Nowadays, it’s impossible not to incorporate social media platforms in your recruitment strategy. If you’re trying to find talented real estate agents, for example, you’ll be missing out on a lot of top-notch candidates if you leave out sites like LinkedIn.
That being said, recruitment through social media isn’t as simple as posting a “status” that your brokerage is hiring. You need to be more strategic about your posts, as well as your overall online presence. For some helpful tips on how to find agents on LinkedIn, here’s a quick list:
Optimize Your LinkedIn Profile Using the Right Keywords
Sometimes, recruiting real estate agents is more effective when it goes the other way around. That is, it’s the candidates who actively look for and find your brokerage on LinkedIn instead of you approaching them. This way, you’re more or less guaranteed that they have a genuine interest to join your team.
However, this situation isn’t likely to happen if your LinkedIn profile isn’t optimized. Thus, the first step to finding real estate agents on LinkedIn is to complete your company page. Make sure to fill out the entirety of the “About” section and then set up the Jobs tab ASAP.
It’s crucial to use relevant keywords here, so that candidates can easily find you. Include specific job titles, areas of expertise, preferred qualifications, as well as the locations where you’re present. Essentially, you need to think like a job seeker. It’s also helpful to look at relevant hashtags, so that you can use them for your posts.
Speaking of hashtags, you can drive further traffic to your LinkedIn page by using the #Hiring photo frame. This way, people know that you have a job opening ready for them. You can also ask your employees who are on LinkedIn to use the photo frame (of course, they should include the brokerage in their profiles).
Check the “Open to Work” Hashtag
Not everyone on LinkedIn is looking for a job; many of them are simply using it to update their resumes, or perhaps to build a professional network. Thus, if you’re looking specifically for active candidates, it’s helpful to check out the #OpenToWork feature. This is like the job candidate counterpart of the #Hiring feature, allowing you to filter our LinkedIn users who are currently looking for new opportunities.
Using this feature shows plenty of information about job seekers, including if they’re willing to relocate for a job and if they’re looking for full-time or part-time work. This way, you can perform a preliminary screening of sorts and find candidates who are as close to ideal as possible.
Use InMail
LinkedIn has a premium feature called InMail, which lets you send a direct message to any LinkedIn member. If you’re using the Basic version of the platform, you’re only able to send a message to your Direct Connections. This somewhat limits your scope, because you’ll have to send a Connection Request to a user every time you want to message them and not every LinkedIn user is open to accepting Connection Requests out of the blue.
Through InMail, you’re able to ensure that the intended recipient of your message gets to read it. What’s more, it’s an indirect confirmation that you’re a legitimate business or recruiter. LinkedIn Premium doesn’t come cheap, so only those who are serious about recruitment will be willing to pay.
Check the “People Also Viewed” Section
Another feature of LinkedIn is the “People Also Viewed” section on the company profile. This is a list of people who have visited your page at least once, some of whom you may have missed contacting before. Thus, make it a habit to regularly check this section of your profile page; some talented real estate agents may be right under your nose.
Do note that there are also suggestions in the list, meaning that these people may not have previously interacted with you at all. However, they may be users on here that you can add to your pool of passive candidates.
Create Good Content
These days, LinkedIn is more than just a professional networking site. It’s also a place to share insights about your industry, the latest developments about your career, job opportunities, and other similar updates.
Of course, while LinkedIn is definitely not Facebook or Twitter, this doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t provide good content. In fact, it can be argued that you have to be more conscientious about what you post on LinkedIn because you need to maintain a credible persona. Thus, it’s best to ensure that your content is relevant, valuable, and unique before you upload it. For job posts, in particular, make sure that you’re being straightforward to prevent any misunderstandings.
There’s a lot of potential in social media recruitment, LinkedIn included. The key is to learn all of its features, so that you can harness their full potential and hire the best real estate agents for your brokerage.
