We ran a
poll on LinkedIn recently to try and find out why people are using it.
We
appreciate that 194 people responding to a poll can hardly be described as a
comprehensive polling of the LinkedIn community but a couple of things did
stand out for us.
A majority of people are using
LinkedIn for reasons that are not to do with recruitment.
49% of
people are looking to keep in touch with a business network
13% of
people are looking to share commercial/business knowledge.
OK as a
recruiter you could conclude this as proof that there is a vast untapped pool
of passive candidates out there (and lots of people do).
But the
other conclusion that you can draw is that recruiters using LinkedIn should be
aware that 62% of people may not want to be pestered about jobs. They are not
on LinkedIn because they want random recruiters (in-house and agency) to send
them the “I’d like to add you to my professional network” email.
So if you
are one of those many recruiters on LinkedIn you need to bear this in mind. You
need to make sure that you are not just pushing job adverts out there and you
are not just posting about CVs and Recruitment. You need to think about who
your audience might be and make sure you respect the fact that people may not
want to engage with you for the purposes of getting a job.
We would
also argue that perhaps LinkedIn themselves need to consider that by pushing
the recruitment angle as they so obviously do they run the risk of alienating a
majority of users. They could be killing their own product if they hand over
the keys to the recruiters.
30% of people are on LinkedIn and
are keen to be noticed and recruited.
Consider
that there are in the region of 12 million users on Linked In in the UK &
Ireland. If this poll is an accurate representation then that means that 3.6
million people are on LinkedIn and looking for a job.
If you are
one of them you clearly need to take some time thinking about how you can stand
out and be noticed in a crowd of 3.6 million!
Once upon a
time when LinkedIn was smaller it might
have sufficed to get a full profile up, select a nice photo and sit back
waiting to be found. But surely this is no longer the case.
You need to
be actively engaged with LinkedIn which means commenting on group discussions,
sharing updates (and not just the ones from Richard Branson and James Caan that
everyone else shares) and being prepared to give a little. For example be prepared
to recommend people and ask for recommendations.
There are
plenty of people prepared to argue that LinkedIn is killing the traditional CV
but that doesn’t mean that you have to just transfer your traditional CV to
LinkedIn. LinkedIn allows you to now showcase your talents and expertise in
more creative ways. You can add PowerPoint slides and video. And perhaps even
use your status updates as a mini blog site.
BUT our poll suggests that
- It is not JUST a job board and recruiters (inhouse and/or agency) who want it to be one need to think whether they are alienating a majority in doing so.
- The sheer numbers of people using it mean that it makes it difficult to stand out as much as you would like as a Job Seeker.
Also don’t forget that if this poll is an accurate representation then 360,000 (3%) of the 12 million UK & Ireland users of Linked In are on it for no obvious reason and lots of people aren’t on it at all!
Wright Solutions is a specialist HR Consultancy.
We attract, place and develop the highest calibre candidates in
Executive, HR and Learning & Development roles.
Our service is more than recruitment with our training solutions that
give Leadership and Management teams the competitive advantage for today
and tomorrow.
