Social Media and Recruiting
There are many thoughts on the impact social media has played in our modern society. The pros and cons of social media can be argued for hours, but from a recruiting perspective, the pros of social media should far outweigh the cons, especially if you are following the right formula and targeting the right audience.
Be Engaging in your Posts with Backlinks to your Job Opening or Article
The most important piece of the social media puzzle that sometimes gets lost on individuals is that their posts need to be written toward individuals, not towards appeasing the social media algorithm gods. Social media posts should be thought-provoking and engaging toward your intended audience, and nothing else.
If your posts are scripted with a robotic tone, you may not see the type of reactions that warrant any responses from your audience. In addition to an engaging post, be sure to include a link to your job opening, or a backlink to your blog or article which describes the job or your company. It’s important that once you have engaged your audience to provide them with the next step, or a call to action, to follow your post to the actual open position.
Invoke Responses from your Viewers
Engaging your audience with strong and elicit posts is a solid first step in using social media to your advantage in recruiting. The second step is invoking responses from your audience through Q&A’s and polls.
Invoking your audience to participate in a poll or Q&A may prompt some of their connections (who may not be connected with you) to also view your social media posts and engage in the conversation. Remember, it’s important to be sure you’ve created a link back to your job opening within this social media post.
How social media helps you here as a recruiter is by creating engaging and thought-provoking posts, you have also shared your job opening with hundreds (possibly thousands) of more individuals who may have otherwise not known about it. You’ve increased your range of potential candidates and possibly taken the first step in hiring your next high performer.
Becoming an Influencer
Linked-In may be the most important social media site in becoming an influencer in a field or a process. Writing articles and sharing them directly on Linked-In provides recruiters with the landscape to speak directly with potential candidates and share information about the job opening, the company, and the company culture through your article.
As a recruiter, don’t simply post your articles to Linked-In when you have a job opening, but instead post to Linked-In regularly and become an influential voice. When you do have a job to share, you will have already created an audience, of which hopefully includes next potential hire(s).
While Linked-In also provides paid recruiting services, recruiters should not shy away from utilizing this forum as a recruiting haven.
Know your Audience
The most important piece of the entire recruiting process is of course knowing your intended audience. Before haphazardly posting to social media, recruiters should have a strong sense on how to connect with the audience they view as potential recruits. Simply posting for the sake of posting will not get it done.
Just as knowing what job boards to post specific jobs, understanding how to reach your intended audience should be part of the recruiting plan when it comes to social media.
