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Social Media Strategies for HR Recruiters
Last month’s Social Recruiting Summit officially put a Web 2.0 stake in the ground, but many recruiters are already using social media to attract talent. What tactics have you used and what results have you achieved?
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7 Answers
I recruit and consult exclusively in HR and have found, similar to Brad above, that LinkedIn and the many HR-related groups have been a valuable source of both candidates and referrals. I will continue to use it and would highly recommend it to others because it provides a centralized means of reaching your exact target audience.
I have also had success in sourcing qualified candidates and referrals using Twitter. Twitter provides an opportunity to connect with a large number of individuals and groups with common interests if you are somewhat selective (but not exclusive) about your followers as well as those you are following. The results have been mixed using Facebook. It provides great outreach but more of the resulting candidates have not met the position requirements. I will continue to make use of it for outreach.
Overall, social networks and media have significantly increased the speed of generating qualified candidates from a vast number of sources.
Guys, I just do not understand Twitter.. Try as I might I just cannot understand how to connect to groups using it. so advice ref: just what to click would be great.
LinkedIn is a good source of people but the vast majority are solo guys trying to scrap a buck here and there, and the crazy schemes they try.
My advice is to keep these web sites as back ups but to work around them. Go for the referrals rather than the guys on there themselves.
Target the VPs and 'C' level guys of real companies as potential sources. Ge one interested in a move and then discuss who they know that they would be happy to have working forthem again, and work the referral.
There are pros and cons to using social networking to facilitate your recruitment needs. In my case, looking for the special five star service oriented employee proves somewhat difficult. If you are looking for the masses, this may be an excellent way to get quantity response but leaves you with going through all of them and select those that meet your criteria. In my case, I am the solo recruiter and thus have to gear my focus in high quality employees in specific specialties which has proven to be difficult using this media.
I am an HR Consultant specialising in generalist HR for SME's in London. In my experience it really depends on who you are recruiting for. The twitter and facebook alerts certainly generate a candidate base in certain roles but the linked in network has been more useful for more senior roles. I've also found that the social networking arena is really good for keeping track of candidates - they might not be ready or free to fill a vacancy now by keeping in touch especially with good candidates, I have filled some roles quite quickly. This economic climate has most definitely changed the rules as far as the default call to a recruitment agent but the social networking platform has a code and ethic about it that requires alot of time and energy keeping posts up to date - heaven knows what we'll be doing when we start recruiting through Second Life!!!!!!!!!!
I am still a bit skeptical of the back fire that may occur....from the recruting from the sites of social media's....
I think one way to make sense out of resources such as Twitter, and to avoid some of the problems raised by others who've responded here, is to treat social media simply as another source of information about prospective and actual candidates. That is to say, Twitter may not help you identify candidates, but for those candidates that use it, you can learn a lot more about them by following their tweets than you can from their résumés alone. Similarly, you can develop a deeper view of people by reading their posts on Facebook or in any LinkedIn Groups in which they're active. And who knows? You might build up enough of a "social network" on your own to generate meaningful numbers of useful referrals. Social media may not be appropriate primary recruiting tools, but I believe they can be worthy adjuncts to almost anyone's recruiting strategy. A great discussion, too! :-)
I would venture that very few are utilizing social media as the sole source for recruitment. However, as a supliment to tried and true practices, a believe it is proving to be a formiddable force. I have personally found LinkedIn to be a fantastic source for more niche or hard to fill roles.
Social Media continues to be so dynamic, that I think it is often overwhelming for those just getting started. I advise that you pick a few positions or types of roles and then one or two media sources that you are going to use, and again, think of it is an addition, not subtraction from your current recruiting practices.
Probably the biggest mistake that I see is individuals accessing a group or on-line medium and immediately pushing or presenting a job. It is important to listen first, become a contributing member to conversations, and then start talking about your opportunities. It is important to build credibility...even on-line.
We are launching our facebook page in the next month, and I am curious to see what comes of that. As mentioned earlier, I have had great success with LinkedIn and it is one of my first resources for some of the leadership roles I recruit for.
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