9. Discussions and Q&A 10. Corporate vs. individual identity 11. LinkedIn Job Boards 12. LinkedIn possible future developments 13. Useful Tips & Links This guide will take you from creating and then optimising your profile through to sophisticated methods of utilising LinkedIn for sourcing candidates, raising individual/company profiles and on to the utilisation of all of LinkedIn facilities. Introduction/Setting Up Account A basic LinkedIn account can be set up with the following information at www.linkedin.com: i. Email address always use a personal email as LinkedIn is a personal account NOT a company specific account. ii. Job title keep this generic to your business iii. Company name
1. Why should recruiters use LinkedIn LinkedIn is a free business networking site that links professionals together in order to share business ideas and to present themselves in a business setting. Unlike other social network sites (eg, Facebook or MySpace) this is only aimed at business users. The site currently has over 36 million members with approx 2 million UK based and is said to be adding around 1.5 million users per month.
Individuals create a profile in much the same layout as a basic CV and provide details about current/previous positions alongside details or specialities & contact details. This is in part why it s such a useful tool to recruiters. When connecting with people you know you also gain access to their connections and the connections of those connections. They use the word degree to explain the levels of this network: 1 st degree + 2 nd degree + 3 rd degree connections form your network. As a result of this a network of around 800 direct connections will give you an overall network of approximately 10 million individuals. For a recruiter, this is like having access to a continually updated CV database (of passive candidates) for free. 2. Profile and details Your profile on LinkedIn is your professional representation on the site and as such should represent you in an accurate and business like way. In order to be found more frequently you should aim to have a 100% profile completeness that is achieved with the following: Picture a small professional looking headshot. Some people use a small logo but LinkedIn s policy is to remove it if they look at your profile. Positions at least 3 previous positions are required to complete your profile. Include as many details about each position as possible; key skills, tasks etc Summary/Specialities Include key words, business/industry specific terms in order to appear in as many recruitment searches as possible. Try to avoid company specific terms as they will not increase your appearance in search results. Recommendations Try to get at least 1 recommendation for each position but more if possible. A minimum of 3 recommendations is required for profile completeness. Often writing a recommendation for someone else will encourage them to write one in return for you. Name Include your full name. URL Personalise your url. This will increase the number of times that you appear in Google search results and direct people to your profile.
Generic job title Although you may have a title specific to your firm it is advisable to stick with recognisable recruitment job titles recruiter, recruitment consultant, resourcer, researcher etc. Treat your profile as a CV or personal brand your profile is much like an online CV and should be treated as carefully. Ensure that you have included all details, that your spelling is correct and that you have included accurate contact details. If you have them you can embed Powerpoint presentations for your present company in order to raise the company s profile and yours. Using updates Your profile contains a status update section and this should be used regularly. Every time you update this a note will appear on the home page of all of your connections and provides a useful method to keep your profile in front of people.
Applications utilise any of the applications, such as polls or a feed from your blog posts, to enhance your profile: One useful feature for recruiters is Box.net which allow the posting of jobs and description files on your profile:
3. Open Networker On LinkedIn anyone may invite you to join their network. You can instruct LinkedIn to either obtain your approval before the link is established or to automatically accept the invitation If you adopt the latter option you are an Open Networker or LION (LinkedIn Open Networker) There are a growing number of open networking groups on LinkedIn. Open Networking groups are only to increase the size of your overall network and not designed to specifically target types of connections. The best established of these is TopLinked.com but there are many others. The purpose of all of these groups is to increase the overall size of your network. Note that if you become part of someone else s network they automatically become part of yours. Being an open networker makes sense for recruiters as it can hugely increase the reach of your network. For example 7,250+ connections will typically give a network of 15 million+:
Obviously the more connections you have the more candidates you have direct access to. The disadvantage to having a large number of contacts is that you may be exposed to an increased amount of non relevant contacts but these can be ignored or archived easily. LinkedIn have so far tolerated OpenNetworkers as long as they follow the terms of the site but they are not encouraged and limitations have been imposed to combat the proliferation of open networkers. As a recruiter this will have little impact unless you do not follow the terms in which case your account may be subject to restrictions or have details removed. Groups LinkedIn has a group facility that contains professional or corporate groups that you can join in order to exchange ideas or even post roles for free. There are many industry specific groups and it is worth joining these to gain access to the group members. All group members become part of your network when you join a group. You can search for groups using the basic search feature at the top right of the page from the search drop down menu:
4. LinkedIn limits As of March 2009 LinkedIn currently operates the following limits: 30,000 direct connections 3,000 invites available to invite new people to your network 50 group memberships In addition being I Don t Knowed by 5 or more individuals results in limits being placed on inviting contacts to only those people that you have an email address for. This is why you may receive invites (or choose to send them) saying if you do not wish to connect please hit archive rather than I don t know. This doesn t mean you shouldn t try to connect with people you don t know, however, just ensure they are open networkers. All open networkers should adhere to the unwritten rule of never hitting I don t know. 5. Connections To get the most out of LinkedIn it is vital to build a network of everyone you know or who could be useful in a business sense. To do this you must do the following: - Invite everyone you know - Become an OpenNetworker and join TopLinked.com (see point 3) - Join relevant industry groups and connect with members - Invite all your candidates and clients It is possible to invite everyone you know from your email contacts by adding a.csv file on the following page (this will then automatically check whether these people are on LinkedIn and then send them a personal invite to connect
with you). A.csv file is a spreadsheet of contacts created through Excel and most contact files from your email software can be saved in this manner: Some recruiters will be concerned that by adding their candidates and clients they are opening themselves to poaching. In order to avoid your connections seeing all your candidates or clients select hidden connections in your accounts & settings. This option only allows you to hide all or none of your connections and is not a selective option. 6. Searching LinkedIn (see Appendix 1) Searches on LinkedIn can be carried out in a variety of different ways:
1. People, Inbox, Group, Companies, Jobs & Answer search from the drop down menu top right 2. Advanced Search this tool allows you to filter search results very specifically by location, titles, companies, industry etc. This search facility is located next to the limited search button at the top of the page. Tip: If you have a colleague with a larger total network than yours and you are not getting the results you are hoping for. Simply ask your colleague to carry out a search using your criteria and get them to send you the results URL. This will give you access to the results without needing their password or login details.
If you wish to contact anyone who comes up in such a search result remember that you do not have to contact them through LinkedIn. You can just use the individuals work details and make contact through their switchboard. 7. Introductions vs. Inmails LinkedIn offers 2 options for contacting individuals that you are not directly connected to: Introductions: This method allows you to send a message to your intended recipient via other connections.. The advantage of this method is that it is free and will be delivered as a message from someone who is most likely to be a known/trusted contact of the recipient. The downside is that you are relying on your contact to pass the message on. In order to increase the effectiveness of introduction you can include a personal message for the final recipient and the first link in the introductory chain. Inmails: A message, like an email, that can be delivered directly to any individual on LinkedIn that you find during a search. These messages carry a cost, may be ignored and have a feedback system that is displayed as a star rating system (1-5 stars with 5 being best. Inmails can be accepted, rejected or ignored by the recipient. If rejected this has a negative impact on your star rating) with your message to prevent people spamming through Inmails. Inmails can be bought at $10 each. 8. Discussions and Q&A
Another useful feature of LinkedIn involves your ability to post questions or discussions on the site. This can either be done through a category such as staffing & recruiting or within your relevant groups. This free resource is an excellent way of receiving answers and feedback from others within the recruitment industry. However, it is not advisable to attempt to post job opportunities in a group unless you know it is welcomed. 9. Corporate vs. individual identity Whilst a LinkedIn profile is a personal identity it can also be a valuable corporate tool. All recruiters for one company should have the same company description and links to the company website. Alongside this LinkedIn offers an application facility that allows you to include presentations, blogs etc within your profile. See applications (Section 2 Profile & Details).
10. LinkedIn Job Boards LinkedIn has its own job board with job posting available from approx 150 per posting: As well as posting the role LinkedIn will carry out a search of possible passive candidates for the role. These are based on key words, location, job titles etc and up to 30 results will be sent through for each role but you can reject suggestions. When rejected LinkedIn will search again and find another possible candidate. The job postings allow direct applications through the site
with candidates able to send through their profile and if required include a more detailed CV. Therefore you are getting access to a pre-searched CV database with each job posting. 11. LinkedIn possible future developments Within the last couple of years the relentless push from LinkedIn has been to further commercialise the site. This includes offering paid for packages for individuals all the way through to corporate access to all connections. The view appears to be that internal HR can bypass recruiters by using this offering. Recruiters will need to be able to combat this belief by showing added value through their use of LinkedIn and the quality and relevance of their contacts. So grow your network and exploit as many of the features as possible now so you are ready for any future developments or restrictions that LinkedIn try to impose. LinkedIn is an invaluable tool and will remain so for recruiters if used correctly. 12. Useful Tips & Links Daily/Weekly/Monthly checks Daily check for messages, invitations, introductions. Deal with these as soon as possible. Messages etc should be dealt with in professional fashion as you would with emails or any other form of direct contact. Check job postings or answers to questions posted. Weekly invite all those people you have been in contact with during the week to join your network. Update your status to let your network know what you are working on. Monthly check for new relevant groups, update your profile if required, look through discussion posts for useful information. Links LinkedIn Personal Trainer - www.linkedinpersonaltrainer.com UK Recruiter on LinkedIn - http://digbig.com/4ykbw Import contacts page - http://www.linkedin.com/uploadcontacts?displayuploadcontacts=&context=2 Appendix 1
Example Searches Job Title/Sector Title Sales Director Sector - Pharmaceutical Location UK Results This initial search produces 148 matching candidates but further filters can be applied using the Modify Your Search function.
Source Search Research Companies Motorola, Vodafone, RIM (Blackberry) Location UK Keywords R&D Results This gives you 47 people to target as sources for your search.