hey and welcome back so what do you think about linkedin it's probably not your favorite social media platform right like many others you might find instagram twitter or even facebook aka meta to be much more entertaining but with 830 million worldwide users 150 million in the us alone linkedin is the first place most job seekers go to display their qualifications and experience while looking for roles to apply to since its main function is connecting professionals every user is there for that purpose alone as you can imagine it can be a gold mine for recruiters looking to fill open positions no other website or platform offers a comparable talent pool however in some ways one of linkedin's biggest advantages also contributes to its one major downfall with so many active job seekers and so much passive talent available on the platform it isn't always easy to source candidates feel like that not only must you be confident that they're engaging the right candidates but you'll also be competing for them with the countless other recruiters utilizing linkedin as well in this video we're going to explore a little bit about how to effectively recruit on linkedin and stand out the candidates among your competitors we'll be focusing specifically on linkedin today but there will certainly be some tips which are generally applicable to other job board websites as well for more general information about how to effectively source candidates online check out my previous videos on the best sourcing strategies for technical recruiters but before we get started as always please consider to like subscribe click that bell completely free and really really means a lot with such a huge number of users on the platform you may find yourself wondering is linkedin a truly reliable source for talent the short answer is yes although certain specialized especially complex roles may require a bit of digging elsewhere to find qualified candidates linkedin is almost always a perfect place to start why because it's what everybody else does millions of companies and their employees maintain linkedin profiles and many use it to recruit talent as well its most basic free features should be more than enough for the average user and some recruiters if you find linkedin to be a valuable source you can consider upgrading to a linkedin recruiter account for much wider range of features and much more flexibility when it comes to who you can reach out to before we dive into the specific techniques you can utilize on linkedin let's do a quick comparison of a free linkedin user first a paid recruiter is it worth paying the extra money free linkedin first linkedin recruiter linkedin offers their paid recruiter service that greatly expands the tools available to you in sourcing candidates however a free account can still go a long way especially for beginning or low volume recruiters therefore it isn't necessary per se to pay for the recruiter service unless you intend to use certain features if you're a beginning recruiter only to have a few clients or candidates start with a free account in time you may find some of the linkedin recruiter features helpful so let's see what the service actually has to offer linkedin offers two tiers of the recruiter services they describe the lower tier linkedin recruiter light as an entry-level recruiting tool best suited for individuals at small to medium businesses with low volume hiring needs recruiter professional services and recruiter corporate are for larger staffing firms and enterprise companies and respectively one of the main differences between the tiers is the level of access you get to linkedin's user network as you may know linkedin limits the amount of connections a free user can make and also restricts certain profiles depending on their relevance to your network recruiter light unlocks the ability to reach out to a third degree connections greatly expanding your available talent pool staffing firm and agencies get access to this and get 30 additional unlocks that allow access to out-of-network profiles finally though corporate accounts get unlimited access to all of linkedin paid recruiter usually can also apply a significant amount of search filters in order to narrow down your results light users get access to a limited number of these filters while staffing firms and corporate accounts gain acts to additional advanced filters like years at current company or position or even spoken language the next length and recruiter feature involves messaging light accounts are allowed 30 in males messages per month while staffing firms and corporate accounts are allowed 100 to 150 almost 200 respectively per month linkedin recruiter lite lacks some of the more powerful features of the higher tiers including work spotlights such as open to work or more likely to respond a contract work filter and filters related to skills assessments there are also countless more advanced features that go beyond the scope of this video for smaller recruitment operations linkedin recruiter light should be more than adequate at 140 bucks a month or about 1440 bucks a year consider subscribing once you've gotten plenty of use out of the following free strategies optimize your company page the stronger of a brand you can build on linkedin the more effectively you'll source candidates ideally before you even begin your search you should consider reputation on linkedin companies who are utilizing linkedin to source candidates should never begin without optimizing a company page first having an active company linkedin profile will engage users of all clients not only will you reach active job seekers but past the talent you reach out will certainly be swayed by a company's linkedin profile of course as an independent recruiter you won't always have the time or opportunity to work with your clients to develop your linkedin branding however i've talked in the past about how important branding is as a recruiter and that applies here as well you can utilize the outreach techniques of a company pages and apply them to your own linkedin account first keep your theming and graphics simple and consistent consider reaching out to a graphic designer to help create your header image and even helpful charts graphics and infographics with information about staffing and recruiting next on the topic of content be sure that what you're sharing is timely and relevant you don't have to exclusively talk about recruiting though consider sharing relevant maybe new stories from within your niche finally be sure to keep your profile updated and release content consistently it isn't necessary to be constantly active on linkedin every day the platform wasn't really designed to be used like that however you definitely want to stay in your network's feed with occasional updates as well join linkedin groups join linkedin groups especially if you're starting out in a new niche or indeed as a recruiter in general you might be at a loss on how to grow your network with relevant connections luckily linkedin has a solution for this groups use your personal account to join groups that are relevant to your niche and try to engage each other as naturally and organically as possible participate share useful tips or news and comment on others posts according to four corner resource.com you are 21 more likely to get a response from a candidate when they are in a group with you keep this in mind and consider reaching out to users with interact with free job posts for paid job listing when it comes to advertising and publicizing your open positions there are two real options available on linkedin if you want the role to show up as a job listing within linkedin's job board database you'll have to post a paid job listing luckily linkedin operates under a pay-per-click model so it's not terribly expensive you only pay if a user views the job posting linkedin allows you to define a daily budget to limit the amount of money you spend and even provides a budget recommendation based on previous similar job listings conversely you can also post links to you and your clients career portals on the linkedin company page for free this is especially effective if you have a large audience but it limits the potential reach to your network and followers smaller companies who are still building their linkedin brand may consider paying for a job listing to reach active candidates who may not be familiar with them effective outreach linkedin can be overwhelming even for free users effectively recruiting using linkedin isn't always easy but here are some tips you can consider when you start reaching out to potential candidates research competitors so one of the most valuable ways to use linkedin is by researching your competitors how is their outreach what positions do they have open what kind of salaries and benefits are they even offering what descriptors and keywords skills and qualifications that they use in their job postings finally consider how you can be better utilize your network unless you're a brand new to the professional world and have no connections at all whatsoever which is unlikely never forget that both you and your client have a network of connections you can browse to locate potential candidates linkedin gives users the ability to indicate that they're looking for work this is always a great place to start passive candidates however don't forget about passive candidates they may not be actively looking for a job but they may consider taking the role if the offer is good enough linkedin is a great resource for locating passive candidates because you can search for users by their role messaging first and mail linkedin has a basic messaging feature that allows two connections to communicate between each other however it also offers in mail which is a premium feature that allows you to send direct messages to users who are outside of your network this is used by recruiters to reach out to potential candidates that they have not connected with before in mail etiquette so recently linkedin implemented a policy that specifies recruiters are prohibited from mass distribution of generic in mail messages it should not be used for marketing or event invitation purposes it's always important to conduct research on whomever you reach out to in order to send an appropriately personalized message customizing your outreach helps engage the candidate and they'll most likely respond to you positively if they see you've taken the time to get to know them and their background linkedin is huge with millions of users and tons of features these tips represent only a few ways to effectively source canon's feeling did do you have your own methods or favorite methods for utilizing linkedin love to hear from you please make sure to comment down below if you liked this video want to see more like it please feel free to like subscribe click that bell completely free and means a lot please feel free to follow me at preston square park as i charm best also post daily thanks again and we'll see you on the next one you