Dear Matt: I'm on LinkedIn and have applied for jobs on the site. Should I also apply online through the company website? Why do companies and recruiters use LinkedIn? Why is it so popular?
Matt says: The advantage of using LinkedIn is that 94 percent of recruiters are using this and other social media to source candidates, says Gretchen Stanford, a Senior Marketing Recruiter for MARCOMM (marcommdept.com), a Minneapolis-based professional services company that specializes in recruiting, hiring and dedicating marketing and marketing communications professionals to large and mid-cap companies in a contract employee or contingent workforce capacity.
"When an applicant applies for a job posted on LinkedIn," says Stanford, "I receive a template e-mail message identifying the candidate and specific role they're applying for. Also in this message is a link to the applicant's LinkedIn profile, as well as their résumé. How these messages are received can be customized by their recipient. I chose to have them directly populate my inbox. This makes the process incredibly convenient and the follow up timely."
If a job seeker applies via LinkedIn, there is no reason for them to duplicate efforts and apply on the company website unless instructed, says Stanford. In this case, more is not better.
With a database of more than 332 million members worldwide and counting, LinkedIn is the ultimate recruitment database of both active and passive candidates, says Stanford.
"I consistently find that candidates applying through LinkedIn job postings are the best and most qualified for my roles," she says.
Though the biggest and arguably best, LinkedIn is not the only resource that recruiters and HR professional use when hiring. Company websites and professional job boards are also essential components of a successful candidate recruitment strategy, says Stanford.
To succeed using LinkedIn, you must have a professional profile that is complete — meaning it should include a career or professional summary, listing of professional experience, recommendations and a profile picture.