Three Ways to Optimise Your LinkedIn Profile to Attract Candidates

Darren Westall October 20, 2021 Recruitment

Despite a challenging eighteen months the UK recruitment industry looks set to bounce back in 2022. Data from the Office for National Statistics show that vacancies are at an all time high with over 1,000,000 unfilled positions as of August 2021. The most creative consultants, recruitment owners and business founders have started to optimise LinkedIn profiles in order to attract the widest spread of the best quality candidates. Here’s how you can do the same.

Why LinkedIn?

Describing itself as “the world’s largest professional network on the internet”, as of July 2021 over 31 million people in the UK had LinkedIn accounts, many of whom are actively seeking new employment, with 30 percent of them accessing the platform once a week. It’s estimated that almost 80 percent of candidates have used social media, including LinkedIn and Facebook, in their job search over the last 12 months, and over 70 per cent of job seekers aged 18-34 found their current job through online platforms.

Its usefulness to both recruiters and candidates, therefore, isn’t in question, but once you’ve established your presence on the platform do you know how to optimise your LinkedIn profile as a recruiter to attract candidates? Let’s take a look at the three most effective things you can do.

Number One – Visibility

Optimising your LinkedIn profile isn’t just about having an attractive header picture, it’s about setting out your stall simply and effectively, and cleverly weaving in keywords to drive traffic to your page. Keywords are essential to visibility for recruiters, not only from LinkedIn itself but also from Google searches. Make your Headline a simple but catchy description of your company and be sure to list the sector that you’re working in.

In the ‘About’ section you can elaborate on your Headline, listing your USP, describing how you like to operate, and what your goals are. You can also use this section to give more practical details about your company, talk about your specialisms, list testimonials, and also link to your website – again use keywords to ensure visibility in searches and attract candidates to your page.

Number Two – Engagement

Engagement is key to optimising your LinkedIn profile in 2022 and beyond. Content that you share, whether that’s a link to your company blog, a press release, a post asking a question, an article highlighting your company, or a notification of a new position you’re advertising, will get you noticed and featured in a Google search. Think about posts that are relevant to your audience – perhaps you’ve noticed an industry trend that you’re keen to share, or want to know your connections’ opinions on a new piece of legislation that will affect your sector. The more engagement you have with your connections and the more comments your post receives the longer it will remain on LinkedIn’s timeline – and if your connections comment on the post, their connections will see it too, widening your reach even further.

Your connections – clients and employees – are your best advocates in optimising your LinkedIn profile as a recruiter and to inspire candidates to engage with you. Encourage your employees to connect with your company profile and share your content, and produce the kind of thought provoking, stimulating content that your clients will be happy to share. Collaboration and mutual respect go a long way in successful business relationships so don’t forget to promote your clients’ posts too.

Number Three – Automation

LinkedIn Analytics offers a great opportunity to understand if your posts are attaining maximum candidate reach – posts made during the morning for example, are most likely to be noticed. Analytics also give you a greater understanding of what kind of content your connections prefer and will provide detailed demographic information about who’s viewing your posts to ensure that you’re targeting the right audience.

The greatest advantage you can give yourself, however, is to utilise an automated marketing assistant, such as Paiger, which offers daily content suggestions directly to you, enabling you to optimise your profile using targeted and specific marketing content. For busy recruitment consultants, owners and founders who need to optimise their LinkedIn profile, Paiger offers the opportunity to create attractive and engaging job posts, share compelling and industry-relevant content and can even provide a branded call-to-action on any content to maximise your exposure to potential candidates.