If you work in recruitment, chances are you know a thing or two about LinkedIn. However are you using it successfully to generate leads?
The key thing to remember about LinkedIn is that you can’t expect instant wins. 20 minutes a day over a period of weeks will yield far better results than blitzing it over a very short space of time.
You will always be more successful if you’re front of mind for people when they need what you can provide. This list of ten ways to generate leads on LinkedIn will help position you as the go-to recruiter or recruitment agency.
Using one technique alone from the list may not get you results; instead, consider a multi-layered approach using several or all of the below suggestions.
1) Build a list of target clients
Anybody can send messages to potential clients. But to get the most from LinkedIn you need to go a little further than that. You may already have a list of potential clients you want to target, if you haven’t then start putting one together.
Once you have your list, find their company pages on LinkedIn and start following them. Look out for any posts that mention an office opening, a new contract won or a product launch. All may suggest they will need to recruit, and it gives you something topical to talk about when you first make contact.
2) Review your company page
Most of the tactics in this list are outbound strategies. Don’t concentrate on these at the expense of potential inbound leads, though.
The hard work you’ve put in elsewhere using LinkedIn may pay off and prospective leads could revert to your company page to find out more about you. Make sure your company profile backs up what you’re promising elsewhere and gives potential clients the confidence to reach out to you for help with recruiting.
Ensure your company profile links to your website, and other social media profiles you have, like Twitter, Instagram or Facebook. You may also want to direct potential clients to particular pages on your website to help drive faster enquiries, or conversions.
3) Review your own LinkedIn profile
Likewise, your own LinkedIn profile should be a true reflection of you, and instil confidence in potential clients that you’re a bona fide recruiter who can help them find the right people.
Take full advantage of all the different ways you can promote yourself through your own profile. Add detail to the skills section, and try to get endorsements where possible.
4) Post regularly
You can grow connections on LinkedIn by posting regular, meaningful content. Ideally, you need to be posting several times a week.
Use blog posts from your company website, or find other websites with good blogs and share their content. Ultimately, you need to be sharing content that gets to the heart of any issues or particular needs the industries you’re targeting may have.
Also, posts and pages published on LinkedIn Pulse are indexed by Google, which means you could be discovered by a potential client from a Google search.
Don’t overdo it with content, though – start posting too frequently and your visibility could actually go the other way, as the LinkedIn algorithm may assume you’re a bit of a spammer!
5) Join relevant groups
Join the right groups and by spending just five minutes a day reading, commenting and adding other group members to your network, you could generate leads in LinkedIn pretty quickly. You can also use groups to demonstrate your authority and expertise on a given subject.
If a group doesn’t exist in your particular niche, then why not create one! Being the group leader is a great way to introduce yourself to potential new clients and start to interact with them in an informal way.
6) Use LinkedIn Stories
LinkedIn Stories is a feature that’s relatively new, and works in the same way as you might be used to on Facebook or Instagram. Essentially you post something ‘in the moment’, that disappears after 24 hours.
The benefit of LinkedIn Stories is that it appears at the top of the feed. Also as it’s relatively new, it’s fairly easy to get the attention of your connections as not everyone is using it. So be one of the first and start using it now!
7) Join the conversation
LinkedIn isn’t just about putting your own views and announcements out there and waiting for the praise to roll in. It also recognises users that interact with posts from other professionals, whether that’s sharing, liking or commenting on their content.
This can also be powerful as connections are more likely to comment and share your content, if you’re someone who regularly interacts with theirs!
8) Congratulate clients and candidates
Keep a calendar of events relevant to your target companies and industries.
Post about the awards, congratulate winners and wish your target companies (and favourite potential candidates!) the best of luck if they’ve been nominated or shortlisted.
9) Write a recommendation
What you really want is plenty of recommendations on your profile… But sadly this won’t just happen. Instead, you may need to give out a few recommendations before you get any back.
Spend a few minutes a day posting recommendations on the profiles of your customers and key contacts. This builds a strong link between you and your client that others can see, and can act as a nice piece of advertising for you and your company. It’ll keep you front of mind for the client as well, and as an extra bonus, they may leave you a recommendation in return.
10) Keep going…
LinkedIn is most effective when you use it little and often, as opposed to intermittent full-day blitzes. Try to be consistent with the time you spend on it – maybe 30 minutes a day, so that it doesn’t eat too much into your other daily activities.
Within not too long, you should hopefully begin to generate leads on LinkedIn. Good luck!
