LinkedIn just celebrated reaching 500 million users on its business professional platform. In researching this social media platform after LinkedIn recently dumped the events, applications and answer forum, I discovered an interesting tidbit: The majority of the services are career- and recruiting-related.
Of the 21 services LinkedIn offers to users, 12 target job seekers, career changers and those who hunt them down - recruiters. The services are Jobs For You ads, career pages, Job Seeker Premium, jobs, Recruiter Corporate, Recruiter Professional Services, recruitment ads, Resume Builder, Talent Connect, Talent Direct, Talent Finder and Work With Us recruitment ads. Included in the recruiter services are events, videos, recorded webcasts, case studies, datasheets, white papers, blogs for recruiters and branding analytics. These are serious tools for savvy corporate recruiters and high-dollar headhunters, and they are using them.
Jobs For You ads allow recruiters to post recruiting advertisements directly to LinkedIn's platform. These paid ads get banner or sidebar attention for pay-per-click as they are directed at a target audience of profile owners. LinkedIn recruiter status allows powerful search refinement filters to target candidates based on company, location, industry, skill set, keywords and full user profiles. Recruiter Corporate allows recruiters more "in-mails" and to obtain more results from search engine queries, including introductions via first connections.
Recruiter Professional Services allows corporate teams to synchronize activities with shared folders, searches, profiles and candidate notes on passive or active candidates, similar to automated tracking systems that are cloud-based for resume databases. Recruitment ads assist companies in developing and maintaining branding, deliver relevant messages and attract more passive candidates to a company's recruiting page within LinkedIn.
Talent Direct allows recruiters to set parameters for candidates they seek and LinkedIn's automated search engine starts sorting through the passive candidates and returns potential applicants for suggested contact. The systematic search proactively reaches hundreds of passive candidates.
Talent Pipeline tracks profile owners as they move through a career progression by helping recruiters build relationships by connecting leads to these LinkedIn profiles, keeping information current, and staying in touch via in-mail and email. This enables recruiters to analyze and track where most leads for candidates are coming from. This is a user-licensed ATS, designed to manage a recruiter's workflow for job applicants, as well as grow and track prospective passive candidates.
Recruiters are finding LinkedIn is providing more and better job candidates than the competition - Monster and CareerBuilder - and spending less money with a richer ROI. The competitions' contracts may run $12,000 annually for one user license - with restricted filtering capabilities, while LinkedIn provides a much cheaper access to the same or more resumes and profiles. Recruiters can still find valuable candidates within LinkedIn using the free or first-level paid license. Free resumes are not available via Monster or CareerBuilder. This helps the low-budget, small companies save thousands in overhead recruiting costs.
Recruiters match resumes submitted for jobs against a LinkedIn profile to see if what is noted in the resume matches the profile online. There are stories about companies losing contracts simply because the LinkedIn profile doesn't match resumes submitted for requests for quotes or bids.
To make LinkedIn work as a career search tool, it is vital to have a rich, impactful profile. You must be cognizant of what key words the competition will use. The more key words your online resume has so your profile shows above theirs, the more likely you will get "the call."
The type of profile recruiters are seeking are achievement-based, bulleted listings of goals and objectives met, coupled with metrics - how many, how often, within what time period. This type of online resume "shows, not tells" what capabilities the candidate can perform. If job seekers are not getting responses via LinkedIn, it's time to get that professional resume rewritten.
Dawn Boyer is the owner of D. Boyer Consulting. She can be reached at Dawn.Boyer@DBoyerConsulting.com or http://dboyerconsulting.com.
