Using LinkedIn content for social recruiting and thought leadership purposes is a great way to achieve meaningful business growth.
About 930 million peoples use LinkedIn worldwide. There is plenty of fish in the sea and eyeballs for our content and messages if those messages are relevant and come from trustworthy sources.
According to a Social Toaster blog post from the end of 2021, 54% of people trust a regular employee over a CEO and 68% trust a technical expert over an official company source.
As employer branding as an organisation and from the official company channels is heating up, to really stand out from the masses is to get the people involved too.
And that’s what social recruiting and thought leadership can offer us.
What is social recruiting?
Social recruiting is not the same as recruiting on social media. Let’s get that straight first.
What if I asked you to compare social selling with selling on social media?
Would you understand the difference?
Just like social selling, social recruiting is foremost about using social media platforms to connect, network and build relationships with relevant industry people.
In the case of social recruiting, those relevant people are from your target talent audiences.
LinkedIn makes a great platform for social recruiting, but I would not rule out any social media.
After all, it’s all about building trust and connecting with your target audiences on other platforms only supports achieving that trust.
LinkedIn content for social recruiting
According to copywriting expert Daniel Kading, we have five excellent ways of creating LinkedIn content for social recruiting and thought leadership without leaning on AI.
- Having conversations on LinkedIn. Those comments are content and a great way to build trust.
- Asking good questions from our target people. When you ask questions, your target audience pays attention to who you are, are likely to check out your profile and even memorize your name.
- Listening to people who talk on LinkedIn. Talking obviously means sharing their thoughts on LinkedIn. Keeping your ears open is a great way to learn about others and show interest. Both make pretty good ways to connect and build trust.
- Take notes to help you strategise using LinkedIn in your content publishing.
Social recruiting content on LinkedIn:
- Targets your relevant and ideal talent audiences.
- Supports the perception of your company actively hiring and you have an important role in hiring for your company.
- Builds better awareness of your company’s characteristics as a workplace and employer.
- Helps hiring managers position as leaders and build an understanding of what kind of managers they are.
- Drives recruitment leads to the beginning of the recruitment funnel.
What is thought leadership?
Thought leadership, on the other hand, helps employees, managers and experts become known as trusted top experts in their roles and field.
Thought leaders usually build social connections and networks with clients, prospects and other stakeholders.
I think many people working in B2B sales benefit well from thought leadership positions, but B2B salespeople are not the only ones benefiting from it.
In fact, I recommend experts of all sorts, with or without team leadership responsibilities, to consider using content to become recognized as a thought leaders.
According to the same Social Toaster Blog source, 86% of employees say advocacy has positively impacted their careers.
Thought leadership is definitely one way to explore employee advocacy, and combining it with social recruiting makes it perfect for employee advocacy and meeting or exceeding your business goals!
LinkedIn content for thought leadership
Daniel Kading’s five tips for creating content without using AI work also for thought leadership. The context of the content depends on the target audience you pursue.
I have used content since 2010 for social recruiting and thought leadership purposes. My thought leadership topics and themes are the same, but the angle changes depending on which of my key target audiences I pursue with it.
LinkedIn has multiple features we can benefit from when creating our own content for LinkedIn:
- Regular posts with 700-1300 characters and 5-8 paragraphs in length.
- Carousel posts which I use on LinkedIn, like on Instagram. 5-10 “slides” with your fresh idea, thought, or insight makes great content for thought leadership!
- Short-form videos with subtitles where you speak to the camera. This is you we are trying to profile as a thought leader and appealing manager or recruiter!
Let the facts speak for themselves!
Nearly 40 million people search for jobs on LinkedIn every week! And people are getting hired on LinkedIn every minute! (LinkedIn)
However, hundreds of people apply for the same positions, making it a huge competition for both employers and job seekers. Building and nurturing connections and talking about careers a while before the official recruitment process begins is the way to alleviate the competition.
According to a study by IDC and LinkedIn on social buying:
- Those who share fresh ideas, views and insight get 5x more inbound contacts than an average employee-expert.
- Those who demonstrate an active presence, credibility and trust on LinkedIn get 51% more business opportunities.
- 98% of people with over 5000 LinkedIn contacts meet or regularly exceed their sales targets.
I don’t see why this should be any different for social recruiting.
How to update your LinkedIn profile for personal branding (= thought leadership)
Why being active on social media is necessary for HR professionals?