Social Media is a great recruitment tool for companies looking to hire digitally savvy talent. But it has to been done right, or the top talent will see right through it. Just signing up on social networking sites and posting your jobs may get the word out there that you’re hiring, but what it doesn’t do is give potential candidates a sense of who the company is.
First, you need to build an effective social recruiting strategy and review your brand’s image online. Then determine which social networks are the right ones for your company and target candidates. There are many to choose from and you want to be active and engaging where your target candidates are. The social media sites that I have found the best to recruit from are LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Google +, Quora and Github, and Portfolio sites like Behance and Carbon Made. Once you’ve chosen the right social networks for your company, then involve and engage your employees to refer potential candidates and share current opportunities.
For sourcing potential candidates and share your current job opportunities, I recommend the following sites:
Recommended Sites For Sourcing Candidates and Sharing Job Opportunities
1. LinkedIn
This is a given. Your company should have a strong presence and robust profile here. Encourage employees to have profiles, making sure they are properly linked to your company. Potential candidates will go here first to check out the company information and who currently works there. It will also give potential candidates the chance to reach out directly or get introduced by a connection.
2. Facebook
Most companies nowadays have Facebook Pages and with 1.5 billion monthly active users (as of March 2013) there are unlimited numbers of potential candidates to reach. If you choose to use Facebook, you must be engaging with your audience on a regular basis. This is a great place to share the company culture, perks and benefits, and insight into who the leaders are. Mix in your current job openings and have your employees engage and share as well. With Facebook’s new search algorithm they have made it easier to source relevant candidates and groups for your role.
3. Twitter
Twitter uses the same principles as Facebook, but in 140 characters or less. Make sure you have someone actively engaging with Followers, sharing relevant content, articles, insight and fun as well as posting your current job openings. Twitter also has the added bonus of hashtags (#) to help potential candidates find your jobs. You don’t want to go overboard with hashtags a simple #TorontoJobs or #WebDeveloperJobs should target the right audience.
4. Google +
While not as popular as other social networking sites, you will find that there is a wide breadth of candidates using it. Like Facebook, you must be consistently sharing content, information and engaging with your followers. Google + has the option of using Hangouts to screen potential candidates face to face while streaming or recording the conversations for playback later on (disclaimer – you must let everyone know beforehand that conversations will be recorded). It also allows for multiple people to be on a call which can save time for everyone.
Additional Recommended Sites For Sourcing Potential Candidates
1. Quora
This is also a really interesting site to find talent on. It is a question-and-answer, knowledge base website that is created, edited and organized by a community of users. This is a great sourcing tool to find knowledgeable professionals in a specific field or role that have excellent communications skills. It has the added bonus of allowing you to view how they communicate in writing, their level of expertise on a subject based on the community’s respect for the quality of their answer, and if they are up-to-date in their knowledge.
2. Github
This is a web-based hosting service and community used by programmers and developers to share code. It’s a great place to source for technical talent but you will use it very differently than the other networks, meaning you will need to understand who/what you are looking for in order to find the right people.
3. Portfolio Websites
Sites such as Behance and Carbon Made are communities that allow creative professionals to showcase their work and skills. Users comment and give feedback to others which is helpful in sourcing out great talent as well as seeing how they react/comment on others’ portfolios.
Tips To Gain The Most From These Sites
Properly Engage Your Audience And Employees
Once you’ve decided on the appropriate sites to recruit from you will want to engage your audience and drive traffic to your careers page. Having and actively using LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter & Google + profiles will ultimately drive traffic to your website and careers page where you should make it easy to apply to the role directly or connect with/contact HR or the hiring manager. You will want to engage and encourage your current employees to spread the word via their social networks as well. Smart people know smart people, and if you have a solid employee referral program there is incentive for them to share and help you find the next superstar employee.
Gain Additional Insight Through Monitoring
You can also source potential candidates using analytics and social listening. Your social media monitoring platform (i.e. Radian 6, Sysomos, Google Analytics) will show you where your content is being shared and if you are hitting your target market or audience. You will gain relevant feedback about how your company/brand is viewed in the market. Monitoring the relevant keywords and hashtags of your competitors and industry connections can also help you redefine your strategy and target the appropriate people.
Overall, the best strategy is to be authentic and active in the social media networks you want to recruit from. Give current employees the ability to be involved in the recruiting process and don’t be afraid to think outside the box when it comes to traditional recruiting. You never know what post might resonate with your next superstar employee and making it easy for them to find you and your current job opportunities is key.
For more tips about gaining the most from your headhunter, check out our other Headhunter Insights blog posts where common questions are answered by our Toronto headhunters.
IQ PARTNERS is a Recruitment Agency with offices in Toronto, Montreal & Vancouver, We help companies hire better, hire less & retain more. Our recruiters specialize in Marketing, Communications, Consumer Goods & Services, Retail, Sales, Technology, Finance & Accounting, Financial Services, Life Sciences, HR & Operations, and Construction, Property & Real Estate. IQ PARTNERS has its head office in Toronto and operates internationally via Aravati Global Search Network.
