How to Use LinkedIn to Brand Yourself as a Professional Headhunter

Here are some easy steps to identify, contact new employees and to help your brand for yourself as a professional headhunter on LinkedIn.

Consider visibility: Being a headhunter you have to move unmasked.  A professional headhunter cannot attract candidates anonymously unless he is identified. Similarly, a headhunter must agree to receive solicitations from people who do not fit the profile.

Update your profile:  A company having an interesting and comprehensive profile is sure to get a lot of invitations by any interested candidate, which means your profile must be complete, professional and illustrated. Interestingly, on LinkedIn, profiles with photo are eight times more viewed than the ones that are without any profile pictures. So make a profile, which explain your ideas and motives.

Use the right keywords: Headhunters who use the search tool to source candidates have an incentive to start with a broad search to locate people that have the required skills which is why its of utmost importance for you to choose the keywords that describe your company’s services.

Being disciplined: Build your network, spend your day and participate in discussions on the hubs. Clearly define time slots each day devoted to social networks and be careful not to deviate from them.

Send the same message to everyone: The headhunter must send a personal message stating why he contacted, what interests him in the individual’s profile and what he has to offer. This process certainly takes time, but it surely promises a greater return on investment for the headhunter and the person that is being recruited.

Build your network: To leverage the power of LinkedIn network, you must have build relationships. Start by bringing more people you know, as it can ultimately help you grow your network naturally. But you need to have thousands of contacts to get results.

Browse the network: Feel free to browse the network and look for those professionals who can meet your recruitment needs. Remember also to see the ‘People who viewed this profile also viewed..’ option to look for good opportunities.

Use the “advanced” query: Use the search parameters for advanced searches. This can be accessed from the link ‘Advanced’ given at the right of the search box on a home page. Among all the options available to you, there are some options that you would find particularly interesting. For example the ‘Function’ allows you to include only members who currently hold the position specified, the ‘Company’ gives you the opportunity to choose to retrieve only those members who are working for that particular company currently, those who have previously worked or both at the same time.

Post a Job on LinkedIn: The easiest way to broadcast yourself as a professional headhunter is to do it with the help of an advertisement via the ‘Careers’ option. This option is not free, but with possible discounts, you can buy recruitment packs. You can collect applications on LinkedIn, can be notified by e-mail or redirect candidates to your own career sites.

Increase the visibility of your ad: Once the ad is published, you can send it to your contacts and ask your colleagues to spread the word. After reading your ad, users would share the information on LinkedIn and other social media sites.

Use the pages: Pages such as “Company” and “Careers” can be an excellent tool for recruitment and attraction of new candidates. If any part of the content of a page is related to LinkedIn profiles of people who are currently working or have worked for the company, you can gain control over certain elements such as the description of the company, its specialties etc. The page ‘Careers’ can be activated, if you post a job on the network or if you subscribe to ‘Careers’ page. It offers a range of opportunities for the development of your employer brand.

Following: See the list of people who follow your company among the list of professionals who follow your company. This list is undoubtedly a very interesting pool!

Contact recommended candidates: LinkedIn reveals the relationships between the members and the recommendations they receive. This function allows you to quickly decide whom you really want to contact and whom you should be connected with.

Adopt an active strategy: Publish regular status updates, ask recommendations, share useful information, help groups (start discussions and comment on those of others), publish job vacancies in the corresponding groups and create your own group.

Take part of the ‘Relevant statistics’: If you recruit graduates, use the ‘Relevant statistics’ to determine which schools your firm’s current employees attended. Most people keep in touch with their former university or school. Always remember that your employees are your best brand ambassadors which is why expanding your network through your employees is always an interesting and useful option to make use of even on Linkedin.

Work on these tips and your will be able to brand yourself as a professional headhunter. Cheers!

Dougles Chan is the author of Financial Success in Recruitment Industry, Recruitment Consultant Winning Formula & Job Seeker Power Manual. He is the advisor for his clients who want to push their company or agency to a higher level. He mentors and trains individuals to personal success in recruitment business. He can be contacted at @ (65) 93880851 or email to dc@dougleschan.com. Visit his official website @ www.dougleschan.com