In today’s age of the internet, most employers rely on social media for recruiting personnel to fill vacancies.
A Social Media survey of 100 recruitment managers of small, mid-size and large companies found a whopping 75 percent go to LinkedIn to search candidates before making a job offer. 48 percent check out Facebook and 26 percent go to Twitter for hiring hands. When asked where they find talent for job openings, 66 percent said LinkedIn, 23 percent said Facebook and 16 percent said Twitter.
Social media channels have become an integral component of the hiring process. It is because these sites are low-cost or free to join though it takes time and effort to make these sites truly useful.
Some companies are still trying to wrap their heads about the whole idea of social media. Many companies wrongly believe social media is the domain for hiring marketing personnel and not for finding candidates for other positions.
Most of the HR people are yet to realize the usefulness of social media and still cling to traditional methods for recruiting talent.
Companies that use social media for recruitment appreciate its usefulness in identifying the right candidates at minimum expense.
These companies have a LinkedIn profile, a company Facebook page, a blog and a Twitter account with hundreds of followers. Several companies post job openings on LinkedIn and Twitter and recruit right candidates in a big way.
One HR manager recently remarked “I think social media absolutely does work to help recruit [new hires]”.
Several recruitment agencies post job openings on Twitter that direct applicants to the prospective employer website and the company’s Facebook page.
Their LinkedIn profile offers a client company an overview and employee profiles. Many times it just takes a couple of ‘re-tweets’ to get potential candidates to review the job description, they say. Experts opine Facebook and LinkedIn are great for networking and Twitter is better for broadcasting.
Employers seldom realize that Twitter is more than a form of microblogging; it is a real-time search engine. You should be using hash tags that designate a topic (i.e. #jobs) and simplify Twitter searches. You can actually search for ‘#jobs’ and use advanced options to sort or narrow it down by zip code. Sites like TweetMyJobs.com and Jobshouts.com will let you post job openings that are fed over to Twitter.
Try to evolve a social media recruiting strategy if your company doesn’t have one yet. Here are some basic tips for getting started:
- Analyze your employee needs.
- Start with social media sites where you’re comfortable.
- Clearly specify the job profile
- Specify also what type of candidates you are looking for
- Indicate that the job offered is a long-term commitment.
- Indicate the likely emoluments and future growth prospects