3 ways LinkedIn sucks for job seekers AND recruiters

In general, I am a fan of LinkedIn, but in three big ways, it SUCKS for recruiters and job seekers alike. Here are the big three reasons:

1) Companies can no longer see who follows their own LinkedIn company page. This is so dumb! Job candidates follow companies to tell them that they want to work for their organization and internal recruiters used their company page’s follow list to find interested job candidates. 

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Quick question LinkedIn: Why have people follow our company page, if we can't see who is following us?!

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2) Recruiters who pay for LinkedIn Recruiter Lite see less candidate skills information than those who have a free account. Recruiter Lite premium account holders can only see a skills list for each candidate, not who endorsed them for each skill. They also can’t see whether endorsers worked for the same company as the candidate or whether they were highly skilled in the same area.

You only see a skills listing when you view candidates' profiles using LinkedIn Recruiter Lite ...

... but you can see the number of endorsements for each skill and who endorsed a candidate for each skill using a free account.

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Recruiter Lite search
wouldn't bring up an
exact match candidate ...

    3) Paying recruiters often can’t find qualified candidates even when they put the exact job titles or keywords from someone’s profile into the Recruiter Lite system. For example, I tried to find my company’s own vice president who has this title on her profile: Vice President (Account Executive | Sales | Marketing | Resume Writer | Career Coach). Even though I searched locally using those titles and keywords, candidates with fewer qualifications showed up in search results, but she didn’t. 

    The only way I could get her to show up in Recruiter Lite search was to include one of her former company names. I could also find her by logging out of Recruiter Lite and looking for her by job title or skill in free search. 

... until I added a known past company into the Companies filter box, or until I ...

... logged out of Recruiter Lite premium and searched for her for free.

What can job seekers do when LinkedIn sucks?

• Since companies no longer see that you are following them, let them know that you are interested in other ways. Join LinkedIn groups associated with the company; invite key company employees to connect; and like, comment and share when company personnel post articles or job postings on its company page or your LinkedIn home page.
• Because recruiters with Recruiter Lite can’t see your skills endorsements or learn who endorsed you for your skills, use your LinkedIn profile summary section to play up this information. For example, write “100+ skills endorsements for project management, 75+ endorsements for training, etc.” or “500+ total skills endorsements for communications excellence, including endorsements from CEOs and VPs of Fortune 500 companies.”  
• Since recruiters using Recruiter Lite can’t always find you based on your job titles and keywords, make sure to repeat your titles and keywords in your profile’s summary section and play up relevant job titles and core duties in each of your work experience sections.

What can recruiters do when LinkedIn sucks?

• Since you can no longer see who follows your company page, post frequent articles and job postings on your company page, home page and on the LinkedIn blog (aka LinkedIn Pulse), which you can access by clicking “Write an article” on your home page. Encourage readers to like, comment and share your posts so that you can discover them. Also establish topical LinkedIn groups so you can view the members list and connect the groups to your company page.
• Because you can’t see full information about candidates’ skills on Recruiter Lite, log out of your premium account or use a different browser to see how many endorsements candidates have for each skill, who endorsed them, and whether the people who endorsed them worked with them at the same companies or are highly skilled in the same abilities as the candidate.
• Since Recruiter Lite’s search abilities may not show qualified candidates even if you use optimum job titles and keywords, try adding past company names into the company filter section. For whatever reason, that tends to produce better results.

What can LinkedIn do when it sucks? Improve!

• Let companies see who is following their organization, but keep their competitors or candidates’ current companies from accessing that same information. That way, you ensure followers’ privacy while connecting companies and interested candidates to each other.
• Provide paying Recruiter Lite recruiters with candidates’ full skills endorsement information.
• Improve your flawed Recruiter Lite search capabilities (and while you are at it, improve your free search functionality ... it's TERRIBLE now, but used to be so much better). Paying recruiters should get better search results than those who use free search, but both search functions should at least produce accurate results.

What do you think? How can LinkedIn improve so that recruiters and job seekers can better benefit from the site? Share your thoughts! Thanks, Kathy

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Look to WiserU
WiserU provides LinkedIn training and services and career training and services for individuals and organizations that can transform your future or grow your business. Visit WiserU.com to learn more.

• Businesses arrange for WiserU to maximize their use of LinkedIn for sales, marketing, and fundraising through training and services. Learn more 
• The unemployed and miserably employed hire WiserU for career training, coaching, interview preparation, and LinkedIn profile and resume creation services. Learn more at wiseru.com/services/
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How and WHY to follow companies on LinkedIn

TWO UPDATES TO THIS POST: 
1) The LinkedIn company page search function is NOT as good as it used to be. You can no longer sort by company size or Fortune 500. It also no longer lets you search by industry and the results are not sorted by the largest companies first. 

2) Companies can no longer see the list of its followers, which seems stupid on LinkedIn's part because companies used to find job candidates and customers from the list. LinkedIn said that it made the change to protect followers' privacy, but you can see someone's followed companies, simply by visiting the person's Interests section and clicking "Companies". 

Since companies can't see that you are following them, like comment and share their articles on your LinkedIn home page and apply for their jobs on LinkedIn. Their articles and job posts are featured in both places because you followed their company page. 

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ORIGINAL ARTICLE:

You may know that you can follow companies on LinkedIn, but do you know WHY doing so can dramatically improve your job search or sales efforts? 

Simply put, following LinkedIn companies can help you find and impress companies where you want to work or sell your wares. 

Here is how and why to follow companies

For example, say that you wanted to work at, or sell to, marketing/advertising agencies in Kansas City.

Use categories on the left side of the Search Companies page to narrow your search to your target companies.
In this example, I sorted by Location and Industry to learn about Kansas City marketing/ad agencies.

To find and follow multiple companies ... 

• Visit Interests … Companies … Search Companies.
• Click the Add link under Location (on the left side of the page). Type your city into the search box.
• Under the Industry tab, select your industry from the list or add a different industry by clicking the Add button).
• Search the results and follow your preferred companies, or use the tools on the left, such as Company Size, to narrow your search.
• Click the Job Opportunities link to view only companies that have open positions.

To follow one particular organization’s Company Page, type the company name into the LinkedIn search box and select the company from the search results. Click the yellow Follow button.

Visit all of the sections on an organization's Company Page to learn as much as you can.

Why follow companies? Company Pages can contain a ton of useful information for job seekers or salespeople. For example:

1. On a Company Page HOME PAGE: Read company news updates and then scroll to the bottom to find general company information (street address, web site address, company size, industry, and more). Use such news and information to impress company representatives.
2. On a Company Page PRODUCTS PAGE: Discover all the products and services that a company provides. Because these entries are brief and include a picture, you can quickly learn more about a company’s product or service than you could by wading through a company’s web site.
3. On a Company Page CAREERS PAGE: View all of the jobs that the company has posted on LinkedIn in one convenient place. Also read what employees say about their company, and view a video about the organization. (Not all companies feature job postings or videos, but many do).
4. On a Company Page INSIGHTS PAGE: Learn interesting facts about an organization's employees, such as who you know, its competitors (listed in the People Also Viewed box), top skills and expertise that the company seeks, and its most recommended employees (so that you can reach out to these top people or learn what type of employees excel at the company).   

Visit Interests ... Companies. Click the Companies Home page to check on all of your target companies at one time.

How to benefit from following companies

• Quickly view all recent updates about your target companies (including company news, job openings, new hires, and recent employee departures). To do so, hover over the Interests tab and select Companies from the drop-down menu. Click the Companies Home tab. On the left column, view Followed Company Updates, or type a company names into the “Search for Companies” box to learn what a specific target organization is up to.
• Opt to “Like” or positively “Comment” about your target companies’ updates. The company will appreciate the positive attention!
• When on an organization’s Company Page, look for the “How You Are Connected” box on the home page to see who you know at the company. Click the “See all” link to observe your 1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd degree connections at the organization, as well as former employees. Use this knowledge to ask key people to help you land a job or make the sale.
• Recommend a company's products and services on its Product page. Providing recommendations makes the company look good on LinkedIn and shows them that you care about their success. 
• Realize that a representative at each target company can see who is following his/her company (by clicking the followers link on their Company Page Home Page). By being on their followers list, you’re telling companies that you are interested in them, which could be huge plus for you if they are seeking to hire someone like you, or if they are interested in the type of product that you sell. [SADLY, THIS BULLET IS NO LONGER TRUE]

A client of mine, an experienced, Phoenix-based health care communicator, landed a job specifically because he followed companies. Here’s what happened next:

1. A representative at a Phoenix hospital viewed her hospital’s Company Page follower list and saw that John was following her company. (The list not only includes followers' names hyper-linked to their profile, but also their picture and LinkedIn headline).
2. She clicked to his profile and learned that he was qualified and available.
3. She contacted him because he had included his phone number and email address in the Contact Information and “Advice for Contacting NAME” profile sections.
4. Voila! He got called for the interview and talked his way into the job.

Try the same simple steps that John did to improve your job chances or sales opportunities using LinkedIn. -- Kathy

Did these tips help you follow companies? Share your comments! 

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Look to WiserU
WiserU provides LinkedIn training and services and career training and services for individuals and organizations that can transform your future or grow your business. Visit WiserU.com to learn more.

• Businesses arrange for WiserU to maximize their use of LinkedIn for sales, marketing, and fundraising through training and services. Learn more 
• The unemployed and miserably employed hire WiserU for career training, coaching, interview preparation, and LinkedIn profile and resume creation services. Learn more at wiseru.com/services/
• Subscribe to WiserUTips.com for weekly LinkedIn and career tips!

LinkedIn Follow Company tips that can help you find a job

Are you familiar with how to follow companies on LinkedIn? Simply search for companies through the search box and choose Companies and then use "All filters" to find the right companies. Visit each company’s page that you are interested in and click the yellow Follow button. Voila! It’s easy and ensures that you will see news from the company in your LinkedIn home page news feed

Find companies by location, job title, industry, relationship and more  by clicking Companies and then Search Companies. Put your search parameters in the left navigation bar. Scroll through the results and invite all the companies you want right from the search listings just by hovering over a listing until it turns blue and  then clicking the Follow Company link that appears.

What to do after you’ve followed companies

Study the company page of your followed companies to impress their recruiter or hiring manager in interviews and in your application materials. Learn about company pages.

Check company updates often by clicking the Companies tab and scrolling through the updates list. Also find other companies to follow by reviewing the Companies You May Want to Follow section on the same page.

Check what your connections are saying about companies (and what jobs they are posting) by clicking the “All Updates” link on your home page and selecting Companies.

Other follow company tips

You can follow companies where your connections work now or used to work if the companies have a LinkedIn company page. To do so, simply move your cursor over the person’s company name on his or her personal profile, and then click the Follow company link from the mini Company Page pop-up box that appears.

Follow a connection’s company by hovering over his or her company’s name and then selecting Follow company in the pop-up box.

To stop following a company, simply go to its company page, hover over the checked Follow button until it changes to Unfollow and then click to confirm that you want to unfollow.

The bottom line: Follow companies on LinkedIn! It can help you land a job or a better one!

What tips or questions do you have about LinkedIn company pages? Share them via the Contact tab. -- Kathy

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Look to WiserU
WiserU provides LinkedIn training and services and career training and services for individuals and organizations that can transform your future or grow your business. Visit WiserU.com to learn more.

• Businesses arrange for WiserU to maximize their use of LinkedIn for sales, marketing, and fundraising through training and services. Learn more 
• The unemployed and miserably employed hire WiserU for career training, coaching, interview preparation, and LinkedIn profile and resume creation services. Learn more at wiseru.com/services/
• Subscribe to WiserUTips.com for weekly LinkedIn and career tips!