How to contact a recruiter without being connected on LinkedIn

Many recruiters with a premium LinkedIn account want top candidates to contact them if they are interested in their open positions. That's why they have elected to be Open Profilers, which means that if you visit their profile and click Message, you can send them a message without having to pay for a LinkedIn InMail message. (Note that you won't know if they accept free messages until you click Message. If  a box pops up with small type that says "Free message", you know that you can send the message at no cost.

What does it mean and how can it benefit you?

The Open Profile option means that you can send the recruiter (or anyone else with a Premium Account who has opted to be an Open Profiler, a free pop-up message even if you aren’t connected to them. (Otherwise, you will need to upgrade to Job Seeker premium account to send a limited number of such messages.



To send a free Open Profile Message

• Locate a person with the Premium Account symbol.
• Click "Message".
• Complete the free message Open Profile message box and then send.

Options to avoid paying or upgrading to send InMails

• Invite people to connect and include in your message the reasons for your invitation. While sending invitations is free, you may need to know his or her email address (Learn how to find email addresses)
• Seek out and invite people with “Open Networker,” “LION” (LinkedIn Open Networker) or big numbers after their name, such as “13,000+.” Such wording indicates that the person is willing to accept all invitations. Many recruiters are open networkers. Even though people state that they are willing to accept invitations, customize your invitation message to let them know why you want to connect. (Learn how to invite strangers to connect ) (Finding recruiters)
• Send a “Get Introduced” message to the person through your network instead of an InMail message. People with a free account can send up to five Get Introduced messages per month. (Learn how)
• Join LinkedIn groups where your target people are likely members. I’ll talk next time about how to find groups with the people you want to reach.

The bottom line: Reach out to Open Profile recruiters or purchase/upgrade to send InMail messages to non-connections! -- Kathy

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