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Leverage social media to attract top talent to your organization |
by Meg Toland The eThe advent of social media has revolutionized the recruitment world. Companies now have the opportunity to sell their brand to a much broader audience of both active and passive job-seekers. Today, with social networking websites, online discussion forums and digital communities, businesses can promote available positions in a more widespread and visible way, and use the Internet to gain a stronger personal and professional understanding of candidates. Unfortunately, as with any rapid change, adapting a business to stay abreast of the constantly evolving social media space can cause significant growing pains. Companies now find themselves facing new challenges they may be ill-prepared to deal with, including training, implementation, cultural resistance and liability. Recruitment professionals in particular are finding that harnessing the power of Web 2.0 is a murky practice. The following guidelines will address some of these challenges while offering tips on how to position your business to effectively attract top talent through social media. Recognize the power and durability of social media. The social media revolution poses the greatest threat to those who choose to ignore it. With more than 80 percent of Americans utilizing social media, it’s safe to say that this “trend” is here to stay. Failing to understand the drastic impact that social media is having on active and passive job-seeker behavior could prove detrimental, and those companies that resist change will most likely be left behind. Many believe that social networking websites could eventually outpace online job boards, since social media provides greater ease in locating talent, access to more honest data about candidates and the ability to interact in two-way personal dialogue with job-seekers. The future of your organization could rely on the realization that social media is playing an increasingly important role in the recruiting process. Have a plan. Each platform has specific nuances. Try to get a grasp on one site/application before moving on to another. Also, keep in mind that with all of this online noise, it is becoming more of a challenge to attract and retain the attention of your target audiences. Always be thinking about how you can add value through your new online recruitment presence: Consider building one or more social media sub-communities, produce compelling content and be consistent in facilitating communication with prospective candidates. Control your message. A great benefit of using social media is that it allows you to instantly personalize your message. It is vital, however, that you be aware of who controls your corporate voice. Whether your company’s messaging is done by one person in-house, a team at your marketing agency, or a combination of several individuals, it should be someone who understands your company and can speak consistently on its behalf. Piggyback on marketing. To maximize your social media recruitment strategy, it’s a good idea to arrange a marriage between marketing and HR. As most marketing departments have already started utilizing Web 2.0 technology for branding, they may be able to help you accelerate your efforts. Connect with your marketing team to find out what social media platforms and applications they are using, which ones seem to be the most effective, and how to successfully navigate through the barrage of information. Communicate your recruitment goals and see how they can integrate with existing campaigns. Promote company culture and work environment. Most job-seekers are drawn to work for a company with a strong brand and a culture they can take pride in. Social media communities allow you to create a personal relationship between your business and prospective candidates and showcase your organization’s personality. By including company news, outing photos or video messages from senior staff, you can paint a more personal picture and better communicate the value of your business to prospective hires. Leverage advanced applications. Social media sites like LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook offer an array of features and applications that are constantly evolving. Each website has unique tools designed to make a recruiter’s job more navigable. Take advantage of LinkedIn’s advanced keyword search feature, which allows you to hunt for active and passive job-seeker profiles through detailed fields similar to those provided on Internet job boards. Engage in and create groups where your target candidate audience is likely to be found and facilitate discussions. Facebook Fan Pages provide a great way to keep track of those interested in your company while communicating the more personal face of your brand. With the ability to post videos, photos and more, these pages show off your company’s personality, which is very appealing to today’s job-seeker. Twitter management applications such as HootSuite and TweetDeck make it easy for recruiting professionals to control multiple Twitter handles while allowing them to build and follow a more qualified target candidate audience. Additionally, these tools allow for monitoring what users are “tweeting” about your company or topics relating to the expertise you are sourcing for. Proactively address legal ramifications. Many large, publicly traded companies are still guided by SEC regulations. This has caused some CEOs and senior-level management to shy away from social media applications, which are still in legal limbo. In evaluating talent, social media outlets provide a legal means to check candidates’ backgrounds. This can be tricky, nonetheless. It would be wise to come up with a formal policy for using social media to check backgrounds to ensure you are not discriminating against any particular candidate. Strap down for the long haul. Have patience with your efforts in the social media space. It takes time to build quality online networks and a following. Creating a Twitter account on Monday will not guarantee you a noticeable return by Tuesday. There is a lot of noise to contend with, and gaining ground can be a slow process. If done well, however, positive results are likely to follow. It is inevitable that most companies will be greatly impacted by the power of social media. Ultimately, the businesses that are best able to utilize these online channels to attract talent will put themselves a step ahead of their competitors. Those that choose to ignore social media will not only fall behind, but could find themselves out of the running entirely. Social media can be exciting, frightening and confusing all at the same time. But with patience and concentrated effort, social media can become a powerful tool for your company’s recruitment strategy. Meg Toland is marketing and communications director at Hollister Inc., a woman-owned, full-service, Boston-based staffing firm that recently pioneered Recruiting 2.0, a cutting-edge social media platform that connects top local talent with many of the area’s leading organizations.
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