6 Social Media Recruiting Mistakes Your Company Must Avoid

The popularity of social media has risen significantly in just the past couple of years. Nearly 75 percent of adults online are using social media to get their information and to communicate with friends and family. It’s no wonder, then, that 94 percent of recruiters currently use or are planning to use social media for their recruiting efforts to better evaluate a candidate’s experience, skills and cultural fit.

As more companies begin to adopt social media recruiting strategies, there are bound to be mistakes made along the way. Here are six social media mistakes you must avoid making when hiring:

Not establishing a plan or strategies

First and foremost, you must determine what you are looking to achieve and set goals for your recruitment efforts. From there you can identify your target audience and where they spend their time online to begin reaching out so you can meet your goals. You should also take advantage of the many available programs that can help you to effectively measure and analyze your social media metrics.

Assuming every social media site is the same

There are dozens of social media sites out there to utilize for recruiting. A major thing to avoid is treating all of these sites in the same manner. Each channel has its own community and specific social norms, therefore, you must establish a unique strategy for each.

Not targeting passive candidates

Social media is a wonderful solution to a common problem that most employers and recruiters face — difficulty with connecting to passive candidates. Social media enables companies to reach the potential talent that are not actively looking for jobs and build relationships. When that person decides to make a career change, they’ll already have your company in mind.

Not targeting social media recruiting efforts

If you are expecting amazing results from just sending out multiple tweets and status updates with job descriptions, you’ll surely be disappointed. This is not an effective way to get talent through your doors. For Twitter, utilize hashtags to filter your tweets so that they are easily searchable for job seekers. On LinkedIn, consider looking into and joining industry-specific groups to reach out to talent directly.

Not looking at analytics

Don’t waste your time and recruiting efforts on websites that top talent is not spending their time on. It is important to analyze your industry and demographics because not every social media site will appeal to every type of industry.

Making quick judgments

Everyone is guilty of passing judgment and making quick assumptions about people every now and then. However, recruiters must be mindful to avoid basing their decision about a candidate on just their immediate opinion of them. This could result in a superstar candidate being accidentally eliminated. As Heather Huhman of Come Recommended says, “Social networking profiles are not resumes. A successful recruiting strategy involves multiple methods, so use them.”

Social media can be an extremely powerful recruiting tool for companies, but a lot of preparation must be done so as to receive the best results. By avoiding these mistakes you’ll be sure to get the right candidates who will contribute to your company’s success.

What social media mistakes have you noticed are being made? Have you made mistakes yourself and learned from them? Share in the comments below!

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Be sure to check out our whitepaper “5 Ways to Combine Social Media and Video Interviewing” for more tips!