LinkedIn has become an invaluable tool for recruiting and sourcing potential job candidates. With over 722 million users worldwide, LinkedIn provides access to the world’s largest professional network and a wealth of information to help identify and connect with qualified candidates.
Where to Begin Your LinkedIn Search
When using LinkedIn to source candidates, there are several places you can start your search:
- LinkedIn Recruiter – This is LinkedIn’s dedicated recruiting platform that provides advanced searching, filtering, and messaging capabilities. Recruiter allows you to search the full LinkedIn network, not just those open to new opportunities.
- Advanced Search – LinkedIn’s advanced search allows you to construct complex Boolean searches to narrow down candidates based on keywords, location, education, skills, job titles, and more.
- Group Search – There are over 2 million LinkedIn groups focused on various professional topics and industries. Searching within relevant groups is a great way to find passionate, engaged candidates.
- Company Pages – Follow and search company pages to uncover current and former employees that may be good fits.
- School Pages – Browse alumni directories on university pages to pinpoint candidates from target schools.
Enhance Your LinkedIn Search
To really maximize your ability to identify and attract top talent on LinkedIn, here are some tips:
- Use Boolean operators – Boolean terms like AND, OR, NOT help include or exclude keywords in your searches.
- Leverage filters – Narrow your search results by location, education, experience level, company size, and more.
- Save advanced searches – Saving complex searches lets you rerun and tweak them easily in the future.
- Follow companies – Following companies ensures you see all employees andwhen people switch jobs.
- Use search alerts – Create alerts to get notified when new candidates meet your search criteria.
- Share job postings – Post jobs directly on LinkedIn to increase visibility and attract inbound candidates.
Evaluate Potential Candidates
Once you’ve identified promising candidates on LinkedIn, the next step is to thoroughly evaluate them. Here are some tips for assessing fit:
- Review their profile – What skills, experiences, education align with the role? Look for gaps.
- Check connections – See where you have shared connections who can provide introductions or referrals.
- Assess engagement – Are they active contributors or passive users? How regularly do they post and interact?
- Message first – Send an InMail to start a dialogue and gauge their interest and communication skills.
- Do outside research – Google them and review their contributions on other platforms like GitHub or Stack Overflow.
- Check recommendations – Reach out to people who have recommended them on LinkedIn.
Connect with Candidates
Once you’ve identified promising candidates, it’s time to reach out. Here are some best practices for making contact:
- Personalize your message – Reference their experiences, interests, or connections in your outreach.
- Be transparent – Disclose that you found them through LinkedIn recruiting.
- Highlight the role – Summarize the key parts of the role that made you think of them.
- Pose questions – Ask questions that show interest in their accomplishments and motivations.
- Suggest next steps – Propose a phone call, video chat, or meeting to continue the dialogue.
- Follow up – Circle back if you don’t receive an initial response and try other contact methods.
InMail Tips and Tricks
InMail is LinkedIn’s internal messaging system that allows you to contact anyone on the platform, whether you’re connected or not. Here are some InMail best practices:
- Keep it short – Get to the point within the first two sentences.
- Sell the role – Spark their interest by highlighting parts of the job that match their profile.
- Be personable – Share why you think they’re a fit and your enthusiasm to connect.
- Mention connections – Name drop any shared connections who referred you their way.
- Use the subject line – Grab their attention with a compelling, personalized subject line.
- Proofread – Double check for typos and grammar before sending.
LinkedIn Recruiter Tips
LinkedIn Recruiter provides advanced capabilities for identifying and engaging candidates. Here are some tips to maximize your results:
- Leverage Recruiter search filters – Use precise criteria like years of experience, education, and regions to refine your search.
- Create customized candidate alerts – Get notifications when prospects with key attributes you specify join LinkedIn or make profile changes.
- Message prospects in batches – Use Recruiter’s Message Center to engage multiple candidates at once while personalizing each note.
- Track candidate progress – Follow prospects through the recruiting workflow using status tags like “contacted” and “phone screen scheduled.”
- Prioritize InMail use – Utilize your monthly InMail credits to instantly reach your top prospects.
- Integrate with your ATS – Sync LinkedIn Recruiter with your applicant tracking system to manage candidates end-to-end.
Optimizing Your LinkedIn Profile
To attract qualified candidates, you need an optimized LinkedIn profile and active presence. Here are some profile tips:
- Professional headshot – Use a high-quality, friendly photo to build trust and approachability.
- Attention-grabbing headline – Summarize your value proposition and roles you hire for.
- Keywords – Include targeted keywords recruiters may search for.
- Detailed experience – Showcase your company, achievements, and job responsibilities.
- Education – List your degrees, certifications, and courses.
- Skills – Be sure to add all relevant skills to be searchable for them.
- Recommendations – Request recommendations from managers, colleagues, and clients.
Engaging on LinkedIn
Beyond your profile, actively engaging on LinkedIn helps position you as an attractive employer. Try:
- Commenting on industry discussions
- Sharing company and job updates
- Posting career advice and tips
- Joining relevant LinkedIn Groups
- Following Influencers and thought leaders
Sourcing Passive Candidates
The majority of LinkedIn users are passive candidates just browsing opportunities, not actively job hunting. Here are tips for engaging them:
- Focus on their experience and skills, not current job title or status.
- Appeal to their potential upside and growth opportunities with your company.
- Get creative with searches – try location, companies, groups, schools, keywords.
- Message even without an open req – build a pipeline for future roles.
- Spotlight your company culture, values, and mission to attract interest.
- Build a trusted brand presence by providing advice, content, and connections.
Advanced Boolean Search Examples
Boolean searches help construct complex LinkedIn searches to refine your results. Here are some examples:
- Accountant AND CPA – Finds profiles with both keywords
- Engineer OR Developer – Returns profiles with either keyword
- Marketing NOT Sales – Includes Marketing without Sales
- “Social Media Manager” – Searches exact phrase in quotes
- Title:(Manager OR Director) – Filters by job titles
- Company:Amazon – Filters by specific company name
- School:(“UC Berkeley” OR “Boston University”) – Filters by target schools
Integrating with Your ATS
Integrating LinkedIn Recruiter with your applicant tracking system (ATS) offers many advantages:
- Sync candidate profiles from LinkedIn into your ATS
- View ATS candidate information within LinkedIn Recruiter
- Track candidate status and workflow across systems
- Pass prospects from LinkedIn into your ATS as applicants
- Keep candidate data and communications centralized
- Eliminate manual candidate profile entry
- Report on pipeline and source effectiveness
Popular ATS platforms like Lever, Greenhouse, Jobvite, SmartRecruiters, and more all integrate with LinkedIn to enable seamless recruitment workflows.
Ensuring Compliance
When recruiting through LinkedIn, it’s important to ensure compliant practices. Some tips:
- Respect opt-out preferences and only message those open to opportunities.
- Never spam or send unsolicited messages.
- Be transparent about contacting people for recruitment purposes.
- Obtain legal permission before scraping data or profiles.
- Let candidates know how you obtained their contact information.
- Protect candidate personal data and maintain confidentiality.
Measuring Results
Tracking key LinkedIn recruiting metrics helps optimize your strategy. Useful metrics include:
- Candidate source percentages
- InMail response rates
- Profile views and engagement
- follower growth
- Time-to-hire for LinkedIn prospects
- LinkedIn cost-per-hire
- New followers and page views
- Shares, reactions, and comments on posts
Conclusion
With more than 722 million professionals, LinkedIn is the go-to platform for tapping into global talent pools and proactively sourcing quality candidates. By leveraging the advanced search and communication tools, recruiters can build strong talent pipelines, nurture passive prospects, and save time identifying qualified talent. With the right messaging practices and compliance procedures, any company can unlock LinkedIn’s immense potential to find and attract the very best candidates for their open roles.
