5 Easy Things Recruiters Can Do To Spice Up Their LinkedIn Profiles in the Next 20 Minutes

Despite tales of doom and gloom for everyone‚Äôs favorite professional social network, LinkedIn is still kicking. Earlier this year it went through a massive appearance overhaul, and, as recently as this month, it was reported that 3.4 million candidates are signaling to recruiters they‚Äôre open for jobs. In the same way it doesn‚Äôt seem like anything can touch Facebook‚Äôs hold on the general population, LinkedIn is here to stay for professionals on the job hunt.

With LinkedIn‚Äôs continued stronghold in the recruiting game, it‚Äôs still imperative that recruiters have constantly evolving, top notch profiles that draw candidates in and give them actionable items. Most recruiters maybe created their profile ten years ago and update it whenever they job hop, but there‚Äôs so many other things you can do to keep your profile current and engaging‚Äîthe best part is, most don‚Äôt take much time at all!

Here are 5 things every recruiter can do that will give their LinkedIn profile a major facelift, but should take no more than 20 minutes to do:

1. PICTURES.

   No matter how filled out your profile is, if you don‚Äôt have at least a profile photo, your credibility tanks. (By the way, that‚Äôs true on any social media channel.) And no, a profile photo that was obviously taken 20 years ago before your gray hair set in does not count.

   A current picture of yourself on your profile is one of the best initial ways to build trust with a candidate on LinkedIn. Giving them a visual idea of who they‚Äôre talking to helps them see you as a real person on the other side of the screen. Take it a step further by putting up a creative cover photo that shouts to the world, ‚ÄúI‚Äôm a recruiter!‚Äù If your company doesn‚Äôt make these for you, take to Google. Personality and clarity can take you a long way when connecting digitally.

2. Get creative with your headline.

   Headlines are those little lines of text underneath a LinkedIn user‚Äôs profile photo. Being some of the first text candidates will see if they visit your profile, it‚Äôs prime real estate to restate what your purpose is (hiring!) and adding in some more flair of personality that candidates might connect with. Keep it ‚Äúprofersonal‚Äù, i.e. the perfect mixture of professional and personal, by using taglines like King/Queen of Phone Calls or Always Looking for the Right Candidate.

3. Create an impromptu job board on your profile summary.

   One tip many of our recruiters use is actually placing current open reqs within your profile summary. That block of text is the entryway to your profile, and there‚Äôs no better way to put it right in front of visitors‚Äô faces what types of candidates you‚Äôre looking for. Giving a brief description of your open reqs, the link to apply, and, of course, the contact information where candidates can reach you at are all great ways to get more applicants to your job postings.

4. Better yet, take advantage of LinkedIn’s article feature to give candidates an in-depth look.

   Go a step further in giving candidates an idea into what jobs you’re hiring for by using LinkedIn’s articles. Another trick passed on directly from one of our super star recruiters, this LinkedIn function allows you to create longform pieces of content that you can format, add pictures into, and completely customize for exactly the types of information you want to pass along to candidates. Whether it’s highlighting a specific function you’re trying to fill multiple reqs in, showing off a particular location where your reqs are located, or just sharing some employer branding content to your own page, this feature that LinkedIn offers is an often untapped resource that takes no time at all to create and gives you something you can keep tweaking as needed over time.
   

5. Take LinkedIn’s tour.

   When all else fails, let LinkedIn give you quick tips on how to improve your profile. I’ve got a pretty fleshed out profile, and even still every time I logon to LinkedIn I get tidbits on how I can keep fine-tuning my profile. These messages are easy to ignore, but next time you’re on your profile, take extra care to notice how LinkedIn is trying to help you take your profile to the next level.

Each of these items, and perhaps even all of them combined, you can do in 20 minutes of downtime at your desk in between calling candidates and sourcing for your next req. LinkedIn isn‚Äôt going anywhere, so make sure you keep evolving to stay ahead of the pack.