Using Social Media for Recruitment

Coming up with the Perfect Social media recruiting strategy

Do you have a social media recruiting strategy in place?

It is high time you had with one; else you might just be missing on some of the most fantastic job candidates.

Till now you must have used social media for many things…

To promote your small business

To keep in touch with your friends and relatives

To establish business connections

However, you will now have to use this platform to find potential employees for your company, unless you are okay with your competitors snapping them up.

It is the age of Millennials across the world. It is LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook that these Millennials use, to look for jobs. It is on these social media platforms that you will find the largest pool of applicants who are highly qualified and talented.

Here is how you can start using these social media platforms to hire people:

LinkedIn as a Social Media Recruiting Tool

You can post jobs that are available in your company and start searching for candidates on LinkedIn. You can either pay per post or buy a couple of job credits at one go. Signing up for LinkedIn Talent Advantage can also be very beneficial.

In case you don’t want to spend money on buying credits or joining the Talent Advantage, there are also a few free resources that you can tap into. You can start building connections with people you know or even join a few groups that are related to your niche. One other way to find candidates is to put up a status message that says you are hiring. For instance, if you have a job available for an IT consultant, your status message would be:

“Looking for an IT Consultant… Get in touch with me if you wish to apply or know someone who can apply”

Once you find people, don’t forget to evaluate their LinkedIn Profiles.

The profile must be complete and should include a picture.

They should have recommendations from their colleagues, managers or peers

They should be members of groups that are relevant to their fields

Check if you can get any personal referrals through 2nd or 3rd degree connections that you may have with the person in question.

In fact LinkedIn Profile can tell you a lot about the person before you actually call for an interview.

Facebook as your Social Media Recruiting Tool

You can increase your applicant pool through many easy and affordable ways on Facebook

There is the Facebook Directory where you can look for groups, users and pages

You can even post jobs in the Facebook Marketplace for free

You may even create a Facebook Page for your business and use it as your recruitment tool.

Posting a Facebook Ad is another option you can choose in case you aren’t getting results as expected. Through this tool you will be able to target the perfect audience you may be looking for.

Twitter as a Social Media Recruiting Tool

You can easily recruit people through Twitter by Tweeting jobs that are available. You can even establish relationships with your clients and job candidates and expand your network on Twitter. Twitter makes it easier to search for anyone you know, by industry, interest, popularity, location or hashtag.

You can make use of hash tags to make your Tweets stand out. A few examples of hash tags include #hiring #jobpost #employment #career etc. You may even make use of multiple hashtags in your Tweet. However, a Tweet cannot be more than 140 characters in length.

You can even target particular audience with the help of companies like adlogic.

Once you find potential candidates you can start evaluating their activity on Twitter.

Check if there is a healthy balance between their followers and those whom they are following

Check out their network and analyze the quality of their tweets

See how they respond to or re-tweet others

Maximize your ROI through Social Media Recruitment

Social media recruiting does require a lot of time and efforts; but at the end of the day it is worth the investment as you are about to receive long-term benefits. Here are a few tips that can help you maximize the returns on your investment:

Incorporate multimedia in your post to make it share-worthy. You can use informative and fun videos about your organization and the job role.

If you are using Twitter you can use a dedicated handle for all your job postings.

On LinkedIn, you can go through groups, whose members may be the right fit for your job opening

Use a headline that is catchy but concise so that your potential candidates will be tempted to read more

Many HR managers and recruiters are using social media for recruiting their employees…

5W Public Relations of New York City has experienced a huge payoff through its successful social media recruiting strategy. This 75-employee firm has managed to earn hundreds of followers through its Twitter account, Facebook Page, LinkedIn Profile and Blog.

Atlantic Business Technologies uses Twitter to post its job openings that direct the applicants to its Facebook Page and Website. Through its LinkedIn Profile, it provides an overview of its company with employee profiles.

Jordan has decided to make its job openings go viral on Twitter through re-tweeting.

These are a few things you will have to keep in mind while devising your social media recruitment strategy:

Twitter can be used to post your jobs or events and also to alert people whenever you publish new blog posts

You can use your Facebook Page to focus on your potential candidates, share knowledge with them, keep them informed and build relationships with them

LinkedIn is the best way to source candidates who are experienced. You can post vacancies in groups and pick professionals by going through their profiles, their networks and their recommendations.

You can put up your employee testimonials on YouTube and then embed these videos on the career page of your website.

Pay attention to the tone you adopt while posting jobs. Analyze potential candidates as a whole by going through their profiles on various social media platforms.

Remember: There are many fake profiles on social media. Do not make your decision based solely on the information that you find in a LinkedIn Resume or a social media profile. Conduct a background check and contact a few references before you hire the candidate.