12 Killer LinkedIn Tips for Recruiters

Post A Job For Free, Promote It For A Fee

Post a Job

LinkedIn can be a powerful recruitment tool. Not only can you look up candidates that match your criteria, but you can also reach out to them directly, asking them to apply to your open positions. It can be tricky to know what to say in these messages, though, which is why we’ve written this article.

We have 12 tips for writing your next recruitment message on LinkedIn, as well as an example recruitment message for you to use as a reference.

Key Takeaways

• Before you reach out to any candidate on LinkedIn, do thorough research to make sure they’re a good fit.

• Personalize your message so the candidate feels you’re legitimately interested in them as an individual.

• Keep up your company’s LinkedIn page to attract followers and communicate your brand to candidates.

12 Tips for LinkedIn Recruitment Messages

1. Beef Up Your Company’s LinkedIn Profile

   One of the first things a new candidate will typically do after you reach out to them is look at your company’s LinkedIn profile. Because of this, it’s important that your company profile is complete and professional.

   Make sure all of the information sections are filled out and the cover and profile pictures reflect your company’s branding. Check on the page regularly to make sure everything is still up-to-date.

2. Do Your Research, Then Do Some More

   Great outreach always stems from great research. As a recruiter or hiring manager, you need to show candidates that you have taken the time to do your homework, or you risk getting no response at all.

   If they feel like you’re sending them a generic message or see that your company appears to have nothing to do with their field of expertise, they likely won’t be interested in what you have to say.

   When you’re doing your research, don’t just read the candidate’s LinkedIn bio, check their education, work history, and their strengths, skills, and endorsements. Make sure that their expertise and interests line up well with your company’s, and point out these commonalities when you reach out.

3. Ditch Message Templates

   As a recruiter, you’re reaching out to potentially hundreds of candidates every week. To save time, it can be tempting to craft generic message templates to simply copy and paste. However, candidates can tell immediately if the message is personal to them or just a template.

   Taking the extra time to craft a personal message can greatly boost your success rates during the recruitment process.

   Include commonalities such as mutual connections, past experience, education, or influencers and groups that you both follow. Use the great research you did to craft a highly personalized message that shows you took the time to look into each candidate and assure them that you really are interested in them.

4. Get Your Point Across in Less Than 150 Words

   Aim to keep your message shorter than 150 words, because any longer will look like too much effort to read, deterring candidates from hearing what you have to say.

   In general, if you have to scroll down to read the whole message, then your message is simply too long. Being clear, concise, and straightforward can greatly improve your talent acquisition strategy.

5. Say Yes To You, Your and Yours

   LinkedIn is a social media platform, so treat it like one. The best messages are not only short and sweet but strike a tone of familiarity. This can be accomplished by directly addressing the candidate with “you,” “your,” and “yours.”

   Be honest: How often do you send messages using phrases like these?

   • We have an excellent marketing department.

   • We are looking for candidates that fit our company profile.

   By changing the pronouns from “we” to “you,” you can make your message much more personalized and engaging to the candidate. Let’s reword the core statements of the above examples:

   • Marketing skills like yours make you perfect for this role.

   • Your skills would be well suited to this position.

   The second two phrases sound like you’re interested in them rather than giving them a sales pitch for your company.

6. Don’t Waste Time on Personal Introductions

   This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be personal. It simply means that introductions such as, “Hi, I’m Head of Talent Acquisition at (company),” are unnecessary. They know you have some kind of hiring power if you’re reaching out to them.

   Plus, in a LinkedIn chat window, your name is in the header, so if a candidate wants to find out more, then they can always check out your profile.

   It’s much more effective to use the first line to really grab the reader’s attention and get straight to the point about what interested you in them. Here are some example intro lines:

   • Your recent article published on Medium last week really grabbed my attention.

   • I really enjoyed the last post you shared in the Content Marketing group.

   • The resources you linked to in your recent post were really informative and useful.

   Make it about them, not you.

7. Don’t Be Generic When Complimenting Candidates

   As a candidate, it may feel nice the first time when you get a flattering message on LinkedIn. But after the first 25 or so, it gets old really fast.

   The most common line is something like “I’ve come across your profile and I have to say I’m impressed.” What are you impressed by? If you aren’t specific, top candidates are going to let your message fall by the wayside as they wait for a more personalized message. 

   To improve your talent management, be specific and honest, not vague and generic.

8. Suggest a Specific Date for a Call

   After the initial interactions with a candidate, it’s time to delve deeper to see if they are an ideal fit for your company and the role. Often the next step is scheduling a call. When you do this, avoid leaving the candidate hanging with vague statements such as, “It would be great to chat with you sometime.”

   Instead, say something like: 

   “We would love to talk with you about this opportunity in more detail. I’m free to call Wednesday from 3:00 p.m. onwards, Thursday at 10:00 a.m., and Friday from 9-10:00 a.m. Do any of these time slots line up with your schedule?”

   By naming specific dates you drive the conversation forward and encourage the candidate to take action.

9. Don’t Ask for Other Candidate Recommendations

   It may be tempting to ask a candidate if they know anyone in their field that would fit the job. But resist the temptation, as you want to make candidates feel special, not replaceable.

   Plus, if you have already connected on LinkedIn, then you can see a candidate’s professional network anyway.

10. Address Candidates by Their First Names

    You might get advice that says you should address candidates as “Dear Ms. Jones,” or “Dear Max Thompson.” While this may be appropriate for a cover letter, it’s far too distant and formal for a LinkedIn message.

    A well-crafted message can still retain politeness and use the recipient’s first name. In fact, most candidates probably prefer you to use their first names.

11. Post Regular Updates on Your Company Page

    When you’re talking to your candidates, you can encourage them to follow your company page. By updating your LinkedIn company page with news and events, candidates can keep up-to-date with the latest information without leaving their LinkedIn news feed.

    In addition, even if a candidate doesn’t apply or isn’t hired for the role you’re filling, encouraging them to follow your company enables you to stay connected if a suitable role arises in the future.

    Still not convinced? Well, the more candidates that follow your company page, the more visible your company becomes on LinkedIn. Over time, this means your company will appear in more and more job searches, helping you find relevant and qualified candidates.

12. Join Groups and Follow Influencers

    On LinkedIn, you can join groups and follow influencers that are relevant to your industry. By doing this, you increase your company’s visibility on the platform.

    It isn’t enough to just follow and join, however. Your ultimate goals should be to:

    • Contribute to groups with useful information.

    • Become a topic/industry authority.

    Don’t just post job ads in groups, share useful information, articles and research. This all serves to build the positive impression your followers — aka your future job candidates — have about your organization.

Example LinkedIn Recruitment Message

In around 100 words, we have managed to:

• Create an attention-grabbing first sentence.

• Specifically compliment the candidate.

• Use their past experience to connect with them.

• Actively suggest a day to go from the LinkedIn chat window to an actual call.

LinkedIn Recruiting FAQ

1. How do I recruit employees using LinkedIn?

   You recruit employees using LinkedIn by posting job openings and reaching out directly to candidates.

LinkedIn allows you to post job openings for candidates to search for or have suggested to them based on their skills and career interests.

In addition, you can look up qualified candidates by searching for key skills or education. You can also look at your current employees’ or colleagues’ networks to find potential candidates who might be interested in your open role.

LinkedIn offers a variety of resources to recruiters, including paid recruiting services. If you don’t want to pay anything, though, you can still use LinkedIn to post jobs, look up qualified candidates, and message people about your job opportunities.

While it’s free to post jobs and do some searching for candidates on LinkedIn, there are paid options that allow you to do even more effective recruiting.

One of these is paying to promote the job listings you post, which can cost you $5 or hundreds of dollars, depending on how many people you want to reach. For companies who really want to utilize all LinkedIn has to offer, the company offers paid recruitment services.

These subscriptions allow you to search for more candidates (the free version limits the number of profiles you can access within a period of time), look at profiles that have little to no connection to you, and have increased filter, searching, and messaging capabilities.

The cost of these plans ranges from about $170 to $900 a month, depending on which level you purchase.

Author

Caitlin Mazur

Caitlin Mazur is a freelance writer at Zippia where she has written 140+ articles that have reached over 1 mil viewers as of June 2023. Caitlin is passionate about helping Zippia’s readers land the jobs of their dreams by offering content that discusses job-seeking advice based on experience and extensive research.