I think it’s relatively safe for me to say that I’m less the raging fanboy of LinkedIn that I was in my earlier career. No, really, I’ve been pretty vocal about it. So when I’m coming out in quasi-defense of LinkedIn, that’s a little surprising, even to me. Anecdotally speaking, there is a large population of recruiters who are shouting from the rooftops ‘Down with LinkedIn!’ and ‘Who uses LinkedIn anymore!?’. Maybe they have had enough of the ever-original memes and dynamic inspirational quotes on the Pulse publishing platform. While they are certainly entitled to their opinion, to them I emphatically say, “B*itch please”.
Whether it’s because they want to be perceived as hip for using the latest and greatest aggregator or chrome extension instead of ‘tired old LinkedIn’ or because they are being flat out blind and/or naive, its a bogus statement. Regardless of the impetus for their self-imposed all-or-nothing ultimatum towards LinkedIn, the fact is that much like an Ashley Madison account, they are probably going there when they think no one is looking.
For all the cracks in the armor of the largest warrior in the “War for Talent”, it still makes for a really solid research tool. You could pay for Spokeo or ZoomInfo, but if you are already paying for LinkedIn, why spend more? If you’re using the free version of LinkedIn, then kudos to you for having tremendous sales tactic deflection skills. But seriously, using LinkedIn you can get the information you need about a person, such as their name, where they work, the city, their alma mater and the like, and then do research with other tools to get the contact info. It’s out there, and readily available for you if you know where to look and what tools to use.
LinkedIn still tells you more about a person than Twitter will ever be able to in 140 characters, and saying you are done with it and walking away (especially if you use it for FREE!) would be cutting off your nose to spite your face. Maybe you’re waiting for the next big thing to come along, but so far it has been proven that LinkedIn is the big kid on the block, and has to date knocked off any serious competition.
So let’s cut it out with the (mostly empty) rhetoric that you are completely done with LinkedIn. You know it’s not true, and so do most of your connections on any platform. Besides, where else are you going to see a super cool kitty telling you to “Hang In There!”?
Recruiting In 3D 
Great article Pete. I am def one of the people that bashes LinkedIn but not to get rid of it completely. I am pulling my entire tech recruiting team off of the “recruiter” platform but will still have a slightly upgraded account, just not the $6-7K per year recruiter account. We may all say to do away with LinkedIn but we all have it open in our browser all day! Use it for research but not messaging! Rock on.
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Thanks Alan – that’s exactly my point. It still has value for SURE. But 150-200k worth of value? I’d love to see the data of a company that is recouping all that spend. Thanks for reading as always.
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I like to say the LinkedIn has the best candidate and resource database, but it is a very poorly run organization, has terrible software tools, is very expensive, and provides little to no personal customer support. If there were another company with a similar level of candidates, contacts, etc., I would switch in a minute. I just see that LinkedIn has such as strong first-in leadership position in Business Social media that I would be difficult for another player to get in the game. So, I will still spend my $ on LinkedIn and spend my time using their terrible software tools.
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Totally agree. I think recruiters are quick to brag about how they don’t need LinkedIN anymore but anyone who completely ignores it is either 1) lying or 2) really missing out on an important recruiting tool.
I also think the notion that people don’t open LinkedIN messages anymore is false.
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I think fewer people open them, Ben. But that’s not because LinkedIn isn’t effective. It’s because the sender is not creative or doesn’t spark any interest from people to compel them to respond. Thanks for taking a look and commenting, really appreciate it.
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There’s a time and a place for LinkedIn in this day and age and I believe it is highly specific to the work of the individual, and how they carry their business. From what I’ve been able to witness, In the perm. world, LinkedIn is much more beneficial then that of the contract or even contract to hire focus. Reason being is because those who focus on perm, want candidates that are CURRENTLY employed, and not someone who is patrolling the job boards for anything and everything. A candidate in a satisfactory job is more attractive to a new client then someone out of a job and ready to make their next move, especially if they’re being pulled from a competitor.
On the other hand, the contract & contract-to-hire game usually has a completely different target market. Many in this realm are better seen and more accessible on the job boards and postings being generated. More times than not, an individual established in a perm. position, doesn’t want to be pulled from their sound company if they’re not going to be moving into an overall better, but laterally similar or more prestigious role.
Of course, my opinion is only as good as what I think of it, but from what I’ve seen, it seems to work very well for those who know exactly how to exploit its tools and what’s available to them.
I currently have a free LinkedIn account and am able to gather all the Intel about a company, who I’m targeting, as well as utilizing specific add-ons & plugins to obtain exactly what I need, but I can’t say not having a full account wouldn’t be an added benefit. I’ve conformed my tactics to the resources I have available, and it works for me.
None-the-less great article overall! I love seeing other peoples outlook on LinkedIn when it comes to overall utilization.
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Pete, thanks for the article. I found it very insightful and amusing, which is really the only reason I’d ever read anything. Heck as a recruiter, i usually only scan through things now, never really reading all the words around the words anyways. Linked In is a great tool and as you said it can help you find all the information you need, to find who and where you need to find them. Plus you can do most, if not all of that for free, so the return on investment has to be in the green. I can say my only complaint about Linked In as a whole, is sometimes it takes too long for people to get back to me and I have no patience at all. Although if you really are a recruiter and doing your job, isn’t it all about networking and pipelining anyways. So I may want to hear from you today, but if it’s not till next week, next month, even next year i still accomplished what i was out to do. Not every position can be filled by someone on Monster/Dice/CareerBuilder, as a lot of the niche jobs, those people don’t look for jobs, jobs have to find them.
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Thanks Aaron. I try to not take myself too seriously, but you know that already. I think getting away from messaging through LI is the key. I’m getting response rates of 70-75% from people when I take the time to garner the contact info from Connectifier or Prophet or Veruca.io or something similar. inMails are a good last resort, but I suspect outside of sales and recruiting, people aren’t checking that each day, and/or it’s going to an email box they use less often. So I’d rather email them at work or at gmail if I can so that I know they are (in theory) more likely to see it and respond.
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