How to Establish Your Social Media Recruiting Strategies

Are you planning to join the nearly 95 percent of companies that currently utilize social media for their recruiting efforts? You’d be making a very smart decision considering that 74 percent of online adults are using social media to share and get their information about pretty much anything and everything. Furthermore, a study done by the Aberdeen Group found that over 70 percent of Millennials found their last job through a social network, which means there are people on these platforms who can potentially join your team.

Now that you’ve made the decision to implement social media recruiting into your hiring process, it’s time to consider the best ways to establish and execute your strategy. Below are tips on how to do so:

Establish your strategy

Before posting and tweeting on social media sites, Chris Penttila of Entrepreneur advises companies to determine what their hiring needs are. What are the types of jobs that will need to be filled within the next year? Once this is figured out, companies can decide which social media sites to utilize in order to get in front of their target applicants. Penttila says, “If you run a small grocery, your potential workers are on the more casual Myspace and Facebook. If you need a director of sales, LinkedIn is a better bet.”

Additionally, Penttila says it’s important for companies to use sites that they are comfortable with for reaching out to candidates. Once you get into the groove of things, you can look into other social channels that can further help you attract top talent.

Executing your strategy

Once you have the key steps of your social media recruiting strategy in place, it’s time to get to work. Make sure you are sharing enough information about your company to attract the attention of job seekers. Let them know how you got started and what the company culture is like.

You also want to be consistent and responsive with job seekers. Encourage employees to share posts from your company on their own social media accounts, but make sure that employees have a consistent way of describing your company so as not to confuse job seekers, Penttila warns. Furthermore, if your company receives a message on Facebook or a mention on Twitter, don’t let it sit unacknowledged for a long time. That person (perhaps a potential candidate or someone with connections to potential talent) took the time to reach out to you and deserves a response in a timely manner.

If you want great results, you need to recognize that social media recruiting is a long-term commitment. You shouldn’t expect an instantaneous ROI from your social media recruiting efforts. It may take months to establish a strong presence and build relationships with people online. However, don’t get discouraged by bumps in the road! Mistakes are bound to be made, but make sure you learn from them to strengthen your efforts. The great talent you need is out there in the social media world!

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

Image: scyther5/BigStock.com