Looking for your next growth hacker?
Perhaps your organization is growing at such a pace that you can’t keep up anymore.
Nothing to fear.
We’ve got a couple of tips on how to create better LinkedIn job posts that will help you fill any position.
Here’s a disclaimer.
These tips apply to posts that have some ad spend attached to them and free ones. However, given that LinkedIn makes its revenue through ads, you’ll have more visibility if you add a little ad spend to your efforts.
- A Little Bit About LinkedIn Job Posts
- 1. Optimize Your Company Page
- 2. Get Your Team in On It
- 3. The First 4 Lines Matter
- 4. You Can Send Them Somewhere Else
- 5. Keep it Short
- 6. Add What Matters the Most
- 7. Don’t Talk About the Company Too Much
- 8. Add a Few Screening Questions
- 9. Take It Down If It Doesn’t Work
- Takeaways on How to Create Better LinkedIn Job Posts
A Little Bit About LinkedIn Job Posts
LinkedIn job posts are one of the most integral parts of LinkedIn as the largest professional social media platform in the world. Given that their USP is the ability to provide professionals with their own network, it’s no secret that every HR team has at least once considered LinkedIn.
Anyone can post a LinkedIn job post.
In fact, you can even post them for free, making them a great way of bringing in new people to the company.
But, here’s the thing.
Not every job post is going to be successful.
And, that’s what this guide is for.
1. Optimize Your Company Page
Optimization is the bedrock of the success of anything that you do on LinkedIn, and it’s not just your profile that has to be optimized, it’s everything from your company to your showcase pages as well.
Your company page will serve as the main landing page for people who are interested to check out your company before they hit on apply.
The first link that appears on the jobs search function might be a link to the job page, but eager candidates will want to check out the company on LinkedIn.
So, you need to make that good first impression when they arrive.
Make sure your page is up-to-date, has engaging content, and photos to make the offer to work for you more enticing.
2. Get Your Team in On It
After your prospect checks out your company page, they might be curious to check on the people that work for your company.
This is where it makes sense for your team members to also have engaging profiles.
Prospective applicants will want to “stalk” people that whom they could potentially be working with if they get in.
Now, you can necessarily force your team members to fully optimize your profile, but you could make the process easier for people who want it.
Lobby for your team to be brand ambassadors and make sure you have optimization guides ready to streamline the process when it comes down to it.
3. The First 4 Lines Matter
Just like a LinkedIn headline, applicants who are evaluating your job posts will check out the first four lines to decide if the rest of the post is worth reading.
You need to be able to sustain their attention and hook them in early.
So, what do you do with your first four lines?
Tell them the USP of the job.
It could be the UPTO (unlimited paid time off) policy that you espouse, your value system, crazy benefits, the best part of the job, a brief and interesting intro about your company, etc.
Whatever your hook is it matters.
4. You Can Send Them Somewhere Else
Do you use an ATS? Or, maybe you would rather have people land in your career inbox so you can better assess them.
That’s fine.
Make sure that you give them the link to your careers portal or your hiring email in the first four lines.
A lot of the people who hire on LinkedIn don’t necessarily process applicants through the platform because they’d rather use in-house systems to keep track.
5. Keep it Short
Do you know how easy it is for people to apply on LinkedIn?
They just need to click a button.
Plus, if you have a relatively long job post, they might not even bother reading the entirety of it and just apply.
Do you know what happens when they do this?
You end up with a lot of unqualified people clogging up your jobs inbox on LinkedIn which is terrible for your HR team or whoever is handling recruitment.
It generally means a lot of wasted time going through people who are not even qualified and just clicked on “Apply” in the hopes of getting into anything.
Also, the shorter a job post, the more likely it is for people to read it.
We have to contend with the fact that we live in a generation with shorter attention spans, and you want to be able to hold their attention long enough for them to consume the job information that you have.
6. Add What Matters the Most
Here are a couple of things to consider when writing out job posts on LinkedIn.
Compensation
Everyone needs to make a living, so you can disclose a little about the expected salary. People often think they have to put exact figures here, but that’s not exactly the case.
You can just provide a ballpark or use phrases such as “above market”.
How about if I can’t pay too much for now?
That’s perfectly fine, if you think your company makes a compelling case with its value system and other perks, then make sure you’re clear with that. People will still apply as long as your intentions are good and you’re not out to exploit people.
Location
One of the lessons we learned after the pandemic is that people like hybrid and flexible work arrangements. If you offer it, great! Stick it in your job post.
However, there are some roles that might have to be on-site and you have to let people know about them.
Benefits
UPTO, hybrid work, expense accounts, etc. are all great ways to attract top talent and make your post more compelling.
Terms of Employment
Be upfront with people.
Not everyone is looking for a full-time role, some people are just around to moonlight, do contractual work or have something on the side part-time.
Be clear with this fact.
Just because you’re not offering a full-time role doesn’t mean that you won’t get applicants, you want to be as honest as possible in your posting.
7. Don’t Talk About the Company Too Much
Here’s one thing that annoys me and a lot of your candidates.
Talking about the company too much.
If the company seems great, then you’ll probably fit all of it into one small convincing paragraph that makes them check out your optimized company page.
Most of the time that’s all you need.
If you keep talking about your company, people get turned off and you come off as stuck-up, something you should be avoiding.
8. Add a Few Screening Questions
Most job roles will have two or three non-negotiables, and that’s all you need for your screening questions.
This helps make going through a large number of applicants more efficient.
While you’re at it, make sure you avoid common screening questions and go for the custom question type – a new LinkedIn feature.
This helps tailor the screening process for you.
9. Take It Down If It Doesn’t Work
Yes, even job posts are subject to A/B testing.
When you find that your post isn’t working, try closing it and using a variation for the next week.
You’ll find that with some trial and error, you’ll find a way to create great job posts that work!
Takeaways on How to Create Better LinkedIn Job Posts
If you want to create better Linkedin job posts, you’ve got to treat it like a marketing campaign.
Your company page is your profile and your job post is your content.
The challenge now is to make sure you convert.
If you frame it that way, the process becomes easier and more effective!