7 Recruiters Share How to Craft LinkedIn Messages That Get Responses

“Recruiters never respond to my LinkedIn messages” is one of the most common complaints I hear from job seekers.

To address this, I reached out directly to a few dozen recruiters to figure out why so many job seekers don’t hear back after they send their initial message.

They shared tips on why you may not be hearing back after sending a message and what you can do to change that.

Below is part one of my findings.

1) Develop a connection with your recruiter.

Establish a connection. Be it a shared passion, a talk you saw me speak at, or something you think it would be useful for me to know. – Emily Yarrington, Founder & Talent Advisor, Belle Athene LLC

2) Get to know your recruiter on a personal level.

Too many job seekers complain that the relationship is transactional but don’t realize that they’re keeping it that way. This won’t work every time because recruiters are pretty busy and not all of them are good. But if you really get to know your recruiter on a personal level — it’ll be much less likely that they’ll ‘ghost’ you. – Greg Johnson, AKA RecruitinGreg

3) Message with purpose.

Actually have a reason why you are reaching out to that recruiter. Nine times out of 10 I am contacted by people that have no idea what I do or how I can help them. They feel networking is akin to throwing a dart. – Adam Karpiak, President, Karpiak Consulting

4) Provide context.

When reaching out to recruiters, make sure there’s context on both sides to work off of. Make it easy for a recruiter to respond back (for example: referencing a specific job and explaining why you’re a good fit). – Vivian Lo, Product Management Recruiter, Robert Walters

5) Share your career trajectory.

Even though recruiters are ‘looking for talent’ they don’t always want ‘talent that is looking.’ Instead of telling them you’re looking for a job, let them know you’re thinking about your career trajectory and interested in learning more about what they’re working on at {XYZ Company}. Erin Wilson, Co-Founder & Talent Engineer, hirepool.io

6) You won’t always hear back.

A busy recruiter can get hundreds of new messages and invites per day. Often if they cannot help you directly, they do not have the time to type, “sorry, can’t help you.” It’s not lack of care – it’s lack of time. Ensure that you are targeting recruiters thatspecifically deal with your niche of talents/experience – they will find time to reply way more often than not. – Jason Figueroa, Executive Recruiter, ThinkingAhead

7) Don’t sweat it.

I think depending on the organization there is a 50/50 chance that you can push your resume forward by making a connection with a recruiter. If you don’t hear back from a recruiter, don’t sweat it. If you applied for the position and you’ve done your part, then you have done the work.

As a recruiter, I always respond to people that reach out via LI messenger. I also receive quite a bit of phone calls from people that are anxious to find out why they did not get a position that they wanted. After doing a small amount of research, I can immediately find the problem-the resume. The phone number may be outdated, the email address is incorrect, or the resume does not show relevant skills as it pertains to the position.

I am pretty open and will let the candidate know why their application/resume was denied, and I always recommend for them to consider getting some assistance with drafting their resume and investing in a job coach. – Danielle Vasquez, HR Recruiter at Marin General Hospital

This article first appeared on The Recruiting Daily.