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This week’s post and podcast discuss LinkedIn essentials for recruitment business owners. As we cycle through August and prepare for the back end of the year, many of you are getting ready to finish strong.
With that in mind, if you haven’t completed our Candidate and Client Attraction scorecard yet, please visit superfastrecruitment.co.uk/scorecard. You’ll get a personalised report showing exactly where you stand with your marketing, plus a complimentary conversation to discuss your results.
LinkedIn continues to grow at an impressive rate. I’m recording this in August 2025, and there are approximately 1.1 to 1.2 billion members on LinkedIn now. Generally, this increases by 60 to 70 million annually, so by January, we’re looking at 1.2 to 1.3 billion members. Not all members are active, but that’s still a rich database of people you can work with.
This weekend, my great-nephew and his fiancée visited us. He’s just started a new management course and tends to dress differently. While other guys wear t-shirts and ripped jeans, he works in an engineering company and wears chinos and polo shirts.
He does this because he knows making a good impression works.
Sometimes we forget about first impressions, especially when someone lands on your LinkedIn profile.
Making A Great First Impression With Your Profile Graphics And Image
Let’s start with the basics. Your header banner is crucial. LinkedIn provides a standard muted-colour banner, but you can create your own using Canva. Look at the different LinkedIn banners available there. We create custom banners with our Superfast Circle clients, but you can easily do this yourself. Go to Canva and make sure you’re making the right impression.
If you’re wondering what to include, look at my profile or Sharon’s. You’ll see it’s on brand – we use the same colours consistently. You can achieve this with Canva, too. We have a professional headshot because people like to know who they’re working with. The data on LinkedIn shows impressive results around profile views and engagement time for profiles with professional images.
Nothing’s wrong with pictures with your mates, friends, or at weddings. However, get a professional headshot—it makes such a difference. Make sure your face is prominent, you’re looking directly into the camera (eye contact is crucial), and your shoulders are included in the image. You don’t need to hire a photographer—we all have smartphones with amazing cameras now.
Use all available resources like Canva, the images in Canva, and your smartphone to create something professional-looking. Include your contact details so people can reach you. Remember, you want to appear both professional and approachable. Forget the holiday shots, ensure high quality, make it recent, and ensure your headshot is recognisable.
My hair changes constantly, as does Sharon’s, so we always update our profile images. When people get on a call with you, they see a picture and think, “This is the person I saw on LinkedIn.” Consider your brand, too – if you’re targeting corporate clients, dress accordingly. If not, dress appropriately for your brand. Remember, this image represents your recruitment business. Would you trust someone with a blurry selfie to find your next senior hire?
Here’s a helpful tip: use the same professional image across all your business and social media platforms. People who Google your name will click through to your Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter profiles. Consistency in messaging builds recognition and trust.
Your About Section Is Prime Real Estate
Anyone you’re trying to connect with will examine your About section – they’ll check you out first. It’s prime real estate for converting profile visitors into connections, and connections into clients and candidates. Most recruiters waste this space with boring summaries often taken from their CVs.
Instead, think of it as your elevator pitch that answers key questions in someone’s mind: Who do you serve? What problems do you solve? What makes you different? How can people contact you? Structure your About section around these questions.
Here’s a helpful tip: look at my profile to see the structure I use. We help our clients get their profiles correct because we know how important LinkedIn is. If we’re not connected, please reach out – that would be wonderful.
Make sure your profile is filled out. Depending on whether you have creator mode switched on or use a paid LinkedIn version, use your featured section. Have a newsletter, fill your profile with content, and get recommendations. Don’t just do your profile image and stop there – attention to detail matters.
Like anything online, the more information you share, the more likely you are to appear in search results. We want people to find us on LinkedIn so they can decide whether we’re someone they want to work with.
Posting Valuable Content That Builds Your Brand
I shared data earlier about over a billion people on LinkedIn, but less than 4% post regularly – they’re missing out on being visible to the market. Content is where recruiters can shine or completely disappear. Content marketing generates three times as many leads as traditional marketing and costs over 60% less.
Here’s where most people go wrong: they only post about jobs they have. There’s nothing wrong with posting jobs, but it’s useful to share insights too. This insight-driven content helps build your brand. You can post industry insights, practical advice, problem-solving content for candidates and clients, behind-the-scenes personal insights, and market intelligence.
Regarding content frequency, the more you post, the better for you. We’ve had clients who only posted once weekly, then started posting more and saw huge impacts. We always recommend posting every single day on LinkedIn.
If you’re an international recruiter with clients in different time zones—we have clients in Australia, the US, the UK, and Europe—post across all those time zones. People access LinkedIn at different times throughout the day, so post in the morning, lunchtime, teatime, and evening. People look for your content at various times, which is about correctly positioning you.
Personal Branding In An Online World
We recently spoke with someone about personal branding and living in an online world. Many recruiters don’t network in the same way anymore—they don’t see clients and candidates as much face-to-face. They must create connections differently, and personal branding is one effective method.
Personal branding enables you to stand out in a crowded market. Think about how you’ll communicate your expertise, personality, and values. Consider your visual consistency, voice consistency, and the thought leadership you bring.
Many people we work with have been in recruitment for years. They’re excellent at what they do regarding recruitment, but not always good at promoting themselves. This is where you could make a huge difference by being more personally present on LinkedIn.
Having An Outreach And Engagement Strategy
We’ve discussed imagery, personal branding, and sharing content. All these elements must be connected, and you need an outreach strategy. I’d add an engagement strategy, too—actively commenting on people’s content and strategically reaching out to make connections.
Remember, LinkedIn limits connection requests – currently up to 400 daily and weekly. Utilise them. This is where key performance indicators can work effectively. Reach out to people daily, make those connection requests, and after posting content, make connection requests so you have a complete LinkedIn process to follow.
We have a new client who started with us over the summer. He’s been following our processes that we give Superfast Circle members, and now he has three role options from one company worth about £120,000. That’s significant, and it’s simply because he started posting and reaching out strategically. You can see this makes a huge difference.
I’ll discuss direct messages more in another podcast in the coming weeks. For those who haven’t done much on LinkedIn, it makes a difference towards the end of the year. Get started on this – you have five key areas to make a difference.
Look at my profile and Sharon’s to understand where to start next. Even though we’re in August, you can still achieve so much before year-end.
Thanks
Denise and Sharon
How We Can Help
At Superfast Recruitment, we understand that LinkedIn can feel overwhelming when balancing client delivery with building your online presence. That’s exactly why we’ve developed our Superfast Circle programme – to give recruitment business owners like you the systems, strategies, and support needed to build a powerful LinkedIn presence that attracts the right clients and candidates.
Our members get access to proven templates, personalised guidance, and ongoing support to ensure their LinkedIn efforts translate into real business results. If you’d like to discover where your marketing currently stands and get a clear roadmap for improvement, start with our free scorecard at superfastrecruitment.co.uk/scorecard.
