Mercury LinkedIn RSC Integration User Guide
Initial Data Sync
Please contact your Customer Success Manager to initiate the initial data sync.
When the LinkedIn Recruiter System Connect (RSC) integration is first initialised, a one-off sync of all the Mercury data occurs. During this process Mercury sends data relating to 6 record types to LinkedIn. This process also checks and matches the current Contacts in your system to their LinkedIn profile should they have one allowing visibility of the contacts LinkedIn profile from their Mercury record. The matching is based on First name, Last name, Email and contact number. Once the initial sync is complete, the Mercury RSC integration continues to keep the sync up to date with regular data exchanges between Mercury and LinkedIn:
Profile Visibility
When a contact in Mercury has been matched to their associated LinkedIn record, only a Mercury user logged into their LinkedIn account which has a full RSC licence will be able to see the contact's LinkedIn profile information on the contact's LinkedIn tab:
If the user viewing the profile has a full RSC licence, then in addition to the above, they will also see two options to Send an InMail and Shortlist the contact to a vacancy from here.
Stub Profiles
A stub profile is an entity record that can be described as a ‘holding’ record. When an RSC user first sends an InMail or Export to ATS, Mercury needs a location to hold this new information while we check and match it to existing Mercury records or manage ‘possible matches’. This is done with a stub profile. The Export to ATS and InMails section below will provide further details on how this record is used. This screen shows the details typically added to a stub profile:
InMails
When the consultant sends a LinkedIn InMail, Mercury is provided with 2 pieces of information from LinkedIn:
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The content of the InMail message
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The LinkedIn MemberID the message was sent to
If the MemberID matches to an existing Mercury contact, the InMail is added to the contact’s timeline:
If the MemberID doesn’t match to an existing Mercury contact then a stub profile is created to hold the message details. Any further InMails sent will also be initially added to the stub profile. These can be viewed from the Stub Profile > Related > LinkedIn In Mails (From) or LinkedIn In Mails (To):
When the LinkedIn contact views the InMail, they will be presented with 2 options, ‘Yes, Interested’ or ‘No Thanks’ and the message box to add a response:
If they select ‘Yes, Interested’, they will be presented with a further box asking them to share contact details - email and phone number:
Outcome 1
LinkedIn contact replies and agrees to share their contact details:
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Update the stub profile with the InMail response and additional information.
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Check for matches based on data received.
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Create a new contact record and add InMails to timeline, or
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Add to Partial matches dashboard if intervention is required on matching.
- Set the Original or Latest Source to LinkedIn RSC - InMail
The details we are provided when a LinkedIn contact replies to an InMail and agrees to share contact details:
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Name
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Current Employer
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First Name
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Headline
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Last Name
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Position
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Profile URL
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Email
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Contact Number
Outcome 2
LinkedIn contact replies but doesn’t agree to share their contact details:
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Update the stub profile with the InMail response and additional information.
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Check for matches based on data received.
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Create a new contact record and add InMails to timeline, or
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Add to Partial matches dashboard if intervention is required on matching.
The details we are provided when a LinkedIn contact replies to an InMail but declines to share contact details:
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Name
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Current Employer
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First Name
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Headline
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Last Name
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Position
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Profile URL
Outcome 3
LinkedIn contact selects ‘No Thanks’ (or just ignores/deletes the InMail) - Mercury is given no more details so no further action happens. The stub profile with the sent messages remains.
The following flow summarises the logic:
Export to ATS
When a potential candidate is identified in RSC, a user has an Export to ATS option available from the 3 dots[…]
After selecting Export to ATS, select the vacancy from Mercury that you would like to shortlist the candidate against.
NOTE: A user can set their LinkedIn preferences to not allow their data to be exported. If that is the case, this message will display to the user:
Process for record creation via Export to ATS:
Once exported, Mercury is passed the following information from LinkedIn (some of these fields could be missing if not available on the specific person’s LinkedIn record). If there are no potential matches, the new contact record and vacancy shortlist is created.
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First Name
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Last Name
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LinkedIn Headline
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LinkedIn Profile URL – Clickable URL link to the LI users profile
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Current Employer
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Location e.g “Greater Brighton and Hove Area”
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Owner (RSC user exporting record)
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LinkedIn Member ID – LI’s unique ID for the person.
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Set the Original or Latest Source to LinkedIn RSC - Export ATS
If a partial match has been identified for the exported contact, please follow the section below on managing these.
NOTE: At this point, if there is a partial match, the new contact record and shortlist to the vacancy won’t have completed as we have yet to determine if we are creating a new contact record or using an existing one.
Partial Matches
There will be times when the data provided by LinkedIn provides enough details to believe it may be a contact already in Mercury, but we can’t be sure enough to make that decision. This mainly occurs when we don’t have an email address or phone number which allow for exact matching. In these circumstances, the stub profile will show the records we believe could be a possible match. From here the user can check in more detail and make a decision to match to the right one or, if none are correct, create a new record.
From the Home page, there is a LinkedIn Matches option. If you don’t see this, please speak to your CSM to enable it.
This will give the user a list of the stub profiles that their LinkedIn RSC activity has generated that need matching:
The user should click into the items and from here can review the details:
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Right click on the contact’s name (do this one by one) and open in a new tab. The user should compare the details on the left side of the stub profile (LinkedIn Headline, Current Employer, Position, Location) and check these against the possible matches record detail to establish if this is the same person as the stub profile.
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If any of the possible matches are the correct person, tick to select (2) and then use the Link button (3). This will complete the match and all the stub profile details will be updated onto the contact’s record.
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If none of the suggested matches are the same person as the stub profile, the user should click the Create button (4) and this will create the new contact record in Mercury.
Matching
Mercury runs a matching algorithm to try and narrow down the possible matching records and generates a score to order the results. The higher the score, the more likely it is to be that result.
The match by default looks for the first character in the contacts first name, the first 3 characters in the contact’s last name and will then bring back up to 500 results.
As an example, a contact called Jake O'Brien would run as first name [J], last name [OBr] and then find up to 500 contacts in Mercury that match the rules. The scoring then runs to determine the best match.
This matching is typically used for records that relate to Export to ATS as LinkedIn will only provide First Name, Last Name and MemberID that can be used for matching so if the MemberID doesn’t give an exact match to a Mercury record, we are only left with First and Last Name. If the First and Last Name is unique, the record will be created:
Some FAQs
Q: I exported a person to ATS - why aren’t showing against the Vacancy?
A: It may be a partial match and needs to be confirmed by the user on the Partial Matches dashboard. Once done, the applicant will appear on the shortlist.
Q: Why can’t see the InMail conversation on the person's record/timeline?
A: Although the user may see a Mercury record that they are sure is the same person in LinkedIn, if the InMails aren’t appearing on the timeline, it is likely the LinkedIn and Mercury record isn’t matched. Look at the Partial Matches dashboard for the person’s name and completing the linking process.
Some supporting literature
Mercury-RSC Activation Guide
Also attached below - see Related Attachments section at the bottom of this article.