As regular readers of this blog will know we are huge fans of LinkedIn. As early adopters on the site we have seen things develop from the early days. We are all paid up Business account users. It is a superb resource to use, it gives unique access to high level contacts within organisations and visibility to candidates who might be on the lookout for suitable vacancies.

One slightly worrying development we are seeing, however, is recruiters who seem to have a slightly looser sense of ethics when it comes to using the site. In conversation with a friend who works in Medical Sales, she informs me that she is contacted almost on a daily basis by people via the site. When these approaches are genuine, researched, personalized and targeted, she will respond politely that she’s not on the lookout currently. However, some of what she receives is clearly just copy and pasted; clearly a form of spam. The more of this which occurs, the more
complaints LinkedIn will receive and the ultimate result is that functionality will be restricted. Another negative is that people will start to hide their profiles more, or even, stop using the site completely. This is of benefit to no one in the equation.

Of course we realise that there is a learning curve involved and mistakes will be made. We’ve all crossed someone on the wrong day and been met with a frosty response – that’s business. However once we all conduct ourselves in a professional manner and approach people in a balanced and honest way, there shouldn’t be any issues.

We would therefore urge all of our friends in recruitment to act in a hyper-targeted, ethical fashion when using the site. Please don’t proactively target people who have “Interested In – Career Opportunities” unticked – don’t spoil it for the rest of us!

-Brian (bhc at lifescience dot ie)