Social media recruiting means hiring employees through social media platforms like Facebook, twitter, Google+, LinkedIn, academia and all the other possible social media sites. Nowadays every company has its own websites and every company hire the employees by posting the requirements on social media as everyone is present on social media platforms.
What is Social Media Recruitment?
Social media is one of the strongest platforms to get a job as well as to hire employees. It is a good platform for both the companies and the applicants. In order to get a job or even to apply for the job, the applicants reach out to the media platforms. These platforms would include all social media sites.
The people make pages on Facebook related to their company and post the vacancies, or the requirements needed for the applicants to join or any other important information. Those pages are shared and promoted so that maximum people could reach out to them and get regular updates and notifications.
So, in this way recruiting through social media platforms is done, i.e here social media sites are used to hire people. Not just Facebook, but also the micro blogging sites like Twitter is being used for recruitment, where people tweet what they require and interested people contact them. This is how the process of social media recruitment goes and it has proved successful to larger extent.
Social Media Recruiting Strategy:
Although every company is making use of the social media platforms to fill up the vacancies, learn about the employees and the candidates like it was never done before. Unlike resume, the social media platform gives you a glimpse of the person whom you are hiring. But, this is only helpful when the social media recruiter will have concrete recruitment strategies to reach maximum people.
For this, you will have to build a team of content writers, SEO specialist, deciding the audience whom to target and many other things need to be kept in mind. Here are some of the steps that you can make use so that your social media efforts does not go in vain:
1. The foremost thing is to build your team:
It means that before you start with the promotion of the requirements on social media, you will need a proper team to work. The team must be assigned with proper duties and also the responsibility to handle one thing at a time. Proper protocols must be set and the process must run smoothly.
Social media moves with the fastest speed and a single mistake would require emergency. So, for this purpose also you need experts to handle the emergencies. Your team will depend on the type and the structure of your company.
2. Hold on to your brand:
Once you have made your proper team, you need to hold on to your brand. This could be done only when the work is done using cross-departmental communications. This means that one should know about the working of both the HR and the marketing team. Only this coordination among the departments will lead to brand updates.
3. Make use of the social networking Facebook:
This is because everyone cannot be on LinkedIn or academia but surely everyone is there on Facebook. So, it is better to make use Facebook to reach out to maximum people. On Facebook, you can make a page about your company where you can update the information on regular basis. But for this, you need maximum people to like your page and also promote it. Otherwise, it will be of no use.
4. Make use of twitter:
Almost half of the world is on twitter. Also twitter is faster than Facebook. The tweets arrive every second and provides you the information. So, this way you are never away from getting the information or the current updates.
More importantly make use of the hashtags. The hashtags make the thing trending and it will keep your brand trending which is great and also helps lots of people about the requirements your company needs. Putting hashtag is quite easy and also produce very quick results.
5. Tweet on almost everyday about your company:
This is obvious not everyday you will have some vacancy in your company but yes, then also you need to tweet some or the other thing about your company, so that people know that some company like ABC is existing.
Like you can tweet about the goal of your company, the strategies, the aim and also about the happy times of your organization. Share some pictures, and make your updates little exciting so that everyone loves to join your organization and also it remains in the eyes of the viewers.
6. Reach out to professional sites through social marketing:
You can also make an account with your company’s name on LinkedIn or even academia. On such professional accounts you will find educated and professional people. This is good for you and your company as every company desires for specialized people who could deliver great work at the end of the day. Also, you can make the post interactive by asking people about the suggestions and comments which will make it even more interesting.
7. Do not ignore the advertising part:
Advertising is the best medium to reach out to the target audience. Make sure your advertising is paid because only paid one can last for longer period of time and also proves authentic. Now due to technological advancement, you can advertise on various mediums at a time like on Facebook, on twitter, in newspapers, television and even in radio.
Every medium is now on social media so you can use social media advertising as per your budget and the requirements. Advertising is the strongest way and also catches the attention of the seeker early. This would make more impact than any other thing.
So, above were some of the social media strategies that one could use to make the brand come in the knowledge of the common people.
Tips On Social Media Recruiting:
The recruiting methods are getting changed and improved these days by incorporating newer and modern strategies. No matter what ways be introduced, the employer’s only aim is to hire the best candidates for the organization.
The usage of social media for recruiting had initially created buzz and has been used by many hiring managers. It has also given very impressive results for both the job seekers and hiring managers.
Any person who uses the internet would be having an account in at least one social media platform. So to reach your job ad to a wide range of audiences, social media is the best platform. Earlier employers used to only market their products and services using social media, but now have taken a step ahead and use it to find the best candidates for the job.
As per a survey by jobvite, almost 92% of hiring managers make use of social media platforms in their hiring process. Though there are many social media websites each platform needs to be used in a specific way.
Now as social media recruiting has turned out to become such a boom, here are few secret tips on social media recruiting one needs to consider.
Before moving to the tips, we would like to share the difference between passive candidates and active candidates.
Active candidates:
These are the people who are looking for job change seriously.
Passive candidates:
These are the type of candidates who would think of a job change only if they get the best opportunity.
Social media recruiting tips:
- Make use of hashtags wherever necessary
- Building a community and keep them engaged
- Social media advertising
- Posting effective content
- Different strategies for different social media platforms
- Make use of LinkedIn groups
- Motivate employees to share social media posts
- Videos help to get engaged with potential candidates
- Work on building an online reputation for your company
Reasons for using social media recruiting:
- Social media recruiting can be done free of cost
- To get information about the candidate you do not need their resume
- Can get candidates who can fit your work culture
- Also can be able to reach passive candidates
- Can be able to assess the candidate well (behavior and attitude)
Benefits of Social Media Recruiting:
As now most of the recruiting is done on social media platform, it has number of advantages and disadvantages , just like every coin has two sides. So, here are some of the benefits of social media recruitment strategy:
1. Higher accuracy than before:
Social media platforms offers higher accuracy than ever before because people explain about themselves a lot on social media and through that, one comes to know about the type of person and also his/her abilities.
2. One can find the candidates geographically:
This is easy to find candidates geographically because the people often mention the area, location from where they need candidates. This way, it is lot more easier to get the right kind of employee in your company.
3. Adds to efficiency and effectiveness:
When you get what you need, it automatically adds to efficiency and effectiveness in work. You mention your requirements and the people who fulfill those requirements apply for the job, which not only adds to efficiency but also saves lot of time as the company manager need not interview any other employee than those who fulfill the requirements.
4. The vacancies get filled immediately:
Lots of people respond to your status if it is on Facebook, twitter or any other social media platform. This way you get maximum people and it assists in filling up the vacancies faster which is great for every company as it saves time, money and also energy.
5. Immediate response is received:
Every second some or the other person is online. The social media platform is never deactivated; you will find some or the other person online and hence out of them many will become your target audience who would respond you, hence quick response is received; which is not possible otherwise.
6. It has low cost:
Social media recruitment only requires internet connection and your own registered website. That’s it. The return on social media is greater than the investment, though, which is appreciable. So, because of this many companies are moving towards the social media marketing.
7. You attract fresh talent:
Most of the fresh pass-outs, the college students are there on social media this way you attract maximum of the fresh talent which is good for every company. Hiring fresh talent is good because they are motivated and also performs good out of excitement or say motivation. They deliver better results than those who work for years in a company.
8. Increases the brand visibility online:
No matter your company is large scale or small scale, the social media platform happens to be a boon for every kind of company. This is because, it helps in increasing the brand visibility. Maximum people come to know about your company and similarly maximum will apply for the jobs.
So, above are the benefits which social media recruiting offers. This is the reason many companies register themselves online and carry their work online. It is not just a time savior but also one sort of self advertising and promotion.
Social Media Recruiting Best Practices:
This is one of the apt quote, that you do not need to be everywhere, but have to be at the right place when it comes to social media. Here are some of the best practices that you can opt for:
1. Create an attractive message:
The message needs to be appealing to the people. It should speak to the people and should be self explanatory. The old job descriptions should not be used because they are very boring and monotonous. Make a tagline and use it on the social media platform. Create links and share them maximum.
2. Mobile compatibility must be there:
On an average 30% to 50% people might be using smart phones and reaching to your site. So, it is important to make your site flexible and error less so that without any hurdle it opens on mobile too. If your site is not able to open in mobiles, then you certainly have the chance of losing the opportunity of having maximum visitors.
3. Introduce any question to test people:
If you do not want to share the job vacancy with too many people and want to target only those who fit in the job, then make use of some question which relates to that job in your application process. This way you will be able to get the right talent and also it will save time and money.
4. Be open with the candidates:
Reach out to the candidates personally. This although is little tough but this is exactly what the candidates want nowadays. Transparency is needed and is also a sign of appreciation from the applicants.
A personalized message can do a lot good as you come to know about the candidate on deeper aspect. Not just this, the interest of the candidate is also known easily; which further helps in assigning the position to employee in the company.
5. Be critical in selecting social media platform:
You need to reach to the right audience. For that you will need a proper media platform so that right people are targeted. Like if you want professional and serious kind of people, then reach out to the professional sites like LinkedIn, academia, micro blogging that is twitter. If you need a fresh talent then make judicious use of the Facebook.
Conclusion:
So, these were some of the strategies that you can make use and top the list of other companies. The social media is the best way to reach out to people from every corner of the world. It may not be possible otherwise, but through media, it is absolutely possible.
The recruitment’s are just a click away and also the applicants are a click away from getting their dream jobs.
