Many recruiters rely on LinkedIn to hit their recruitment targets, but it is not the only platform for sourcing talent. In fact, several platforms are overlooked as sourcing platforms. Although they might not be necessarily designed for recruitment, you can find talent if you know how to search them. The best part is that most of these alternative platforms provide information on professional activity of the candidates that is richer than the information on LinkedIn. These alternative sources can be X-rayed, but there are also talent search engines which help you find LinkedIn profiles, but also profiles from these alternative sources.
Best Alternatives to Recruiting Talent on LinkedIn
Alternative Platforms to Recruiting Talent on LinkedIn:
X-raying or x-ray searching is finding (LinkedIn) profiles in a generic search engine like Google. You can instruct Google to search for LinkedIn results and for profiles only.
Searching for LinkedIn profiles through a general search engine like Google is commonly known as X-raying or X-ray searching. By directing Google to specifically look for LinkedIn results and profiles only, you can streamline your search process.
For instance, you can use the following straightforward X-ray search string:
site:linkedin.com/in "software developer"
This search command will tell Google to retrieve results solely from the LinkedIn website (site:linkedin.com) and to only consider profiles, excluding other content like blogs (/in), while also taking into account profiles that contain the specified keywords ("software developer").
A talent search engine automates the finding of profiles and typically also searches for profiles from not only LinkedIn, but also other platforms like GitHub, Stack Overflow and Medium. Most talent search engines also find contact details like email addresses and enable quick and personalized outreach to candidates with automations that even LinkedIn doesn't have.
Here's a popular talent search engine that finds profiles from several platforms and finds contact details:
GitHub is the platform with the most active engineering users, beating LinkedIn and any other platform. A goldmine of rich and up to date candidate information.
How to recruit talent on GitHub
With 14 million developers and rich technology skills information based on Q&A's, Stack Overflow is a must for sourcing tech talent.
How to recruit talent on Stack Overflow
The Redditors community is one of the biggest online communities today with 330 million users. Redditors engage in comical, but also professional discussions. When understood, it provides a good opportunity for sourcing talent.
How to recruit talent on Reddit
WellFound provides the startup and scaleup talent that doesn't only have the right skillset, but also the right mindset for a work environment with rapid change.
How to source talent on WellFound
With 5 million data scientists and machine learning experts, Kaggle is the go to source for finding data talent.
How to source talent on Kaggle
Medium is one of the leading publishing platforms where professionals showcase their thought leadership in their domain. This is the place to look for talent that wants to get their voice heard.
How to source talent on Medium
ContactOut is an essential tool for recruiters, offering advanced capabilities to find detailed contact information beyond LinkedIn profiles. It's particularly valuable for reaching passive candidates and streamlining the talent sourcing process. (Further reading: ContactOut's Definitive Guide to Talent Sourcing)