Technology has shrunk the world and this is no secret. Social media, a product of technology has ‘connected’ the world like never before. There are very few aspects of life it hasn’t touched and the world of work is no exception. One of the greatest challenges for recruiters today is not just finding enough candidates, but finding the right ones. Social media in the recent years has evolved in its role to become a handy tool to help recruiters in solving this problem and our guest blogger Aanchal Iyer explains how.
Social Media – The Best Way To Connect Recruiters and Job Seekers
Candidates today understand that in order to be visible to recruiters, they must be active on social media. According to ICIMS, recruiters can increase their chance of finding the right candidates by up to 50% when they put up jobs on social media. Also, using mobile-friendly SEO in their job posting, makes it searchable on hand-held devices and increases their overall reach.
Social Media Provides Total Transparency Both Ways
Social media allows for a more transparent screening process – for both recruiters as well as potential candidates. Applicants can suss out a potential employer’s social responsibility strategies, employment principles, salaries and other commitment quotients while employers can also get a good idea of . It’s a way of avoiding potentially nasty surprises and recruitment fails. Hiring managers can refrain from following up with a candidate if they find something they do not like in the candidate’s social media account, and vice versa.
(and which is why there are certain social media mistakes you must avoid while job hunting. Read here to know more.)
Using Exclusive Social Media Recruiting Tools
LinkedIn allows you to post a job for 30 days. Alternatively, you can sign up for LinkedIn Talent Advantage, which is an exclusive tool for recruiters. These features cost money, but budget companies can still work through networking, joining affiliated groups and using the free advertising option. They can also put their content writing skills to good use on LinkedIn, posting relevant articles and knowledge base tips and tricks to attract potential candidates to the company’s page.
Facebook allows employers to post a job for free at the Facebook Marketplace. Also, by building an official recruiter’s Facebook page, one can share one’s company’s profile, products and principles with interested users. Recruiters can also use their company’s page as a recruiting tool. Posting a Facebook Ad is another option, where one can target the exact audience they want.
On Twitter, employers can tweet jobs and expand their company’s network and build relationships with candidates. They can also run a keyword search and obtain a pool of contacts from which they can look for suitable candidates. Recruiters can search for candidates based on their interest, location, popularity, industry, hashtag and more. They can also use relevant hashtags along with tweets such as #job, #jobpost, #employment, #recruiting and so on to gain people’s interest and response and also check out what topics candidates are tweeting about and follow them, retweeting their tweets to gain their attention.
So we’re saying…
With social media recruiting strategies, both the employer and the potential employee can get to know each other well. Employers can quickly gauge the skills of candidates. Recruiting through social media takes time and effort; however, you can reap long term benefits when used smartly.
Aanchal is a Digital media marketer, trainer, and a content strategist with over 11 years of experience. She is also the founder of Effcomm Worldwide , a premium content & digital marketing services company, and content4brands.in. She aspires to keep enjoying her work, always.
