It’s next to impossible to not be on social media today. Whether it’s your personal accounts or company accounts, you probably have some sort of interaction with social media sites on a daily basis. The use of mobile devices is on the rise and that rise is driving the importance of social media. Many companies are now using social media networks as tools for recruiting top talent.
While this sounds like a fantastic idea (and it may very well be) there are certainly right and wrong ways to go about using social media to recruit talent. Here are a few things you need to think about before launching into using social media for recruiting:
Your Audience
The first thing you need to think about is the specific talent you want to attract to your open position(s). Targeting your audience is going to help you reach the right people. Collect all of the data and information you have available on the talent pool and then start targeting your content and posting to find them. With social media, you have the use of hashtags, pictures, links, and sharing options that can really help spread the word.
Your Industry
Something else you need to keep in mind as you move into the social media sphere is your industry. Some of the networks may be far more appropriate to use than others. For example, if you are working in the manufacturing industry, you probably won’t find very many people searching for jobs on Pinterest or Instagram. However, no matter your industry, you should focus your recruiting efforts to LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook. Once you have those three down, then you can start exploring others like Google+, Pinterest, and Tumblr.
Your Resources
Using social media may seem easy enough, but there is actually a lot that goes into. On a top level, it takes a lot of time and can take money. To be really effective, you need someone dedicated to maintaining and engaging with all of your networks. If you are only posting occasionally, you can be lost in the flood of posts. Before you decide to just jump into social media recruiting, think about a strategy. How often are you going to post? Are you only going to post job openings? Is this going to be a full time job for someone?
Just because you can use social media for your recruiting efforts certainly doesn’t mean you should or have to. Before you begin, you really need to consider all of your options and make sure you choose the most effective and feasible one. It may be that social media isn’t right for you.
Tune in next week for Using LinkedIn for Recruiting.
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