Linkedin as a Recruiting Engine

Social Media for business networks are the dominant form of professional branding and building relationships with consumers, the old way of scouting future employees through the written resume is quickly dwindling in favor of using social media methods to ascertain their fit for the job. The most popular social network, Facebook, is more for personal interactions and isn’t generally very useful for finding out who fits; LinkedIn, however, is an excellent recruiting tool when used correctly.

In fact, here are some of the best ways to employ the popular business and career network to find viable candidates:

1. Make a complete and detailed profile for your company, so that traffic which lands on your company profile online will be fully familiar with what it is the company is about, and basic requirements for any position opening.
2. Employ LinkedIn’s Job Search feature to look for profiles that might touch on the most important aspects of your needs; then send the best candidates messages inviting them to take a look at your job offer.
3. One of the most cost-effective and time-conscious recruiting methods coincides with an action you should be taking even when you’re not specifically hiring: building up your professional network. Connect with other companies with similar interest in order to widen your pool of potential personnel; making your recruitment potentially very straight-forward.
4. Ask any of the contacts in your ever-widening network if they have any particularly-strong candidates that they would recommend, who’d fit your position openings. Not surprisingly, all you should have to do in return is the same for them – if there are any employees with strong resumes and memorable work habits that have left your business but would suit one of your contact companies, then you should let them know. With a large-enough network; this method works surprisingly well.
5. On LinkedIn, there’s a section called Company Insights; study this on company pages to see what information you can wean that can help you in the recruiting process. The section shows you a useful metric: how many connections exist between employees from one company to the next.
6. One of the more obvious – but no less powerful – tools for recruitment that LinkedIn has to offer is the Groups functionality. It’s a forum for questions, answers, observations and basically people and companies with shared interests. It’s quite likely that your next employee lurks here somewhere…you can drop by and request resumes to be emailed to you after you lay out a few qualifications, for starters. Join NOW Marketing Group on LinkedIn for examples.
7. One of the newer and more powerful ways that the premier social networking site Facebook is used by businesses to expand their brand are through contests and challenges. You can use LinkedIn for something similar, though more geared towards the recruitment process. Have a cadre of potential candidates perform a task such as answering a question related to your brand and their assessment of it, so that you can gauge their outlook. Are they singly motivated, or more team-oriented? Either could be better; depending on the position opening you have.
8. As a final example of leveraging LinkedIn for recruitment purposes, consider following the trail of potential candidates to their other social networks for a wider understanding of their qualifications, as well as reviews from other parties. All you have to do is take care never to hire or disregard based on attributes prohibited by law, and you can find out some relevant details not mentioned on their LinkedIn landing page – such as a former boss’ assessment on their Facebook Wall, or one of their hobbies that meshes well with a company directive.

NOW Marketing Group in Lima Ohio uses social media and web 2.0 tools in our hiring process. We would be happy to answer any questions you may have on how to use social media to enhance your business hiring process. Feel free to contact a NOW Marketing Group social media strategist at 877.380.6698 ext. 801

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