How Should Our Organization Be Using Social Tools in Our Recruiting?

Dear Behind the Curve:

Social recruiting is a big umbrella, so this is tough to answer. But there are a lot of tools you can use. As with anything, the key is to prioritize your efforts around getting the biggest bang for your buck. Here are a few starter points:

1. Get active on Facebook, Google Plus, Twitter, LinkedIn and other common social media. Most importantly, start using social sites where you find the best candidates for your particular jobs (the big ones might not be the best). Your employees will know which sites if you don’t, so don’t be afraid to ask. While you’re at it, ask them what you need to be doing to stand out on social media, if they were the ones being recruited.

2. Promote your jobs so good candidate can find them. Create a nifty careers site, if you haven’t done so already. There are plenty of tools available to build it affordably or even for free.  And update the content to remain fresh and interesting.  

3. Share, but do so appropriately.  Make sure your hiring managers and employees do as much of the sharing as possible – and don’t be thought of as a spammer.

4. Make applying for jobs enjoyable.  Nothing chases away good candidates more than an awful hiring process.

5. Your careers site should have analytics tracking — even if you don’t know what to do with the data right away.

6. Content and curation really matter.  Social recruiting is about engaging your audience and producing fresh, interesting content.  Dedicate at least one person on your team to spend some time on this.

7. Be sure to visit Glassdoor.com and similar sites that are important to your particular industry.

8. Try deep sourcing for your most important jobs, whether through a talent aggregator or Boolean searching.

9. Be persistent and patient – it takes time to build a strong social presence

10. Listen to all of the experts you can, but remember to adapt what works best for your organization.

11. Be prepared to use Twitter, if you aren’t doing so already.

Regardless of the tools you use, it is your recruiting team that makes or breaks the effort. Start out small and gradually broaden your social footprint with other tools and channels as your confidence and success grows.  

SOURCE: Stacy Chapman, Swoop Talent, San Francisco, December 2013