social media for talent acquisition Archives

What is it worth to you to have the right candidate available to you when you need him or her?

Social media is the hottest thing in recruiting these days. Everyone in the recruitment industry is talking about using social media to identify passive candidates and increase employer brand and recognition.

In my experience many companies say they are using social media to recruit but actually they only slap a job description or the same old advertisement out on the Company website or LinkedIn page. Technically they are using social media to recruit. But in my view if that is the extent of your recruiting, you are missing the whole point and power of social media.

It is time to step away from reliance on job postings even in social media and consider some ways to leverage social media, particularly LinkedIn to find candidates. It is time to do some marketing.

Here are some ways to really use social media for recruitment:

Share what is going on in your company – events, social activities, customer feedback, internal initiatives and company celebrations. Put this information on company pages in LinkedIn and Facebook. Tweet about these employee and community oriented activities. Build the “cool” factor by encouraging Likes and Followers. These are people who already think your company is great. They can be potential employees.
Be visible and active in LinkedIn Groups and specialized social media pages and blogs where your target potential employees hang out. If you regularly search for mechanical engineers or sales people then be active in places where mechanical engineers and sales people gather on social media. Share information and ideas that can be useful to others. Write white papers and answer questions. You will be cultivating relationships with people interested in your businesses’ priorities.
Identify the competencies or characteristics of the ideal candidates for key positions you recruit for. Go out in LinkedIn and search for people who have those competencies or characteristics. Connect with those people over business issues. Share information. Keep them close. Someday they might be the perfect candidate for a vacancy and you already found them!
Encourage your employees to participate on LinkedIn then have them share job postings with their connections. Your employees might already be connected to the right person who may not even be aware they want to work for you.

This method of recruitment marketing takes some time. Weigh the cost (mostly time) against the benefits of better qualified candidates available when you need them. What is it worth to you to hire the right candidate to help you achieve business goals?

To view this video, or to view other videos featuring other strategic job search tips and tools from The Interview Doctor click here.

Social media is a way of life in the modern world.

Some of you are thinking, duh. Of course it is.

Some of you are getting dragged kicking and screaming into the social media world saying loudly, “that is stupid”. Be that as it may, social media is a fixture. We must all get used to it and use social media as a tool for personal growth and development.

I had four workshops this week focused on job search or talent acquisition and development. In every case social media figured prominently. In every case some or many of the participants resisted.

The fact is that recruiters are using LinkedIn and other social media to find talent. Job seekers resist social media to their own detriment. You have to put yourself in the path of your target in order to get what you want, whether you are a candidate or a company. Yet I am amazed at the number of people I meet, candidates and companies that persist or insist on using out of date tactics in the talent arena.

I received an email from someone we will call Jim who missed the workshop offering basic LinkedIn guidance. Naturally before responding to Jim’s email I looked him up on LinkedIn. Naturally he had no LinkedIn profile but his email indicates a strong desire to learn. That is a great starting place. I suggested that in preparation for attending the advanced LinkedIn workshop in November he do some catchup.

Perhaps you are someone who has resisted the pull of social media in talent related situations, either as a job seeker or as an employer seeking talent. You need to jump right in NOW.

Other people draw conclusions about you or your company on the basis of your social media footprint. You want them to think you are tech savvy and can get along with other generations currently in the workforce.

If you are a company you want to attract people who already use social media. If you don’t participate in LinkedIn at least you are sending a message that you are not a tech friendly company and are not interested in attracting talent that likes social media like younger people. Do you really want to exclude an entire segment of the population from your talent pool? I suspect not. So it is time to join the real world.

LinkedIn is the perfect business related social media tool to start with. To get started you need to have a profile. Here are a few things you can do right away:

Set up a personal account in LinkedIn. LinkedIn will help you. Use your personal email, not your business email even if you plan to use LinkedIn for business purposes.
Once you have an account, start looking around. Look around at other people’s profiles in LinkedIn – for example friends and family who use LinkedIn pretty frequently or co-workers at your company. See what you think good and bad profiles look like. Good profiles are friendly and inviting and make you want to talk to the person to learn more about their experience. Good profiles present support from other people to boost reputation through recommendations and endorsements in the skills section. By looking at lots of other profiles you will gain insight into what you want from your own profile.
Start filling out your profile. Enter all your jobs showing the company, job title and dates for each job. Enter your education – all colleges you attended and degrees you have
Find a good picture of you. Ideally you should get a professional photo from a professional photographer. Upload the picture following the instructions from LinkedIn.
Add skills and expertise. You can have up to 50 so start entering keywords that describe your experience and skills.

Taking these basic steps will at least get you in the game and put you in position to communicate with the rest of the business world.

If you want more information, check out other Interview Doctor blogs about using LInkedIn for job search and talent acquisition at our blog. Towards the bottom at the right side is a search box. You can enter the word “LinkedIn” to see some of the many articles I’ve written about LinkedIn. I also have a white paper on the subject. You can also get information about setting up your LinkedIn profile in my second book, Resumes 3.0, available on Amazon.

If you are in Northeast Ohio, please come see me on November 19 at the Hudson Library to learn more about using LinkedIn for job search. If you are out of the area, drop me a note. I can’t wait to meet you and help you ramp up your social media experience.