Countless words have been written around the buzz that is social recruiting.
For many, though, the first challenge is simply how to maximise the potential of your networks by integrating them into your online recruitment activity. And for most, that means job board campaigns.
To help you complement your organisation’s job board activity, we’ve put together a handful of the best networking tips we’ve come across:
1. Attract passive and active jobseekers
Many job boards now allow you to post a live feed of your vacancies through your social channels, automatically and at no extra cost. So if people are looking for vacancies on LinkedIn or new opportunities on Twitter, your job will be there.
By posting your vacancy out on social networks, you’re making them more visible to a passive audience, allowing you to attract potentially unreachable candidates as a result.
2. Screen not source
Scouring Twitter and LinkedIn is very unlikely to result in you having hundreds of suitable CVs on demand – and neither service was designed with this in mind. However, once you have a list of eager applicants from your active job board campaigns, social networks are an excellent way to start scaling down your shortlist.
Find out what makes each contender tick, read their blog, and find out what skills, connections and endorsements they possess. If you like what you see, connect and engage with them. That way you can be much more confident before inviting them to the interview stage, saving yourself and your candidates a lot of time in the process.
3. Build your brand image
From a wider perspective, being active on social platforms is a great way to build your employer brand and give prospective applicants a greater insight into what kind of company they could be working for.
Aside from this, potential candidates who see exciting new vacancies in their newsfeeds on a regular basis will have your company front of mind when they decide to move on and start actively searching for roles.
4. Use all available tools to ensure a well-rounded recruitment campaign
There’s a misconception that finding candidates who can be found solely via social and professional networks are potentially ‘low-hanging fruit’. As a result, many of the best candidates are being contacted blindly by dozens of hiring managers daily, and even the most suitable job offers they receive are becoming white noise.
In a similar vein, a recent research survey by Hyphen found that UK workers are shunning social media when applying for jobs because they doubt their informal applications will be taken seriously. Consequently, the study found that the number of professionals using social media has halved since last year.
So although social networks can help you reach a greater number of applicants, more traditional methods of finding work are still favoured by many of the most appealing candidates.
Instead of seeing it as an either/or situation, use your social media channels as an additional tool to make the most of a well-rounded recruitment campaign.
Ready to hire? Post your vacancy on reed.co.uk now, and start sharing your vacancies on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn instantly…
