CareerPro

March 20, 2012

How LinkedIn Is Building A Talent Economy (and Why You Need to Build Yours)

Just last week I helped author, edit and develop a new Linked In biography for a client. Within 24 hours he lined up two phone screen interviews and is already into a third, in person interview with one company. Not all career services clients get those kind of results but the fact is recruiting has now become a game of keywords, positioning, timing and is now front and center in what Linked In and people like Daniel Shapero call the talent economy.
Here are some facts that we know and what you need to know based on Linked In’s view:

- Jobvite says that 89% of companies planned to use social media to recruit last year. Is it higher this year? Probably.

- In today’s world speed wins and talent and a high performing workforce is still the critical asset. But the fundamental change according to a Linked In study with Lou Adler suggests that 17% of professionals now have profiles that they actively update which means recruiters can now find active candidates as well as passive candidates.

- More than 9000 companies worldwide use LinkedIn Hiring Solutions including Wal-Mart. LinkedIn is showing how companies are saving millions through Linked In advertising and recruiting solutions vs. traditional on and offline approaches.

- What we have said for years is that companies are looking for passive candidates. We also still highly recommend that passive candidates for jobs have an aggressive strategy in their branding so they become the noticed candidate. Are you doing this? If you aren’t you probably should be. LinkedIn argues that recruiters and companies now must deploy active recruitment approaches to passive candidates.

- There are now over 2 million company pages on LinkedIn and LinkedIn is correctly stating that “referrals have always been the best resource for high quality candidates; smart people usually know smart people.”

- In the top 10 companies in the FTSE 100 shared just under one million LinkedIn profile views. That is potential candidates visiting the LinkedIn profiles of their employees.

- Now remember there are over 660 million professionals worldwide and 3.3 billion plus in the global workforce. LinkedIn has over 150 million.

What are a few things you can do. First, if you are a passive candidate know your companies social media policy and don’t ignore this item. Also find out the behaviors of your fellow employees. You don’t want to stand out by doing too much on LinkedIn or having habits that no one else has on this fine networking/professional platform. Find ways to become a passive candidate and the hunted in this market. Even if you are an executive you probably now need to look at becoming more accessible and less aloof on LinkedIn. If you are in job search learn how to become a candidate who looks “smart” and hire-able and not desperate and needy.

Let me also suggest that any online platform is not a “social media” platform anymore. All are becoming business and professional branding platforms including Facebook. But we’ll discuss this in another blog.

What are your questions? What do you need to do or change in your habits on this or any other online platform?

 

Image Credit: instantshift.com

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