As recruiters, our primary goals are to represent our organizations as brand ambassadors, drive traffic and positive attention, demonstrate competence and tech-savviness, inspire meaningful conversations and remain relevant, timely and precise—ultimately to attract the best available candidates.
In social recruiting, specifically, there are countless tools and strategies that can tip the scale in favor of success. But knowing what the tools are and how to optimize use of them are entirely different projects. Whether new to the field or looking to brush up on your social recruiting IQ, maximize your potential as a social recruiter with the five essentials:
1.) Twitter is becoming an exceptional social recruiting tool, especially if you’re looking to publicize open positions and share relevant content about current company events. Further, press materials, client testimonials, blog posts, jokes, quotes and positive employee insight are but a few of the collateral opportunities to share via Twitter.
As recruiters (and thus, brand ambassadors), it is important to establish an account that is uniquely and non-monotonously branded, as well as in line with company policy. Post more than jobs on your Twitter feed; as a recruiter with experience in multiple industries, I have found the most success following this benchmark:
- Post two or three positions each day. For every one job you post, consider sharing two or three intriguing bits of information to continually engage the audience. If a candidate sees only robotic job postings, they may confuse your efforts as nothing more than spam. Get creative with hashtags (excellent case study on the use of hashtags for recruiting). Stay consistent. Measure yourself against feeds you follow and find interesting.
2.) LinkedIn is a social recruiting powerhouse and a must for all recruiters. Whether you have a paid or free account, the many functions of LinkedIn create brand awareness and enable professional yet informal communication. Always post jobs to groups and on your specific page, of course, but don’t look past the importance of creating an intriguing profile title. As highlighted by Undercover Recruiter, headlines are a vital component of recruiters’ LinkedIn profiles. Take for example, Michael Bense, a UK-based recruiting savant:
Unique, witty and far from the norm. If strictly hiring niche positions, however, you may want to be more direct: Engineer Recruiter Seeking the Best in Sales, Hydrocracking and Hydroprocessing. Titles are the first (and often only) thing seen by candidates; creating to-the-point titles grab attention in ways less-direct headlines may not.
3.) Facebook is and will remain a hot topic for recruiters and candidates alike. Although, statistically speaking, Facebook pales in comparison to LinkedIn, truly strategic recruiters have had much success with Facebook; in particular, with Facebook Graph Search. Although results can be limited to what users share publicly, Graph Search is comparative to Boolean searching but more straightforward and conversational. Ultimately, Graph Search is an important complement to your daily sourcing strategies and a simple way to maximize social recruiting efforts.
4.) Hootsuite is an excellent option for recruiters seeking greater efficiency, and those already leveraging Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook on a daily basis. Through Hootsuite, a single post can be published to each of these three networks instantaneously. Recruiters can also schedule out content for days and weeks in advance, promoting sustained engagement, targeting and consistency.
5.) Despite the endless buzz over social media, there is one final tool recruiters simply cannot forget to utilize: the telephone. Phones, mobile or land, have and will continue to be the number one personal communication tool. Innovative today? No, not quite. But the best recruiters build and maintain relationships with both active and passive candidates through personal touch. Checking in on application status, thanking candidates for their time, or simply being available to answer questions—phone calls add personality and human interaction impossible through online messaging. According to Cielo’s Director of Excellence Initiatives, “Picking up the Phone” just might be the answer to today’s recruiting challenges. In reality, social recruiting is dead. Today, it should be known as recruiting. To become a jack-of-all-trades recruiter, the five aforementioned tools must be part of your daily repertoire. Success in each area is contingent on being affluent in the other four. Excel in all five, and you’ll become the strategic business asset your company craves.
Post contributed by Justin Dunn. Follow Justin on Twitter @JustDunn10.