How do you usually hire new employees? Do you share advertisements on TV, newspapers and other old-fashioned advertising media? Though it is still useful, there is more practical way to save your time. It is using the social media.
More and more people go online. They do not only use search engines to look for information or visit commercial websites to shop. Today, they spend their time most on the World Wide Web to access their social media accounts. It means that you will need to use the same platforms to get connected to them.
The social media users are not just the commoners. Even professional and famous people also us the same tools to communicate and share thoughts to others. If you are looking for the suitable candidates to your vacancies, it is going to be a good strategy when using the social media platforms to find them. It is what now called as social hiring.
Recruiting new employees using the social media has been a trend in industrial field. Companies create business account on different platforms such as LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter. This idea looks simple but when those organizations can find and engage with the talented candidates to their employment needs, it gets much easier to start growing the business. Even so, not many of them can do this effectively and well or just get trapped in the dynamic flow of social networking like sharing unimportant matters to public.
Social media recruiting is a potential way to find and greet the right candidates. However, it may look more complicated than other recruiting tools. Therefore, you will need to invest extra time, strategy and skills to manage it. These are some tips to use if you want to successfully utilize the social media power in engaging in talent pool:
- Make sure you know where to find the people. If you want to find more focused audience, you can open account at industry-focused sites or blogs. For obtaining the larger database, social networking platforms such as Facebook and LinkedIn are the place.
- Use status updating feature to post the job vacancies. If you have already built the network, you can tell those people about the position opening by updating a status. Even if you can’t find the right candidates in this network, your friends or followers may inform this shared status to someone who is perfect for the job. It is like marketing product using word of mouth strategy which is free and practical.
- The online recruiting process can be started from your office. Even if you do not make official announcement to the company’s social account, let your current employees to share the information to people in their own network. They probably have suitable recommendations for the reliable people you can hire next.
- Be aware of the online image. It is easy to build reputation on the internet, but it is tough to manage it. Bad reviews can easily spread. Therefore, you need to create positive image in front of your online audience. Take for example by the willingness to help others if you can.
- Remember that the quality is the more priority matter to gain than the quantity. It is easy to grow a large network on social media. However, if you want to own the quality network, do it naturally instead of just adding or confirming new friends blindly. You may just deal with spammers.
- Optimize the recruiting process by using the search feature on the social media. Facebook, LinkedIn and other search engines have the function to help finding certain people. You can use it to screen the potential candidates that match to the offered positions based on the location, skills, education and others.
- Make accurate and relevant account on the social media platforms. You are not the only user on Facebook or LinkedIn. There are also jobseekers out there that are probably looking for company like yours to get in. Therefore, you need to start showing who you really are, in order to be easily found by the potential candidates.
Why should you use the social media as one of the staff recruiting tools? People used to use the social networking sites for creating network and communicating with others. But today, it is more flexible to be used for different purposes, including the employees’ recruitment. It also gives some benefits related to this matter.
Recruiting new employees using the social media is a practical. It is also free because you do not need to invest any money to create the accounts. The large network offers you bigger pool of candidates’ database. You will be able to make direct communication too to the potential professionals before hiring. All of them are done from behind the computer, letting you save more time for other tasks on the priority list.
Read excellent article about Best HR Management Training.
