LinkedIn has become an indispensable tool for recruiters and hiring managers to source qualified candidates. With over 722 million users worldwide, LinkedIn is the largest professional social media platform where professionals connect and companies seek out top talent.
LinkedIn provides several tools and features that make sourcing candidates efficient and effective. Here are some of the key ways sourcing is done on LinkedIn:
Using the Advanced Search Function
LinkedIn’s advanced search function allows recruiters to construct complex boolean search queries to find candidates who meet very specific criteria. You can search for candidates by keywords, job titles, companies, locations, schools, skills, profile language, and many other filters.
For example, you could search for “Software Engineers WITH python AND javascript SKILLS IN San Francisco”. This allows you to hone in on the exact candidates you want to target.
Searching Within Your Network
The “My Network” tab on LinkedIn allows you to search within your 1st, 2nd and 3rd degree connections for potential candidates. You may uncover qualified candidates through shared connections that you would have otherwise missed.
You can search for mutual connections by job title, company, school, skills, etc. Narrowing your search through shared connections allows you to identify candidates who come recommended within your professional network.
Looking at Company Pages
Looking at company pages on LinkedIn can be a goldmine for finding potential candidates, especially from your targeted competitor companies. You can go to a company’s LinkedIn page and filter their employees by job title, seniority, function, location and more.
This allows you to identify and target employees working at key competitor companies who may be open to new job opportunities. You can also look at followers/alumni of the company to find former employees.
Joining Industry Related Groups
Joining relevant industry groups on LinkedIn provides exposure to highly engaged professionals and prospective candidates in your field. These groups allow you to showcase thought leadership content and job opportunities to grab the attention of passive candidates.
You can also search within group membership for members who have the skills, titles and expertise you’re looking for. The high quality of groups means engaged members are more likely to respond to outreach.
Using LinkedIn Recruiter
LinkedIn Recruiter is LinkedIn’s enhanced recruiter platform that unlocks powerful sourcing functionality not available with a regular LinkedIn account. Some key features include:
- Seeing full profiles of 3rd degree connections
- Advanced search filters and candidate comparison
- Saving search alerts for passive candidates
- Uncovering contact info like email addresses and phone numbers
LinkedIn Recruiter is a paid tool specifically designed for corporate and agency recruiters who want access to more data for high-volume hiring.
Boolean Search
Using boolean operators like AND, OR, NOT in your searches allows you to combine keywords and filters to target very specific sets of candidates. Some examples:
- “engineering manager AND semiconductor NOT intel”
- “social media OR content marketing”
- “mechanical engineer NOT software”
Mastering these boolean search techniques is key to sourcing relevant candidates efficiently on LinkedIn.
InMail for Outreach
Once you’ve sourced and identified prospects, LinkedIn’s InMail allows you to directly contact anyone on LinkedIn to pitch job opportunities, even if they’re outside your network.
InMail messages have high deliverability rates to candidate inboxes. Personalized and thoughtful InMail outreach improves response rates for recruiters trying to engage prospective candidates.
Advertising Open Jobs
LinkedIn lets you post and advertise jobs to matched candidates based on criteria like location, title, skills, company size and more. You can target both active and passive job seekers with these highly segmented job ads.
Sponsored jobs get pushed higher in search results and can massively expand the reach of your job posting beyond just organically listed ones.
Recruitment Lead Generation
LinkedIn’s lead generation tools allow you to source contact info and build prospect lists to nurture as potential talent pipeline candidates. You can target prospects by seniority, function, skills, geography and more.
Lead gen is a great way to build up direct contact info of prospects open to job opportunities, but not actively searching. This pipeline creation is crucial to filling roles quickly.
Conclusion
LinkedIn has a deep talent pool and robust search functionality. But sourcing requires creativity, perseverance and laser-focused search techniques. The best LinkedIn sourcers combine personalized outreach with targeted advertising and content.
Mastering boolean search, building an industry niche network, engaging prospects with content and purposeful outreach are some of the top skills of successful sourcers.
With the right approach, LinkedIn can provide access to both active and passive candidates that may be a great fit for your company’s roles and culture.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are some tips for an effective LinkedIn profile to attract recruiters?
Here are some tips for an effective LinkedIn profile to attract recruiter attention:
- Have a professional headshot photo
- Write an informative, keyword-rich summary section
- Showcase your skills, experience and accomplishments
- Get recommendations and endorsements
- Have a customized URL
- List relevant skills, certificates and languages
- Join industry-related groups and follow companies
- Be active by posting, commenting and sharing
What boolean search tips help find better candidates on LinkedIn?
Here are some helpful boolean search operators for LinkedIn:
- Use double quotes for exact match phrases like “content marketing”
- AND requires both terms on either side
- OR either term on either side
- NOT excludes the following term
- Use parentheses to group complex expressions
- Try variations like engineer OR designer
- Sort by date, location, company, etc
What makes a LinkedIn outreach message effective?
Effective LinkedIn outreach should be:
- Personalized with their name and a reference to their profile
- Concise and compelling reason for connecting
- Professional and friendly tone
- Free of templates, spam or selling
- Focused on their needs and career goals
- Clear value proposition and next steps
- Storytelling and humor when appropriate
What tools does LinkedIn provide specifically for recruiters?
Some key LinkedIn tools for recruiters include:
- Recruiter Lite – pay per message InMail, candidate insights
- LinkedIn Recruiter – advanced search, pipeline, InMail credits
- LinkedIn Jobs – targeted job ads
- LinkedIn Pages – showcase employer brand and jobs
- LinkedIn Learning – skills assessments
- LinkedIn Salary – compensation data
- LinkedIn PointDrive – Present candidates
What are some examples of companies successfully leveraging LinkedIn for recruiting?
Some companies using LinkedIn effectively include:
- Google – showcases culture, employee advocacy
- Microsoft – “Life at Microsoft” pages
- Amazon – niche community building
- IBM – thought leadership content
- Deloitte – campus recruiting brand
- Accenture – referral campaigns
- Salesforce – strategic Sponsored Content
Key Statistics
Metric | Statistic |
---|---|
LinkedIn Members | 722+ million (Q2 2022) |
Active Monthly Users | ~300 million (2021) |
Average Number of Connections per Member | 455 connections (2021) |
Registered Companies | 58+ million (Q2 2022) |
Percentage of Users Open to Job Opportunities | 39% open (2022) |
InMail Response Rate | 25-50% for prospects (2021) |
Time Spent per Month per Visitor | ~17 minutes (2021) |
Tips for Effective LinkedIn Sourcing
Here are some top tips for sourcing candidates effectively on LinkedIn:
- Leverage advanced search filters and boolean operators
- Search within your network connections and companies
- Join industry niche groups and follow key companies
- Research competitors’ teams for prospects
- Use tools like LinkedIn Recruiter for more access
- Advertise roles to matched audiences
- Create search alerts for ideal but passive candidates
- Generate prospect lists with lead gen campaigns
- Personalize your InMail outreach
- Showcase your employer brand and culture
Common LinkedIn Recruiting Mistakes to Avoid
Some key mistakes recruiters should avoid on LinkedIn include:
- Spam messaging prospects without personalization
- Using canned templates for InMail
- Contacting people outside your target audience
- Sending connection requests without a note
- Hard pitching without nurturing prospects
- Not customizing job posts for each role
- Paying primarily for job slots, not candidate targeting
- Neglecting your LinkedIn recruiter profile and brand presence
The Future of LinkedIn Recruiting
Some trends shaping the future of recruiting on LinkedIn include:
- More passive candidate engagement as talent shortages grow
- Rise of authentic employer branding content
- Video integrated profiles and messaging
- AI-driven profile analysis and search
- Anonymous applications to reduce bias
- Virtual recruiting fairs and events
- Skills-based networking communities
- Integrations with job boards and ATS systems
- Predictive analytics for talent pipelining
As LinkedIn continues to refine their platform and target enterprise recruiters, sourcing candidates on LinkedIn will only become more competitive. Recruiters who can strategically build niche talent pools, nurture passive candidates, and deliver hyper-personalized outreach at scale will have a leg up.
The depth of professional data on LinkedIn provides tremendous opportunity to find, engage and recruit great talent. But it requires creativity, focus and outreach skills to turn prospects into applicants and hires.
With over two-thirds of job seekers using LinkedIn, it has become the go-to channel for recruiters. Those who can maximize LinkedIn’s tools while humanizing their outreach will succeed in this candidate-driven market.