Looking for more success recruiting on LinkedIn? Stuck wishing you could journey over to 221B Baker Street to get some answers from Mr Holmes? No need to hire a detective! We answered the main questions about LinkedIn marketing for recruiters so you can replace those questions with more placements!  We’re confident that these are the answers Sherlock and Watson would have provided.

Below are the “Five Ws” of LinkedIn marketing for recruiters we have learned through our own efforts.

Who?

One of the first rules in marketing is you have to reach the RIGHT people. Make sure you are connected with jobseekers and hiring managers. The best way to do this audience is to first engage with them in LinkedIn Groups. Find Groups in your niche, and then participate in conversations within the group. Share your tips and trends, but don’t be overly self-promotional. Once you have conversed with someone in a group, they will be more likely to accept your invitation to connect on LinkedIn.

What?

The simple answer to this common question is USEFUL information. But where can you find this useful information worth sharing? You can search the Web for industry news and tips to share within your Groups. The best source however, is your own blog—provided your blog offers helpful articles that are not self-promotional. Don’t have a blog? Consider starting one! A blog not only gives you shareable content for social media, but it also drives people to your website and establishes you as an expert, not just a recruiter.

When?

Due to the nature of this social platform, users are more apt to use LinkedIn during business hours. According to Inbound Marketing Agents, the best times to post are 7 a.m. to 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. to 6 p.m. But remember, the best time will all depend on your industry. If you work with an industry which doesn’t work the standard hours consider utilizing Linkedin during those popular hours.

Where?

After all, it’s not like Twitter or Facebook, where you are limited to one status field. LinkedIn allows you to post on your own profile, your company’s profile, or within any of groups you joined. The key point here is to keep self-promotional items, such as press releases or blog posts focused on your firm, OUT of the Groups. Groups are particularly skeptical of members who are looking to sell their services. If the group moderator doesn’t think your post is helpful they might move all of your posts to promotions, or worse, not post them at all. Keep your Group postings ultra-useful. Don’t dismiss those promotional posts just yet! Those promotional posts will be great content to use on your personal profile or company’s profile.

Why?

Aspire to be viewed as an expert in your field. Doing this will make candidates or companies come to your first when looking for a recruiter. Establish yourself as an industry expert with insightful comments in Group discussions, posting relevant industry news, and writing your own blog articles with useful information.

How?

In order to provide useful information, you will need to find ways to gather potential articles to post or use for inspiration. You might choose to utilize a RSS feed reader, such as Feedly. Feedly allows you to keep tabs on relevant websites, providing a list of new articles posted to the sites you are monitoring.  Another useful tool is Evernote, which allows you to save articles you may want to repost later or use as a reference for an upcoming blog post. As an added bonus, these tools have mobile apps to help with your content marketing on the go.

Case closed! Let us know in the comments if you have any remaining recruiter mysteries.

How important is a recruiting firm’s website in relation to the overall success of that recruiting firm? Well, that depends on which firm owner you ask.

So . . . we decided to ask them all. Well, all of the firm owners in Top Echelon Network, that is.

The poll question we posed was as follows:

How would you describe the importance of your website to your recruiting firm?

Results:

The choice of answers that we provided is listed below, along with the percentage of recruiters that selected each one:

• Very important — 35.3%
• Somewhat important — 35.3%
• Eh, I’m lukewarm about it. — 19.5%
• Not important at all — 5.3%
• I don’t even have a website. — 4.5%

Summary:

Perhaps not surprisingly, over 70% of poll respondents (70.6%, to be exact) indicated that their recruiting firm’s website is important to some degree. That breaks down to 35.3% for “very important” and 35.3% for “somewhat important.”

The next popular answer was “Eh, I’m lukewarm about it” at 19.5%. That means nearly 90% of the recruiters responding to the poll believes that a website is at least important enough to have one.

After all, 4.5% of respondents stated that their firm doesn’t even have a website. We’re not sure how many of those recruiters would think their firm’s site was important if their firm had one. (Contrary to popular belief, we can NOT read minds.)

Analysis and Conclusion:

There’s no doubt that more recruiters think their firm’s website is important than 10 years ago . . . or even five or three years ago. However, not every recruiter believes that their firm’s site is important—and by extension, important to their success.

The first step to all recruiters thinking their firm’s site is important would be ALL recruiters having a site for their firm, and that’s clearly not the case at the moment. Once upon a time, there wasn’t a single recruiter who had a website. How long will it take for every single recruiter in the world to be represented by a site?

That day might be closer than you think. Or care to admit.

I’m about to celebrate my 11^th year as an employee with Top Echelon, and I’ve spent quite a few of those years as the Director of Network Operations.

During my time in that role, I have spoken with literally hundreds of recruiters. (Heck, for all I know, it could be thousands.) After all those conversations and face-to-face meetings, I can say without a doubt that I hold Joe Cotter of J.D. Cotter Search, Inc. in the highest regard.

He’s a consummate professional, a man of integrity, and a fantastic recruiter. Those are just three of the reasons why we’ve chosen Joe as the Recruiter of the Week in Top Echelon Network.

In fact, we have four more reasons, and they’re listed below:

#1—His longevity

Joe started in the recruiting profession in 1970, 46 years ago, and he’s still going strong. His firm joined Top Echelon Network as a member firm in 2001, and since that time, the recruiters of J.D. Cotter Search, Inc. have made 153 placements! Joe is a highly knowledgeable and experienced recruiter, and so are all of the recruiters that have worked in his firm. The numbers certainly do not lie!

#2—His resiliency

During his time as a recruiter, Joe has seen more than his share of recessions. How many? Six! Six recessions! If that many recessions don’t teach your resiliency, no amount will. Joe and his recruiting firm have persevered through them all. Joe didn’t make any Network placements in 2009, 2010, and 2011. However, he’s made Network splits every year since 2011.

#3—His trustworthiness

Look at what fellow Network recruiter Tim Hughes said below about Joe: “Joe Cotter and I work well together, especially since there is 100% trust with everything involving the company’s name.” How valuable is that kind of trust? We’re talking about 100% trust, people . . . with the names of clients and such. You can trust Joe Cotter. You can NOT say that about every single recruiter on this planet.

#4—His history of split partner success

Joe has worked with a number of different trading partners during his time in the network. That shows Joe’s flexibility and his ability to build many relationships with different recruiters, all of whom bring with them different personalities, business models, and approaches to the placement process.

No recruiter exemplifies what it means to be a Top Echelon Network member more so than Joe Cotter. Joe is a veteran of the industry, a veteran of Top Echelon Network, and a model recruiter in more ways than one.

We’re glad to have him in the Network, and we’re certainly glad to name him Recruiter of the Week!

— — —

Joe Cotter

Tim Hughes

“Joe Cotter and I work well together, especially since there is 100% trust with everything involving the company’s name. He is a pleasure to work with.”

Submitted by Tim Hughes of Hughes & Associates regarding his Network split placement with Joe Cotter of J.D. Cotter Search, Inc.

Position Title—PROCESS ENGINEER

Fee Percentage—25%

(Editor’s note: This is the third Network split placement that Hughes and Cotter have made together in Top Echelon.)

— — —

Beth Milligan

“Joe has been working extremely hard to assist me in filling my job reqs! He has a terrific attitude and is always willing to jump right in and help any way he can. I hope to have many more split placements with Joe! Thanks for being a great split partner!”

Submitted by Beth Milligan of Rayco Technical Solutions, LLC regarding her Network split placement with Joe Cotter of J.D. Cotter Search, Inc.

Position Title—CONTROLS ENGINEER

Fee Percentage—20%

(Editor’s note: This is the first Network split placement that Hughes and Cotter have made together in Top Echelon.)