4 Laws of LinkedIn Attraction

There’s been plenty of chat about how candidates should be conscious of how their LinkedIn profiles shape up, but it actually works both ways. You see, when it comes to attracting top quality candidates – how you represent yourself on LinkedIn can be a make or break finding ‘the one’. 

But before you start panicking, don’t. Whether you’re socially savvy or not, upping your LinkedIn game is actually quite simple, and it can take next to no time at all. 

So to help you make your profile stand out, and attract the very best, here’s the four Laws of LinkedIn Attraction to ensure you’re not turning off top talent:

1. The Law of Exchange Rates

No, we’re not suddenly chatting foreign currency – we’re talking about how you interact with others across the platform. Candidates want to get a read on who you are in order to assess what the workplace culture may be. Have a think about what sells your company to a candidate and integrate that into your daily activity. Be true to your most relevant audience (aka your next hire). Reflect on anecdotes, stories and experiences from your job that authentically demonstrates why you love it. Sounds obvious when summarised, but you’d be surprised how often we can be blind to our own behaviour online. 

2. The Law of Quick Conversions

Over the past few years, the time you have to capture a candidate’s attention on social media has dwindled. A study by Microsoft actually showed that it dropped from 12 seconds, to less than eight (that is a shorter attention span than a goldfish BTW). So how to win candidates early? The simplest way is to leverage LinkedIn’s features to tell your story at every turn. What does your display photo say about you, or the company, or its team culture? What does your summary say about what you love about your job, and therefore workplace? Have you used the ‘featured’ post pinning option to draw attention to videos, posts and articles that highlight employee benefits? Short, snappy and simple is the sure fire way to capture a candidate’s attention.

3. The Law of Commonality

Having things in common is great. It serves as a key conversation starter for engaging and building rapport with candidates. In all our LinkedIn learning and experiences we’ve found that there are two easy ways to increase the likelihood of common ground. For one, joining Groups. These can range from industry groups about your chosen field, university alumni groups through to local business networks and the like. The other is by mentioning your hobbies and interests. As key connectors across LinkedIn, we’ve seen countless examples where out of office activities have helped two people ward off any awkward conversations throughout the candidate engagement process. 

4. The Law of Originality

Last but definitely not least, is to be authentic. Firstly, be careful not to oversell, even if you absolutely think you have the best role in the best workplace, remember that most of your readers are coming from a skeptical homebase. For the most part, if it sounds too good to be true, people won’t believe that it is. Additionally, be brave in your choice of authenticity. You don’t have to be overly creative to be original, just be true to you, what you do, and what you love about your workplace. At the end of the day, the best candidate for your company will appreciate going in knowing who you are authentically above any clever wordsmithing. 

Okay so these are more guidelines than hard laws, but in a nutshell: Upload a quality photo of yourself, write an honest bio that mentions your interests (they can work as conversation starters for candidates) and don’t be afraid to share some proud moments from work.

Ultimately, the key to LinkedIn success is simple –  just keep it real.