Combining Outbound & Inbound on LinkedIn

Both inbound and outbound have their problems, especially in the world of 360 recruiting. 

Most of us started with outbound, and we know the deal there: 

Getting people to respond at all is hard. 

Even when they do respond, the timing and budget always seem to be off. 

Inbound has its problems too. 

For one, it’s often s-l-o-o-o-w.

And while that slow process creeps along, we’re left in the dark, wondering whether or not it’s working. 

Fortunately, on LinkedIn there are a few things we can do that will help us out here. 

1. Curate who sees your content
2. Start or continue conversations with people who engage
3. Start convos with the silent majority (where most of your hiring managers live)

Let’s dive in. 

Curate who sees your content

“I have a big network, I don’t know why nobody’s looking at my content.” 

I’m talking to a recruiting agency owner in the tech world. Someone who’s built up nearly 20K LinkedIn connections - an asset they’re proud of. 

But they’re getting 200, 300 impressions per post, and zero interest from hiring managers. 

So I dug into their work history…

And before they started this agency where they’re hiring engineers, product managers and the like for fintech firms…

The spent 2 decades as a corporate recruiter for a major insurance company. 

That huge network? 

Was full of people who had little to do with the focus of their current content efforts. 

Which is something that’s peculiar to LinkedIn compared to platforms like Twitter (never gonna call it X, sorry), Facebook, or Instagram. 

LinkedIn mostly pushes your content to your network. 

Sometimes a post will catch on and get pushed to people outside your network, but that’s the exception, not the rule. 

It’s part of the nature of LinkedIn’s purpose… to connect professionals with other relevant professionals and help them network with each other. 

Not to push “the best” content out to a really wide audience. 

So if your network is full of people in industry A, and now you’re writing content for industry B? 

Those people from industry A will see it, think “not for me” and scroll on by. 

LinkedIn’s algorithm isn’t trying to push your posts to a wide audience, so if it doesn’t know who a post is for… It won’t show it to very many people. 

But you can use this to your advantage. 

By making sure that the people you want to see your posts are in your network. 

Here’s what to do: 

1. Go through your old connections. This hurts, but you should probably disconnect with people who you never really knew, and who are no longer a good prospect for your business. 
2. Make sure you’re maxing out your weekly connection requests with people who are the perfect audience for your content. 

LinkedIn is really cool in that you can kind of force growth in your content by pulling these two levers. 

Of course there are other things worth doing, like commenting on other’s posts, and having conversations in the DMs. Particularly with people who are already into your posts.

Start conversations with people who engage

Another great thing about LinkedIn is that you can directly reach out to anybody who engages with your content. 

Whether someone comments or they just give you the ole thumbs up or lightbulb…

You can, & should, start a convo with them directly.  

And there are a couple of reasons for this. 

One is the simple fact that someone who likes your content - especially if they left a comment - is more likely to respond to your DMs. 

This is especially good for you if that person is your ideal client. 

You don’t have to go into the conversation cold. You actually have something to talk about, which is one of the issues I hear about most often from consultants who are trying to sell in the DMs. 

Instead of wondering “What do I say?” like a Jr. High kid who finds themselves standing next to their crush, you have a ready-made topic of conversation. 

They liked your post? Great! What did they like about it? Is it an issue they’ve seen before? How have they gotten around it? 

And so on. 

But another really good reason to send DMs to people who comment & like…

Is that LinkedIn’s algorithm is tirelessly watching every. single. thing. we. do. on. LinkedIn. 

Because LinkedIn wants us to spend more time on LinkedIn. The more time we’re on there, the more ads we’ll see, and the more likely we’ll be to get one of their paid subscriptions like Sales Nav or Recruiter. 

So like the cocktail server at a casino rolling around every 45 minutes with a free drink for people who are playing slots…

LinkedIn tends to reward users who have a lot of conversations in the DMs by showing their content to more people. 

Now, I should say that I’m no “algorithm expert.” (is that a thing? Must be, right?)

But it’s something I’ve observed anecdotally with my own profile, those of clients I’ve worked with, and something I’ve heard echoed many times in the world of LinkedIn marketing where I spend waaaaay too much time.  

So having more DM conversations becomes this virtuous upward spiral. 

Have more convos. Get more impressions. Get more impressions. Have more convos. 

Which is all well and good, but what if your ideal hiring managers aren’t liking or commenting on your stuff? 

Well, there’s a way to deal with that, and this might be the most valuable thing for recruiters in traditional industries where hiring managers aren’t glued to LinkedIn the way marketers, SaaS people, and recruiters are. 

Start conversations with the silent majority

A quick Google just told me that there are about 2 million posts on LinkedIn every day. 

And LinkedIn itself reports that it’s got over 1 billion users. 

That’s 0.2% of users posting. 

Of course some of the most prolific posters post multiple times a day. 

And a toooon of those posts are things like “I’m thrilled to announce blah blah blah” 

So people who post are a tiny, tiny subset of users. 

Now obviously a lot more people comment & like than post, but the number that gets tossed around (which I’m suspicious of, but is probably in the ballpark) is 10% of users engage with content. 

Everybody else? 

They scroll. They respond to messages. They might say congrats when a contact gets a new job or something. 

But they’re part of the Silent Majority. 

And odds are good that your hiring managers are in that Silent Majority. 

So how do you use content to start convos with them? How is content a good use of time at all if you have no idea whether or not the people who are ultimately going to pay you are even seeing your stuff? 

Well…

First, Go to your recent posts. 

Second, Click “View Analytics” down on the bottom right

Third, Scroll down to a very important section: Who’s viewed your profile since this post. 

This gives you a list of all the good folks who have looked at your profile since you posted.

Now obviously not everybody looked at your profile because of that post. 

Maybe you sent them a connection request. 

Maybe they heard about you from a colleague or you came up in some search their doing for their own reasons. 

But a good chunk of them probably clicked your profile because what you wrote resonated with them. 

So here’s what you do.

Every week or so go through your recent posts, and look at that list of profile viewers. 

Find the people who are your ideal prospect…

And send them a flippin’ message!

You might have to go back and forth a bit to find out why they viewed your profile, but it’s still a lot easier than going into an outreach convo ice-cold. 

Conclusion

Wow, that was kind of a long one. Whoops. But it’s an important topic. 

To sum up: this LinkedIn game is best played with a combo of Inbound & Outbound. 

And 3 go-to techniques for doing this are: 

1. Curate who sees your content
2. Start or continue conversations with people who engage
3. Start convos with the silent majority (where most of your hiring managers live)

Now go forth and start some convos with warm leads!