7 Decisive Essentials To Social Media Recruiting

Social Media Continues to Grow and Influence Behavior

Social Media took the Internet by storm in the early 2000s when Facebook showed up on the scene.  A quick study of the phenomenal growth of the once exclusive online community, and you will discover the simplicity of the concept.

Fast forward just over a decade and the number of users on social media grows every day. Marketers have long since tapped into the world of social media to build relationships, advertise and promote their brands. With social media at their fingertips, recruiters now have access to a larger pool of talent than at any other time in history of the profession.

In fact, 92% of recruiters are already using social media as a part of their process. Over 85% are taking advantage of Linkedin’s professional network, 55% use Facebook and 47% regularly use Twitter.

Social media also helps with the brand awareness challenge most recruiters face.

The number one quality of top recruiters is building and managing relationships. Recruiters can develop relationships that could last a lifetime. With social media those connections become mutually beneficial because people change jobs an average of 12 times and stay at one company for less than five years.

The 7 key elements to social media recruiting are:

• Understand the legal guidelines: At one time background screening was novel idea which required legal boundaries, using social media also requires common sense. Candidate researches must remain legal. Treat bad social media information with caution, and regardless anything found on social media should not be used to make the final decision. We suggest to wait until after the interview and view social media as an extension of their personality.

• Decide where to start: Instead of jumping in and following the crowd, you need to determine where your target audience hangs out online. It may not be effective to post job listings for engineers on sites that normally attract graphic designers. With the right approach, you should see an increase of 30 to 50% in job applications by posting on social media. Although it may start with job openings, it is important to use social media to build a full employment experience. Automation is an excellent way to schedule your posts to social media. The best times to post for the highest engagement on Linkedin is between 7 to 9am or 5 to 6pm. For maximum exposure on Facebook set your posts to publish between 1 and 4pm, and Twitter between 1 and 3pm

• Explore various paths of engagement: Linkedin, Facebook and Twitter are the best recruiting options, we recommend you look beyond them. Top IT talent, for instance, can also be found on Stackoverflow and GitHub. You may also want to check out sites that brings together information from people’s online profiles into one place. Each channel has its own culture, so you should tailor your message and engagement practices to get desired results.

• Bring your mission to life through strong relationships: If you are only using social media to publicize job openings, you are missing out. One of the biggest advantages to social media is the ability to cultivate a two-way relationship with potential candidates. This is also the prime opportunity to promote the company without being irruptive.

• Use Social Media to influence the hiring process: You gain a competitive advantage by using the Internet to recruit talent. Your results are compounded exponentially with social media strategies. Many recruiters have showed their creativity by publishing a job-specific blog. WordPress and other content management systems are user friendly while making it easy to provide a strong job description without word and space limits, which allows you to cast a wider net.

• Be certain your posts are easy to share: Everyone loves to share good news and relevant content. How much more for helping one of their connections land that perfect role with an outstanding company? Provide several options for sharing and make the share buttons easy to find.

• Monitor effectiveness: Monitor All inbound traffic. It may be simple to track a straightforward campaign that uses a few channels with a clear aim. However, complexity increases when listings are being pushed out through multiple channels. Many applicant tracking systems (ATS) will provide the functionality, however some do not, be sure to clarify with your ATS vendor before you finalize.

Some of the biggest reasons to use social media in your recruiting strategy include:

• Faster access to quality candidates
• Social media is a low-cost option with high ROI
• Reach candidates who aren’t actively looking
• Increased productivity
• An engaging client experience
• Improved communication

The bottom line: available positions get filled faster, because of social media’s high usage and instant response time. This allows you to multiply your efforts and increase your placement rate.

Pixentia is a full-service technology company dedicated to helping clients solve business problems, improve the capability of their people, and achieve better results.