Evan Rodd, PayScale
We hear a lot about the various ways social media blunders can cost you a job, but that doesn’t mean you should keep your Tweets completely private. On the contrary, many organizations rely on social media to help them find qualified job seekers who may not even be away of available positions. As long as your social media presence is thoughtful and well curated, you could actually increase your chances of landing a job.
In their 2013 Recruiting Channels Survey, Software Advice found that social media recruiting is on the rise, and growing quickly. Not only did Software Advice find that social media is the number three source for candidates, but it was delivering the highest quality candidates – particularly Twitter.
Recently, we spoke to Software Advice’s Managing Editor Erin Osterhaus about her thoughts social media recruiting techniques, and advice for recruiters looking to increase their efforts via social media.
Do you use a special Twitter handle for recruiting? Why or why not?
We did at one point, but decided to nix it in favor of personal handles. We have two recruiters at Software Advice, and each has their own personal handle – they tweet out company information, job postings, and stuff like that. We’re a small company with a young staff, so it made more sense and lessened the impersonal, corporate feeling. Each recruiter has their own voice and expression of the company, which we find more effective, and less awkward when reaching out to candidates.
Is there a formula that you use to determine how self-promoting your content is during the recruiting process?
To get people to see the jobs and apply, you need to express company culture to get more followers. Tweeting about company events, and occasional job posting to let people know we’re hiring and join the company culture.
How did you come to decide that social media recruiting is becoming more beneficial/necessary? Does this look different for certain industries or job families?
Software Advice hires primarily for marketing and sales positions, because people in those industries are generally web savvy. Having a strong social media presence helps get them interested. If a candidate is on social media and sees a company with a poor social media presence, this makes them less likely to apply. Having a social media presence that accurately presents your company culture and shows that your company is not in the dark ages in terms of technology helps attract tech savvy candidates, or marketing professionals.
How do you create an engaging social media strategy around recruiting? How do you ensure maximum social shares?
By creating interesting content – topics potential candidates would be interested in. Content that accurately depicts the projects your company is involved with, or events that may seem appealing to potential candidates.
Do Twitter recruiters cross-reference with other social media platforms such as LinkedIn?
We use LinkedIn to source candidates, but candidates from Twitter are usually screened on Twitter. There is some cross-referencing depending on the nature of the position, especially for marketing. This is less common with Facebook.
As job seekers start using different social media platforms for more specific purposes how will you ensure that you are reaching all of your desirable candidates?
The key is to get in front of as many people as possible – a strong hashtag strategy has been very helpful, but a good keyword strategy has been helpful as well.
Do you have any plans to move away from Twitter and into other social spheres?
As we grow we will probably expand into other social media platforms, depending on the growth of the company.
Still curious about how social media recruiting can benefit your company and help narrow in on the most desirable candidates for the job? Check out Software Advice’s findings on the rise of social media recruiting.
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nice post
Recruitment of social media is increasing that simply means that the trend of this social media is rising.
There is truly a rise in social media and business professionals like such blogs that discuss each detail about it, the above post is one of it.
Looking to use my degree to climb the corporate ladder. Interested in learning more about social networking for securing jobs.