If you thought that social media is just for marketing, think again. Many companies are now tapping into the power of social media for their recruiting needs. In many ways, it all boils down to a single powerful idea: the best place to recruit candidates is where they are already hanging out online. So it only makes sense that Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn have emerged as important destinations for recruiters. Here are just some of the ways that companies can use social media for recruiting.
Promote your company’s culture
The easiest way to attract candidates is to give them an inside look of what it might be like to work at your company. And one way of doing that is by posting photos of people at work. This works best, of course, if your workplace is actually a fun, vibrant place to work filled with interesting individuals. As a result, posting photos on Instagram or Facebook could be a great way to reach young millennials.
Tap into the passive job candidate market
The easiest people to reach have always been the active job seekers – the people who are visiting your website for job leads, or who are searching job boards for potential leads. But what about the vast sea of candidates who are only passively looking for jobs? Remember – the best talent out there is probably working for a competitor, so you need to have some way of reaching them. The best part about posting information about job openings on Facebook or Twitter is that these jobs can be shared with a vast network of people and passed on via word-of-mouth.
Use social media to amplify your other recruitment efforts
It’s hard to imagine a future in which job fairs and other staples of the job search world eventually disappear – but here’s the thing: you can use social media to amplify all of your other official recruitment efforts. How many times, for example, have you ever run across a tweet like, “We’re hiring at Company X. If you know fun, talented and passionate people, let them know about our openings”? That’s just one way to amplify a search. Instead of just posting a new opening on a job board and hoping that someone will stumble across it, you can maximize your chances that a talented individual will actually see your job posing by getting the word out on social media.
Explore niche markets
It’s easy enough to cast a wide net for the best talent, but what can you do if you have a very niche job opening in a very specific area? Here, too, social media can play a role. Remember – social media is about more than just Facebook and LinkedIn. There are plenty of communities, online forums and social media platforms out there – such as Quora – that get plenty of niche visitors. And hashtags can be a way to bring in eyeballs for a vey niche topic.
In many ways, social media is a flexible, affordable way to find and recruit the best talent. You can often see if there is a “culture fit” between you and your candidate simply from the content they have posted on social media. Moreover, you can check out very easily if someone is a “thought leader” or “influencer.” Those are the types of traits and skills that might not immediately show up on a resume, but are easy to spot on social media. If you’re looking to ramp up your hiring, social media can be a great place to start.