LinkedIn can be a terrific place to identify and engage with recruiters and hiring managers within your field of expertise. Frequently job seekers wonder “What comes next?” after identifying a recruiter with an industry specific focus, or a  hiring manager that works for a company of interest,

LinkedIn offers a variety of ways to engage with your targeted audience:

• Follow companies, so you can be notified of newsworthy announcements
• Follow individuals, and also send them an invitation to connect.
• When sending out invitations, be sure to customize your invite, adding a note to let them know that you are indeed interested in sharing networks and have done some homework, rather than using the standard boilerplate invite that LinkedIn provides.
• Check out the person’s profile, and look at their previous posts. By adding insightful commentary, you can easily communicate with them, getting on their radar screen.
• While it is virtually impossible to have the opportunity to have a live conversation with a hiring manager or many recruiters for that matter at the onset of your search, by corresponding with them on LinkedIn you can start to build a dialog that can then put you at the front of the line when applying for a role.

Utilizing social media, primarily LinkedIn and Twitter,  job seekers now have  an unprecedented opportunity to engage with persons of influence.

Source - Read More at: www.execunet.com