11 things to consider when recruiting on LinkedIn

Over the past two weeks I've been in recruitment mode. I'm looking for an outstanding product marketer to join our team at Sievo.

As a hiring manager I've put a lot of time into the process. I've been hell-bent in trying exploring different ways to uncover the best candidates across different channels and media.

Here are a few things I've tried and learned here on LinkedIn:

• I crowd-sourced inspiration for the job specification. Outcome: 5094 views and lots of good feedback.
• I've posted the job role myself. Outcome: between 200 and 550 views.
• I've posted the job role through the company profile. Outcome: between 1200 and 2400 views, much more views when posting with a video.
• I wrote a pretty extensive LinkedIn Article of how product marketing is like alchemy. Outcome: Just over 100 views, big disappointment!
• I complained how recruitment is hard for scale-up companies. Outcome: almost 6000 views from very relevant 2nd-degree contacts.

While you can't exclusively look at views as a measure of effectiveness, LinkedIn does share a lot of insights about the people viewing your articles and you can calibrate content based on relevance. The key thing to look at is relevant 2nd degree engagements.

My three key lessons on sharing job news on LinkedIn:

1. It's most effective to share your questions, thoughts and frustrations about recruitment with your peers. Your friends will help you get the world out.
2. If you post a link to a job role, use video to capture people's attention and imagination.
3. Don't go to deep in sharing your thoughts in long articles. Give people something easy and snackable.

Another important thing I've learned over the past two weeks is that the your own LinkedIn profile as a hiring manager is an important piece of real-estate.

Many potential candidates visit your LinkedIn profile, so it's important to consider what kind of an impression you give yourself and your team.

Remember, when you are recruiting on LinkedIn, you are also being recruited as an employer.

Sadly, most LinkedIn profiles only list skills and career milestones. This may work for potential candidates, but it's not good enough for team leads and managers.

The LinkedIn profile of a hiring manager should answer these questions:

• Is this person you can imagine working with? Are they authentic?
• Do they have a vision for themselves and their team?
• Do they have some skills that you can learn from?

I don't have empirical evidence to prove these are important, but I feel a lot more comfortable head-hunting potentially good candidates with direct messages when I've answered these core questions on my LinkedIn profile.

But I digress.

What do you think is important in recruiting on LinkedIn?