LinkedIn continues to implement changes to its website. Today, the professional networking juggernaut announced an overhaul to its evolving messaging service. According to the release on their blog, LinkedIn is rolling out a smarter messaging experience with the ability to message a connection from wherever you may be on LinkedIn, along with suggestions that can help connect you to a new job. The full release and analysis is listed below.
Here’s what’s new:
Message professional connections from anywhere
LinkedIn has made messaging easier to use and more accessible from anywhere on the LinkedIn desktop experience. Whether you’re reconnecting with a former colleague, searching for a job, or looking for a potential candidate, you now have the ability to start an instant conversation. This means that you’ll never lose context when reaching out to your network. For example, you can have a conversation with a connection without ever leaving their profile, or reach out to someone directly from the LinkedIn Feed.
Insights to help start conversations
One of the best ways to get connected to a new opportunity is through your network. In fact, nearly 50% of LinkedIn members have found a job through a mutual connection.
To make your job search even easier, LinkedIn has added relevant suggestions within messaging on the Jobs and Company pages to help you start a conversation. For example, when looking at a job posting at a company, you’re interested in LinkedIn will show you which of your connections work there, or who can introduce you to someone at the company.
If you’re responding to a message, LinkedIn will also make it easier for you to reply quickly with one simple tap on mobile. For example, “Thanks” and “I’ll get back to you.”
How will this impact sourcers?
It’s not a secret that messaging is a fundamental component to many sourcers and recruiters on LinkedIn. Despite the crucial aspect of reaching out to a candidate, a sourcer’s average response rate has declined over the years. Our latest research as indicated that the average response rate for a sourcer is only 35%. This number is even lower through InMail. A LinkedIn source has commented that the average LinkedIn response rate is just under 25%. With the latest changes to LinkedIn’s Messanger, sourcers will appear to have better access to candidates on LinkedIn. This is similar to how sourcers can interact with candidates through email or text message. The only downfall to this service is that the candidate will have to be on LinkedIn or have downloaded the mobile application. Additionally, this service will only work if you’re connected to the candidate. Still, this is a fantastic opportunity for recruiters and sourcers to show their “human skills” when engaging candidates through messaging.
Chatbots
LinkedIn’s new messaging service is reminiscent to what we’ve experienced through other prominent services like Facebook’s Messanger and Slack. Trending in talent and acquisition are startups that have begun to dabble with chatbots in Facebook’s Messanger. Take a close look at EstherBot (a candidate that created their own bot to interact with recruiters) and JobPal (chatbot/job board featured rolled into one). It would be a huge win for LinkedIn to experiment with this technology for recruiters and sourcers to help with tedious tasks like scheduling and reminders. A LinkedIn chatbot would surely have its critics, but it could reduce many nuances on the website such as recruiter spam.