A recent survey by Jobvite suggests that 92% of recruiters are using social for professional purposes. It’s no shock that the most used platform is LinkedIn, where the whole purpose is to make professional connections. But are you maximizing the true potential of social for recruiting? Here are six ways to do that.
Put your employer brand out there: Be consistent with your brand and find a way to showcase in the social sphere what’s great about your workplace. This might mean a page on Glassdoor, or pictures of your office in Instagram. It might mean a YouTube page of videos about your workplace or a Facebook page about you as an employer. Explore the best platform for your brand.
Connect with top talent in your industry: It’s never been easier to make friends with people in your industry than it is now. And not just on LinkedIn. Read people’s Twitter bios and connect with those in your industry. Meet people through your Facebook friends with similar professional interests. Interact with them. Find out what top talent wants by paying attention to what people are talking about. Be friendly first. Worry about recruiting later.
Get your team to evangelize: Your employees can be your greatest ambassadors. Don’t waste this resource. Let them know that you value their connections and networks and that adding talent to the team will benefit everyone at the organization. Ask them to share what they love about their workplace on social and to post jobs to their networks. Is there nothing they love about where they work? Then you’ve got a bigger problem on your hands and should be thinking about retention as much as recruiting.
Share your knowledge: Be generous with your expertise. If you are knowledgeable and open, you will be well regarded and this will be a boost for your personal brand, your employer brand, and your company brand. Share your blog posts and insights as much as you can. Answer questions. When people respect your knowledge, insight and generosity, they will view working for you as a privilege.
Interact with your customers: Looking for employees among your loyal customer base is a no-brainer. They already know, and presumably like, your brand. Engage with these people and don’t be shy about reaching out if you think there is a fit.
Post your jobs: It’s simple. Don’t just post your jobs to LinkedIn. Post them to Facebook, Twitter, Instagram. Encourage your network to share the postings. Obvious, right? But it needs to be said. And the further you build up your brand presence, the further the reach of those posting will be.
There is a whole world out there of recruiting opportunities on social. Don’t let them go to waste.