How To Standout To Recruiters On LinkedIn

By Kyle Elliott

Share on: 

How To Standout To Recruiters On LinkedIn

There are nearly half-a-billion professionals on LinkedIn. It can feel virtually impossible to stand out in a crowd this large. But it’s possible!

Those who really stand out on LinkedIn answer these three questions:

  • What’s your purpose?
  • What problem do you solve?
  • What makes you fabulous?

1. What’s your purpose?

Before a recruiter invests time and energy reaching out to you, they want to know your purpose. They want to know what you’re all about and what you have to offer. In other words, what’s your story?

As you carefully craft a response to this answer, strive to be as reader-centric as possible. Be succinct and straightforward.

Let’s take a quick look at Apple. (Why apple? Their identity, branding and marketing are on point. That’s why.) A quick review of any Apple advertisement immediately informs you of their purpose — creating innovative mobile phones and other tech products.

Be like Apple. You need to clearly and quickly communicate your purpose. You want that recruiter to know what your purpose is and if it’s a purpose they are interested in pursuing further.

2. What problem do you solve?

Once the reader knows your purpose, you need to communicate what problem you can solve for them. Tell them how you can be their savior (i.e., how you can help them fill their job openings).

Do you help busy families find childcare? Do you drive revenue growth for businesses? Do you help job seekers find jobs they LOVE? (That’s me!)

Whatever the problem is that you solve, you need to communicate it pronto. Recruiters have a clear problem—an open position. Be their solution.

Plus, online attention spans are small, so you need to captivate their attention right away. Your job is to tell them that they don’t need to search any further for the perfect candidate.

3. What makes you FABULOUS?

In other words, how are you different? What makes it unique? Tell the recruiter how you’re a unicorn!

While I absolutely love Starbucks (I visit multiple times per day), I can’t stand when job seeker’s list “Barista at Starbucks” or any other combination of “Position Title at Company Name” as their headline. This doesn’t tell recruiters how they’re different from the other 250,000+ Starbucks employees out there.

Don’t do this. While it’s okay — and expected — that your LinkedIn communicate what you can do, you need to take it a step further.

How do go above and beyond the call of duty? What makes you different from fellow applicants? Why are you FABULOUS?

Your LinkedIn needs to communicate the value you bring to that recruiter. You need to communicate how you’re special. Consider throwing in a fun fact.

Once you answer these three questions, all you have left to do is whip them together and voila—you now have the goods for a punchy profile that will help set you apart from the other half-a-billion professionals on LinkedIn.

Kyle Elliott, MPA, CHES runs CaffeinatedKyle.com. His goal is simple – to help people find jobs they LOVE (or at least tolerate). Kyle loves coffee (if you couldn’t tell), writing and eating the same thing at different restaurants.

The kind of stuff that Social Hire do...

The Social Hire team never just do social media.

We're an organisation that helps our clients boost their social media marketing by offering social media marketing on a monthly basis.

You might like these blog posts How Should Human Resource Department Handle Working In High-Risk Environments, Retaining Younger Workers: How Will Gen Z Change the Millennial Workplace?, The 2nd P&L – What is Making Your Competitors More Successful Than You, and The IQTalent Story: Our Top 3 Lessons Learned Over 9 Years.

  Back to Candidate blogs