Linkedin – Connecting With Professionals and Powering Conversations

In line with yesterday’s post, Clifford Rosenberg sheds light on the progress of Linkedin in Australia.

The Australian recruitment industry has been rapidly evolving given the dynamic changes in the economic and social environment. In the early days of the Internet, we saw a shift from traditional recruitment mediums, and a rise in adoption of online channels such as job boards. Now we are witnessing another significant shift with the emergence of social media and online professional networks like LinkedIn.

Professionals are connecting and actively networking online with others across the globe to promote their personal brand and build their career profile. With over 75 million members globally, LinkedIn has seen double digit growth in Australian membership over the last 12 months with well over 1.3 million professionals now connected on LinkedIn in Australia and NZ.

The professional community is increasingly living in a hyper-connected world. Technology is providing a platform where professionals are interacting and conducting conversations about jobs, careers and collaborating to share their ideas and knowledge. Recruiters are making the shift from a static to a dynamic engagement strategy. They are increasingly recognising the need to be pro-active about connecting with those professionals who have the right skills for the job and engage in these conversations. Recruiters are also discovering that the best candidates are often ‘passive’ and may not necessarily be checking job boards or speaking with recruiters. These passive candidates are on professional networks such as LinkedIn.

A field study conducted in the US by the Harvard Business School in 2009 confirmed that recruiting through social media channels is on the rise. Among LinkedIn Hiring Solutions clients, the survey found that within the first year 10% of the hires were sourced via LinkedIn.

Recruitment has always had a strong element of ‘networking’, whether it is identifying and connecting with candidates, building relationships, or seeking referrals and recommendations. Social media is now providing a platform to assist recruiters to connect with the best candidates, conduct conversations in real time, and make it a two-way communication process.

Social recruiting also provides truth and transparency not otherwise available to recruiters. Candidates themselves are posting and updating their own information. This real-time online record posted by professionals provides recruiters with better insights into a person’s talents, interests, career history, achievements and experience than a static resume.

Furthermore, recruiters have visibility of recommendations made, and connections that they may have in common with the candidate. The other key benefit of using social media channels is that you can ‘fish where the fish are.’ Recruiters can take a highly targeted approach and reach candidates with specialised skills by targeting specific groups where such professionals interact. Social media also allows employers to position their company brand among professionals and build a talent pipeline.

Social media and more importantly, professional networks such as LinkedIn, are here to stay and recruiters need to embrace this trend to remain competitive, and build long term relationships with their candidates.

Clifford Rosenberg is the Managing Director for LinkedIn in Australia and New Zealand. In this role, Cliff’s long term focus is to grow LinkedIn’s diverse business model comprised of user subscriptions, advertising sales and enterprise software licensing for the Australia and New Zealand market.  Near-term this will include a focus on user engagement, strategic partnerships, marketing and general operations.

Note: This opinion piece is taken from the Job Board Report