Devoted to recruiting, finding top recruits, and hiring tips and advice

** Warning: Evangelical Rant Ahead **

Anbody who knows me very long knows that I love LinkedIn. (I can say that, it's February).  I've been courted by other tools, wooed by new services, but I just stay loyal to my one true love.  Like any good relationship, we haven't always seen eye-to-eye, but we've worked out our differences and life is good.

So, what is LinkedIn?

• Some call it your Rolodex on Steroids
• Others call it classmates.com for your professional career
• I call it, simply, gold.

Naysayers call LinkedIn "online dating for jobseekers", but don't listen to a word they say... they're just jealous that I know people they don't know.

So, What Can LinkedIN DO for me?

Dennis Wood, Director of Human Capital for vSpring recently wrote a great article about  top hiring practices titled Hiring Blind--How to Shift Risk Through Top Recruitment Practices wherein he discusses hiring through social networking tools.

...Using LinkedIn to search our collective networks, [the CEO] was able to identify industry leaders. It also worked because he offloaded the critical, yet time-consuming piece of calling and qualifying candidates to a skilled recruiter, which in turn provided for a smooth negotiation. There’s so much more about why this model works than I can discuss to here, but for early stage companies I highly recommend using social networking software such as LinkedIn and contracting with a recruiter in this way. (italics added) [read more]

You have to admit the one-two punch here of LinkedIn and a talented, skilled recruiter makes for a very smooth, excellent hiring process.  (Thanks to Paul Allen for linking to this article for me--and introducing me to LinkedIn in the first place)

Homework:

• If you're not on LinkedIN, get in there, now.
• Manicure your profile like your lawn. 
  Listen: Weak profiles are like weeds--they take no effort at all.  Consider: Are you trying to attract people to you or scare them off?
• Invite no less than 50 people to join your network.  20% will.  Do the math.
• Update, update, update.
  For example, Download the LinkedIn Outlook Toolbar (if you use Outlook) and whenever you meet someone new, get their email address and use the tool to connect to their network.  Now you're actually getting somewhere.
• As you connect to people you respect, give them "LinkedIn Love" and endorse their work. (For example, click here to endorse me! Shameless!)
• DON'T connect to people you DON'T know!  (I learned this the hard way)  That is like mold on your bread.  It kills the value of the network.

 Ahhhhhh, now, doesn't that feel good?