Camelia Rodriguez
The Pew Center for Research determined that 74 percent of online adults are using social media to share and get their information about pretty much anything and everything. Moreover, 21 percent of job seekers claim to have found their dream job through the use of social media.
Without a doubt, the more popular social media sites are LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter which have a combined user population of 535 million. It would be wise for employers and staffing professionals to establish a presence on these sites in order to connect with all of that potential talent. Below are tips on how to best utilize these platforms:
Twitter is a super simple and convenient tool for companies and recruiters looking to gain an edge over competitors.
- Easily tweet about your open positions: “Looking for admin assistant in Chicago. Apply at (include a shortened URL here).”
- To make your tweets about job openings eye-catching, be sure to utilize hashtags, #. Some hashtags to consider using are: #job, #jobpost, #recruiting, #career, or #hiring. Adding any of these to your tweets will allow users to learn about your job opportunities when they search particular hashtags.
- If you’d like to grow your Twitter following and build relationships with job seekers, engage with them about the topics they tweet about, share information about your company and events that you will be attending.
When you find someone on Twitter that may fit in well at your company, evaluate their activity to determine the frequency of their tweets and if they keep a balance between personal and professional posts. You will also want to note if they only post updates or if they are responding to and retweeting others.
When you have a job opening, filling the position isn’t going to be a piece of cake. It will take much time and effort. However, by creating an online presence and utilizing resources from LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter, you can get a leg up on attracting great talent.
Facebook offers several free resources that can help you to find and connect with talent.
- Facebook Directory: Search for users, pages, groups, and applications to increase your talent pool.
- Facebook Pages: Create a Facebook Page (public profile) to share up-to-date information about your business, products, and job openings with Facebook users. If you prefer not to have one, you can search other Facebook pages for people that are interested and active in your field and may want to apply for your open positions.
- Facebook Marketplace: For free, you can post a job that requires basic information such as location, title and job description, etc. You can also add a photo or image to go with your job post.
If you have some money to shell out, you can advertise about your open positions for 30 days at a cost per job post. You also have the option of buying job credits in order to pay less per job posting. However, if you don’t have the budget for these services, LinkedIn has free resources that you can take advantage of to:
- Search for candidates
- Connect with people you already know, such as former co-workers, current clients, and even friends and family, who may be connected to someone that could be a top-notch candidate
- Announce that you are hiring via your network activity box (or status box)
Upon finding someone who may be a potential candidate, take the time to thoroughly evaluate their LinkedIn profile so you can find out as much as you can before contacting them about an interview. Is their LinkedIn profile filled out completely with a picture? Do they have recommendations from people they’ve worked with? What LinkedIn groups pertaining to their field have they joined and are they active members?
You will also want to see if you have a 2nd or 3rd degree connection to the potential candidate to get a more personal referral.
We’d love to hear about your experiences with recruiting on LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter! Share in the comments below.
Be sure to check out our whitepaper “5 Ways to Combine Social Media and Video Interviewing” for more tips!
Image: Twin design/BigStock.com
Spark Hire
Josh Tolan
