6 LinkedIn Optimization Tips For Your Recruiting or Staffing Agency

Recruiting and staffing agencies are becoming more and more familiar with the idea of SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and the need to optimize their websites and blog posts.  But SEO represents just one slice of an online marketing program – and website optimization is simply one tactic.

Being truly resonant online requires the creation and maintenance of a holistic online footprint.  And for even the smallest recruiting or staffing agency, this footprint can encompass everything from media relations to social networks.

Since your recruiting or staffing agency will need to start somewhere as it embarks on its major optimization initiative, I’ve offered six tips below to help you optimize what is – perhaps – the social network most ingrained in your current social staffing plan: LinkedIn.

1. Revisit Your LinkedIn Company Overview – Chances are your recruiting or staffing agency looks a bit different than when you initially created your LinkedIn profile.  Not only do you have more employees, more services, more clients – but you’ve also likely evolved your messaging since your launch.  And this means that new keywords hold new value for your online marketing efforts.  If it’s been 12 months or more since you’ve reviewed your LinkedIn company profile, schedule yourself 30 minutes to review this copy to ensure it is using the keywords that most accurately describe the attributes you want your agency to be found for today – rather than the agency you were when first being established.

2. Work With Your Team To Optimize Personal Profiles – If your website is capturing traffic from LinkedIn, a significant percentage is likely coming from the profile pages of your employees.  As such, ensuring those profile pages are easier to find for either hyper-qualified prospects (ie prospects that know your sales reps by name) or those just entering the awareness stage (ie those seeking a seasoned staffing supervisor in Minneapolis, MN) is key.  Work with your employees to ensure their personal profiles both link back to your web properties but also that they are optimized with the same set of keywords that shape the balance of your recruiting or staffing agency’s messaging.

3. Link To New Content – Creation of new, optimized content represents the heartbeat of your agency – making it critical that the content you create is shared as effectively with as much of your audience as possible.  Fortunately, LinkedIn – like Facebook and Twitter – will allow you to autofeed your blog content.  With all autofeeds in place, a simple click of the publish button will ensure your latest content is shared with dozens of groups and networks instantly.

4. Refresh Your Postings – Both clients and candidates could be browsing your agency profile daily to find out more about the latest job openings or candidates.  Be sure that the updates posted to your LinkedIn company profile are as frequent as necessary.

5. Offer Proof Points On the Products/Services Tab – Why should candidates or clients use your recruiting or staffing agency?  Here’s your chance to set yourself apart.  Include compelling images and testimonials to communicate your company’s unique strengths.

6. Answer Questions & Become a Thought Leader – Remember that at its heart, LinkedIn is about professional networking.  And a big component of this is trusting your network to help you answer questions.  Once or twice a week, review the Answers section of LinkedIn for open questions from others in your industry.  What myself and my team commonly will do is look for open questions related to recruiting software, as this represents our company’s specialty.  If you see a question you can help with, share an answer publicly.  (Remember – this is not a sales tactic – so please do not try to shoehorn in a sales pitch at the end.  That said, it is perfectly acceptable to optimize your answer through the use of keywords.) Simply build trust by sharing your knowledge.  You’ll be surprised how often this tactic will lead those on the Answer string to click through to your profile – and ultimately – to your website.  And from there, you may commence selling.

To learn more about how your recruiting or staffing agency can best take advantage of social media, and how our recruiting and staffing software can help, contact us or request a free demo.