Attracting candidates for technical roles can be quite a challenge. If you want to expose your job description to as many people as possible, consider using LinkedIn.
I don’t mean buying a job posting on LinkedIn. I mean posting an update as a LinkedIn subscriber hoping to drive interested candidates to the job description on your employer’s website.
We all know that finding good candidates is a numbers game: the more people who see your job description, the more likely you are to attract good candidates, and qualified applicants.
Write the post you want to publish. Then, apply the tips described below to drive more traffic.
To attract the largest number of potential candidates, here are 5 tips for increasing the reach of your posting on LinkedIn.
Tagging
Tagging refers to typing an “@” sign followed by the name of a company or a LinkedIn subscriber. LinkedIn will show a popup with the names of people and companies that match what you’ve typed. Continue typing until you see the name you want. Then click that name in the popup. LinkedIn inserts the name with a link directly to their LinkedIn page.
Tagging is useful because anyone who follows the tagged company or subscriber will have a chance to see your posting.
To give a couple of examples, if you’re seeking experience with a specific application, tag the company that makes that application.
You can also tag other members of your team or coworkers so that LinkedIn subscribers that follow them will have a chance to see the job description.
These are two terrific ways for increasing the reach of your LinkedIn update.
Hashtags
Hashtags are another way to increase the reach of your LinkedIn post. Hashtags are inserted by typing the hash or octothorp symbol (#) followed by letters or numbers. LinkedIn allows no spaces or punctuation in hashtags.
Some example hashtags are #telecoms, #careers, #mobiletechnology, and #5g.
Before publishing your post, enter into the LinkedIn search box various hashtags related to the job description. Write down the number of followers of each hashtag.
If LinkedIn does not show you how many followers a given hashtag has, click on a post that includes that hashtag, then click on the hashtag itself. LinkedIn should then show how many subscribers there are.
In the past, the LinkedIn algorithm punished posts using more than 3 hashtags. I don’t think that constraint still applies. Nonetheless, don’t go nuts. Choose up to 6 hashtags relevant to your field and to this job. Pick the 6 hashtags having the largest number of followers.
Choosing hashtags is always a balance between relevance and reach. A very specific hashtag might be highly relevant, but it might also have a small number of followers.
Conversely, a hashtag with many followers might be too general to attract the people you hope to. Do your best.
Engagement
Like most social media platforms, LinkedIn’s business model depends on showing as many pages as possible. Engagement drives page views, so interact with anyone who engages with your post. The LinkedIn algorithm will favor your post if it gets significant engagement.
When someone comments on your post, always reply back to their comment. Write in such a way that encourages them to comment again. Continue this until they no longer comment. Keep the engagement going.
When someone clicks the LIKE icon on your post, you could tag them in a comment. Ask them about their knowledge of the subject, or if they themself are interested, or if they know someone who might be interested. Keep the conversation going.
After posting your original update, your new job is to drive more engagement. Another way to do that is to tell friends that you’ve posted the update. Copy the link to your post and paste it into a message to friends. Ask them to engage with your post. That way your friends go directly to your update simply by clicking the link.
In your comments, you can also use tagging and hashtags.
Groups
LinkedIn groups are somewhat underappreciated among LinkedIn subscribers. But a group whose main subject is closely related to the job description might have many qualified candidates as members.
It might be worth your while to apply to join the group and, once accepted, post your update again asking for candidates. Ask members of the group to refer anyone they know who might be interested.
In groups, I believe tagging and hashtags are not as important. Group members choose to see posts published in the group, so there’s little point driving them to.
Respect the Algorithm
I earlier mentioned the LinkedIn algorithm and how the business model of LinkedIn is to show as many pages as possible. If you enter into your update a URL that leads the reader away from the LinkedIn platform, the LinkedIn algorithm will punish your post by showing it to fewer people.
So don’t do that.
Instead, enter the actual URL to the job description in the first comment. LinkedIn tolerates this without punishment.
So use this approach: write about the job in the body of your update. Include something like this: “to read the full job description, follow the link in the first comment.” After you publish your post, immediately enter a comment including a link to the job description.
Follow these steps and your job posting is likely to see more views more quickly.
Please note that none of these techniques are exclusively for jobs. You can use all these techniques to drive additional traffic to any LinkedIn update.
Always be an Action taker!