LinkedIn Review: Is It a Good Recruiting Platform in 2022?
REVIEWED BY: Charlette Beasley
Charlette has over 10 years of experience in accounting and finance and 2 years of partnering with HR leaders on freelance projects. She uses this extensive experience to answer your questions about payroll.
WRITTEN BY: Karina Fabian
PUBLISHED JUNE 14, 2022
Karina Fabian writes and reviews business software, services, and topics for starting a business, startups, and small businesses. She has more than seven years of business writing experience.
This article is part of a larger series on Hiring.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
- 1What We Recommend LinkedIn For
- 2When to Find an Alternative
- 3Pricing
- 4Features
- 5Ease of Use
- 6What Users Think
- 7Top Alternatives
- 8Bottom Line
LinkedIn is one of the most popular social media networks and the only one dedicated to business and professional networking. It’s the best place to promote your company as an industry leader and a great place to work. Plus, its free tools and paid plans harness the power of LinkedIn’s network for promoting job openings and recruiting new employees.
Businesses can use LinkedIn for a number of initiatives such as business exposure, networking, lead generation, and building brand awareness. For the purpose of this LinkedIn review, we’ll be focusing primarily on using it as a recruiting platform.
- Very easy to use
- Free plan has excellent tools for networking, researching talent
- Top platform for recruiting
- Professional focus
- Hard to contact support
- Paid ad pricing can be expensive
- Costs extra to contact people out of your network
Deciding Factors
- Very easy to use: In addition to the social-media-style pages, posting, and messaging, the advertising works similar to Google AdWords.
- Huge professional network: LinkedIn is a worldwide social media platform with over 810 million members.
- Research candidates: Profiles show experience, skills, recommendations, and more
- Special recruiting program: LinkedIn Recruiter lets you conduct in-depth searches for talent, reach out to potential candidates and track applicants
- Promote job openings and recruiting events: Post on your LinkedIn business page or create sponsored ads
- Message potential and current candidates using LinkedIn’s InMail
What We Recommend LinkedIn For
LinkedIn profile and business pages are free and easy to put together. Besides that, LinkedIn is also one of our top recruiting apps for finding new hires. It offers a paid plan specifically for recruiting, but its free tools are easy to use for research and reaching out to potential candidates.
In short, LinkedIn is best for:
- Businesses recruiting qualified professionals: LinkedIn’s profiles allow people to post resume-type information as well as other information that shows them as thought leaders and industry experts.
- Businesses looking to find passive candidates through networking: The social media nature and IM tools of LinkedIn make it easy to reach out to connections, even those not actively looking for a job.
- Businesses hiring managers and leaders: LinkedIn is one of our top choices for the best job posting sites when seeking people for leadership positions.
- Businesses looking for qualified international hires in professional fields: While the US has the most users (around 176 million), over 75% of LinkedIn users are outside the US, according to Kinsta.com. Thus, it’s a good place to look for international employees as well.
When LinkedIn Is Not a Good Fit
- Businesses needing hourly or unskilled labor: LinkedIn is a powerful tool for finding and hiring employees—but most candidates on the platform are typically white-collar workers and industry specialists. If you are looking for blue-collar, hourly, or young workers, such as for retail or restaurants, you may want to check out our list of the best recruiting software.
- Hiring freelancers: While you can seek and contact freelancers for jobs on LinkedIn, you may streamline your search by using more powerful platforms for finding freelancers and gig-based workers instead.
LinkedIn Pricing
LinkedIn offers free and paid premium plans. In addition to the premium plans listed below, it offers a Sales Navigator plan primarily for identifying potential clients rather than potential employees, so we won’t cover that in detail.
- Career: For candidates seeking employment, this plan helps them get on your radar.
- Business: Used primarily for promoting your business, it can help you get the attention of qualified job seekers.
- Recruiter: If the free tools are not enough, this plan gives you an extra boost with detailed search and improved InMail reach.
Many SMBs find the free plan sufficient for their day-to-day needs, but you can always upgrade to a paid plan for a limited time such as when you are in a hiring surge. LinkedIn also offers a free 30-day-trial of each Premium plan. After that time, it will start billing unless you cancel. It warns you seven days before your trial ends, which is a courtesy we don’t always see in subscribed services.
LinkedIn Plans at a Glance
| Free | LinkedIn Premium Career | LinkedIn Premium Business | LinkedIn Recruiter | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cost per month | $0 | $29.99 | $59.99 | $140+ |
| Profile page | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Connect with others | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Search profiles | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| See who has viewed your profile in the last 90 days | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| People browsing (level of connection accessible) | Third degree | Third degree | Third degree | Third degree, advanced search filters, candidate search alerts |
| Send InMail (to those not in your network) | ✕ | 5 | 5 | 30 |
| Business Insights | ✕ | Company and job applicant | Company and job applicant | InMail performance, company and job analytics |
| LinkedIn Learning access | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Access LinkedIn Interview Prep tools | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Advanced plans | ✕ | ✕ | ✕ | Includes team collaborators, more searches, more filters, out-of-network search |
Expand the sections below to learn more about each of LinkedIn’s paid plans.
Premium Career
Premium Business
LinkedIn Recruiter
LinkedIn Features
LinkedIn is designed to be a professional networking solution. Therefore, while it offers features similar to most social media platforms, the focus is on business: making contacts, hiring employees, and showing your business in its best light to both customers and potential new hires.
Business LinkedIn Pages
The business account (LinkedIn Page) is about your company—its mission, employees, advertising, jobs, etc. You gain followers rather than connections. Savvy job seekers research the companies they are interested in—and LinkedIn, along with your website, is one of the best ways to learn more about you.
Note:
You have to have a personal page, which we cover next, to set up a business page. If you are the sole proprietor of your business, it may make sense to use your personal page for your business if you only want it for business promotion and your brand is synonymous with you (Gary Sven Marketing, for example). However, you cannot post job ads—this is only available with Business Pages. You can always transition to a business page if you grow. Check out LinkedIn’s guide for how to do just that.
You can post to any of the tabs on your Business Page (About, Posts, Jobs, Video) for free. You can also create events for free. The People tab shows demographics about your employees that LinkedIn has collected based on their personal accounts.
Videos are a great way to capture interest. They also post to your newsfeed.
(Source: LinkedIn)
A business page showcases your company and its employees.
(Source: LinkedIn)
This section lets potential employees know who you are.
(Source: LinkedIn)
You can post jobs for free on your company page.
(Source: LinkedIn)
Use posts for broadcasting important events, thought leadership articles, and brand promotion, as well as showing company culture.
(Source: LinkedIn)
People demographics can show off your diversity and employee expertise.
(Source: LinkedIn)
Videos are a great way to capture interest. They also post to your newsfeed.
(Source: LinkedIn)
A business page showcases your company and its employees.
(Source: LinkedIn)
This section lets potential employees know who you are.
(Source: LinkedIn)
You can post jobs for free on your company page.
(Source: LinkedIn)
Use posts for broadcasting important events, thought leadership articles, and brand promotion, as well as showing company culture.
(Source: LinkedIn)
People demographics can show off your diversity and employee expertise.
(Source: LinkedIn)
Videos are a great way to capture interest. They also post to your newsfeed.
(Source: LinkedIn)
Personal Profiles
As a business owner or recruiter, your personal page can introduce you and your company to a broader business audience, help build a network you can tap to fill open roles, establish your credibility in the market, and more. There’s no reason not to have a personal profile, and you need one to create a Business Page.
Personal profiles are also a great resource for looking at potential candidates. You can either search profiles or look up a profile of someone who has applied or been recommended to learn more about them.
A personal profile is much like an online resume and portfolio.
(Source: LinkedIn)
LinkedIn’s personal profile is designed to be like a resume and has places for endorsements from previous managers or co-workers. People can indicate if they are looking for work or are open to opportunities. LinkedIn has skills assessment tests with badges for the person’s page and they are noted when someone does a recruitment search. In addition, posts tend to display their expertise in their field, as opposed to the lighter antics of TikTok.
When searching, you can tell who is open to new opportunities right on the profile.
(Source: LinkedIn)
InMail
InMail is LinkedIn’s messaging feature, but with a twist. Unless you have a premium plan, you can only contact people with whom you are connected. Paid plans offer a limited number of InMail messages per month to contact people outside your network. In this way, you can reach out to job candidates even if you are not connected with them.
Sponsored messages are promotional or informational ads that are part of a marketing or hiring campaign. You can target these by profile information like position title, industry, or region. They don’t count for message credits in your InMail system but are paid for on a cost-per-send or cost-per-displayed basis. Learn more on LinkedIn.
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LinkedIn Review: Is It a Good Recruiting Platform in 2022?
Charlette Beasley
REVIEWED BY: Charlette Beasley
Charlette has over 10 years of experience in accounting and finance and 2 years of partnering with HR leaders on freelance projects. She uses this extensive experience to answer your questions about payroll.
WRITTEN BY: Karina Fabian
PUBLISHED JUNE 14, 2022
Karina Fabian writes and reviews business software, services, and topics for starting a business, startups, and small businesses. She has more than seven years of business writing experience.
This article is part of a larger series on Hiring.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1What We Recommend LinkedIn For
2When to Find an Alternative
3Pricing
4Features
5Ease of Use
6What Users Think
7Top Alternatives
8Bottom Line
LinkedIn is one of the most popular social media networks and the only one dedicated to business and professional networking. It’s the best place to promote your company as an industry leader and a great place to work. Plus, its free tools and paid plans harness the power of LinkedIn’s network for promoting job openings and recruiting new employees.
Businesses can use LinkedIn for a number of initiatives such as business exposure, networking, lead generation, and building brand awareness. For the purpose of this LinkedIn review, we’ll be focusing primarily on using it as a recruiting platform.
LinkedIn logo.
Very easy to use
Free plan has excellent tools for networking, researching talent
Top platform for recruiting
Professional focus
Hard to contact support
Paid ad pricing can be expensive
Costs extra to contact people out of your network
Deciding Factors
Very easy to use: In addition to the social-media-style pages, posting, and messaging, the advertising works similar to Google AdWords.
Huge professional network: LinkedIn is a worldwide social media platform with over 810 million members.
Research candidates: Profiles show experience, skills, recommendations, and more
Special recruiting program: LinkedIn Recruiter lets you conduct in-depth searches for talent, reach out to potential candidates and track applicants
Promote job openings and recruiting events: Post on your LinkedIn business page or create sponsored ads
Message potential and current candidates using LinkedIn’s InMail
Visit LinkedIn
What We Recommend LinkedIn For
LinkedIn profile and business pages are free and easy to put together. Besides that, LinkedIn is also one of our top recruiting apps for finding new hires. It offers a paid plan specifically for recruiting, but its free tools are easy to use for research and reaching out to potential candidates.
In short, LinkedIn is best for:
Businesses recruiting qualified professionals: LinkedIn’s profiles allow people to post resume-type information as well as other information that shows them as thought leaders and industry experts.
Businesses looking to find passive candidates through networking: The social media nature and IM tools of LinkedIn make it easy to reach out to connections, even those not actively looking for a job.
Businesses hiring managers and leaders: LinkedIn is one of our top choices for the best job posting sites when seeking people for leadership positions.
Businesses looking for qualified international hires in professional fields: While the US has the most users (around 176 million), over 75% of LinkedIn users are outside the US, according to Kinsta.com. Thus, it’s a good place to look for international employees as well.
When LinkedIn Is Not a Good Fit
Businesses needing hourly or unskilled labor: LinkedIn is a powerful tool for finding and hiring employees—but most candidates on the platform are typically white-collar workers and industry specialists. If you are looking for blue-collar, hourly, or young workers, such as for retail or restaurants, you may want to check out our list of the best recruiting software.
Hiring freelancers: While you can seek and contact freelancers for jobs on LinkedIn, you may streamline your search by using more powerful platforms for finding freelancers and gig-based workers instead.
LinkedIn Pricing
LinkedIn offers free and paid premium plans. In addition to the premium plans listed below, it offers a Sales Navigator plan primarily for identifying potential clients rather than potential employees, so we won’t cover that in detail.
Career: For candidates seeking employment, this plan helps them get on your radar.
Business: Used primarily for promoting your business, it can help you get the attention of qualified job seekers.
Recruiter: If the free tools are not enough, this plan gives you an extra boost with detailed search and improved InMail reach.
Many SMBs find the free plan sufficient for their day-to-day needs, but you can always upgrade to a paid plan for a limited time such as when you are in a hiring surge. LinkedIn also offers a free 30-day-trial of each Premium plan. After that time, it will start billing unless you cancel. It warns you seven days before your trial ends, which is a courtesy we don’t always see in subscribed services.
LinkedIn Plans at a Glance
Free
LinkedIn Premium Career
LinkedIn Premium Business
LinkedIn Recruiter
Cost per month
$0
$29.99
$59.99
$140+
Profile page
✓
✓
✓
✓
Connect with others
✓
✓
✓
✓
Search profiles
✓
✓
✓
✓
See who has viewed your profile in the last 90 days
✓
✓
✓
✓
People browsing (level of connection accessible)
Third degree
Third degree
Third degree
Third degree, advanced search filters, candidate search alerts
Send InMail (to those not in your network)
✕
5
5
30
Business Insights
✕
Company and job applicant
Company and job applicant
InMail performance, company and job analytics
LinkedIn Learning access
✓
✓
✓
✓
Access LinkedIn Interview Prep tools
✓
✓
✓
✓
Advanced plans
✕
✕
✕
Includes team collaborators, more searches, more filters, out-of-network search
Expand the sections below to learn more about each of LinkedIn’s paid plans.
Premium Career
Premium Business
LinkedIn Recruiter
LinkedIn Features
LinkedIn is designed to be a professional networking solution. Therefore, while it offers features similar to most social media platforms, the focus is on business: making contacts, hiring employees, and showing your business in its best light to both customers and potential new hires.
Business LinkedIn Pages
The business account (LinkedIn Page) is about your company—its mission, employees, advertising, jobs, etc. You gain followers rather than connections. Savvy job seekers research the companies they are interested in—and LinkedIn, along with your website, is one of the best ways to learn more about you.
Note:
You have to have a personal page, which we cover next, to set up a business page. If you are the sole proprietor of your business, it may make sense to use your personal page for your business if you only want it for business promotion and your brand is synonymous with you (Gary Sven Marketing, for example). However, you cannot post job ads—this is only available with Business Pages. You can always transition to a business page if you grow. Check out LinkedIn’s guide for how to do just that.
You can post to any of the tabs on your Business Page (About, Posts, Jobs, Video) for free. You can also create events for free. The People tab shows demographics about your employees that LinkedIn has collected based on their personal accounts.
Personal Profiles
As a business owner or recruiter, your personal page can introduce you and your company to a broader business audience, help build a network you can tap to fill open roles, establish your credibility in the market, and more. There’s no reason not to have a personal profile, and you need one to create a Business Page.
Personal profiles are also a great resource for looking at potential candidates. You can either search profiles or look up a profile of someone who has applied or been recommended to learn more about them.
Fit Small Business Sample profile page in LinkedIn profile.
A personal profile is much like an online resume and portfolio.
(Source: LinkedIn)
LinkedIn’s personal profile is designed to be like a resume and has places for endorsements from previous managers or co-workers. People can indicate if they are looking for work or are open to opportunities. LinkedIn has skills assessment tests with badges for the person’s page and they are noted when someone does a recruitment search. In addition, posts tend to display their expertise in their field, as opposed to the lighter antics of TikTok.
LinkedIn Add profile section.
When searching, you can tell who is open to new opportunities right on the profile.
(Source: LinkedIn)
InMail
InMail is LinkedIn’s messaging feature, but with a twist. Unless you have a premium plan, you can only contact people with whom you are connected. Paid plans offer a limited number of InMail messages per month to contact people outside your network. In this way, you can reach out to job candidates even if you are not connected with them.
Sponsored messages are promotional or informational ads that are part of a marketing or hiring campaign. You can target these by profile information like position title, industry, or region. They don’t count for message credits in your InMail system but are paid for on a cost-per-send or cost-per-displayed basis. Learn more on LinkedIn.
LinkedIn sample messages.
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