HR professionals who ignore
LinkedIn are not just missing out on networking opportunities, they’re also potentially ignoring a growing talented pool of quality employees.
Kylie Chown, certified master resume writer and LinkedIn profile writer and consultant, said more than 70% of all social media recruitment happens on LinkedIn – meaning HR professionals can’t afford to ignore it.
“At a seminar I attended earlier this year, I discovered that 94% of recruiters are active on LinkedIn verses 36% of job seekers, and that 73% of all recruitment on social networks happens on LinkedIn,” she said.
Chown recently worked with a HR manager who was reluctant to engage with the social networking platform, as he felt it simply created more work for him to deal with.
“He talked about how his inbox was flooded with requests to connect and suppliers wanting his company’s business, but he didn’t know how to control his account so he could use it to his benefit,” she said.
“But there are ways to take back control of your LinkedIn account and have it work for you.”
Chown suggested the following in order to use your account more efficiently and importantly, use it to your advantage:
1. Control your settings: So that incoming notifications and emails only occur for communications that you deem important.
2. Manage your connections: by keeping them private. “The default LinkedIn setting is that your first-degree connections can see who your other first-degree connections are, so by making this private, you are protecting both yourself, and your connections.
3. Curb connection requests. “Control who can connect with you by stipulating they need to have your email address to submit a connection request,” Chown said.
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