Ever considered using social media to attract and source talent? Use of social media can be the ideal way for employers to select and recruit new staff. Social media offers users a place where people can connect, share experiences, opinions, and network with other people. It can be used as a platform for getting a new job or if you are looking for career tips. When recruiting new staff it can be hard to find the right person for the job. Social media has the potential to provide you with a large number of talented candidates to sift through.
Remember, where possible to interact through private messages once you have gained the candidates interest. This will ensure the safety of the individual’s personal information. When recruiting, many employers choose to use their own website to advertise vacancies. Social media can advertise to people who may not even be looking for a new job. If an individual notices a job vacancy they may be tempted to apply. It can enable you, as a business to access passive candidates. Social media can be seen as another method of traditional recruitment. It can allow you to hire staff using the same processes including:
Referrals
Generally, recruiters utilise social networks to gain candidate referrals. It may be the case that an individual may not be looking for a job, but after noticing a vacancy have been tempted to apply. If a friend or relative tells you about a position available you are likely to look into it out of curiosity. A tweet can also be effective when it comes to referrals.
Job Posting
If your business has a page on Facebook, this will enable you to boost your traffic to your website. Facebook can be used to promote live vacancies, this can be done through posting the vacancy on your profile page. On LinkedIn, you will also have the opportunity to add a discussion in a relevant group, or on Twitter you can tweet the vacancy. Many of the people who will view your vacancy will be passive candidates who will just stumble upon it. It is what they do with the information that matters. Some will apply themselves, pass the details on to friends or family, or simply overlook it.
Sourcing
Any social networking site can provide you with the opportunity to source talented candidates. Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn can all attract people who are interested in a specific topic area who are experts in that field. When seeking new employees, it is important that you start early. This will enable you to plan in advance and take your time to find the most suitable person for the position. It is vital that you reach the types of people you would like to target. You should outline the key skills and personal qualities that are needed to successfully fulfil the role. This will help you to attract people with the relevant skills and knowledge needed.
Which will you choose?
You will find Facebook a great way to entice people to look at your job postings through including links to interesting articles. You may choose to allow your staff to use Facebook in the workplace for building relationships and making connections on a professional level. Facebook is free for all members, and as a business you should make the most of it. Posting job vacancies will enable you to reach a large number of people. When building a page for your business, it is important that you create a continual flow of content used to engage with your target audience, and attract the people you want to reach. You may decide you would like to upload photos of what it is like to work for your business. This will give people an idea of what your working environment is like and the staff employed there. You could ask your network of contacts to share your content. This is an ideal way of helping you to build a relationship with your fans, and in this case candidates. It is crucial that you keep your fans interested e.g. through the use of unusual quotes etc. Try to be as create as possible, to grab the attention of your fans. When responding to comments it is important that you are helpful in your responses.
You may decide to create a company profile. It is important that when creating your page you make it as interesting as possible. This will enable you to really grab the attention of the user. Include an impressive headline to summarise your company. Use of keywords will enable the user to find you much more easily, and make you much more noticeable when people are using a search engine. Your business will then appear in the results from the search when candidates are looking. It is important that you include a description of your business, including its culture. You should try to really grab the attention of potential candidates. You could take photos of your achievement and awards.
You may already have a Twitter account set up, this is a good way for you to share content. You won’t receive any attention if you don’t create content that stands out and grabs the interest of users. A good way to build a relationship with your followers is through responding to their messages. Sharing other people’s tweets through retweeting posts that will be of the interest of your followers. Hopefully your followers will do this in return for you. Remembers to always thank your followers when they do, this will make them feel appreciated. Make sure your tweets are interesting and encouraging for user which will persuade them to take action. Due to the fast pace of the Twitter stream, you may find it beneficial to retweet your posts for people who didn’t catch it the first time round.
So which social media will you choose? You may choose to use multiple networking sites or just stick to one. As you have read, they can all have a positive impact on gaining awareness of your business and your vacancies available. Social media enables its users to join relevant groups, which boosts your potential to network with employees. It gives you the opportunity to contribute to discussions. It can also give you the opportunity to encourage your followers to like, share and also comment on your posts. If your followers where to share your posts, this means it will then be shared within each of your followers groups of contacts. This will give your company increased exposure.
Time for a change?
Some companies may decide to move away from move traditional methods of recruitment and selection. You may find social media as an ideal method of recruiting new staff in your business. Use of social media is a cost effective way of advertising jobs to potential candidates in a more targeted way. Whereas other businesses use such networks to search and advertise. Often, employers will use social media as a means of building long term strategies in regards to investing in interactive online talent pools. So when recruiting new staff you may decide you would like to change your strategy of your hiring process. Advertising your job vacancies on social media, can reduce the time taken to hire new staff and improve the quality of your candidates. Many employers will use such networks to actively search for candidates. Some businesses tend to favour the use of LinkedIn when networking with other professional businesses, and recruiting staff. Using social media to recruit new staff can save money, but it will require further capital to build a sustainable talent pool. It’s a good idea to explore all avenues which provide free advertising. Ensure you monitor the results and identify which is the most suitable for you.
Nick Cooper
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