Desigining Your Social Recruiting Strategy - a SilkRoad Technology eBook

designing yourSocial Recruiting Strategy

a SilkRoad technology eBook

©2010 SilkRoad technology, inc. // www.silkroad.com

01 // DESIGNING YOUR SOCIAL RECRUITING STRATEGY

OverviewThe benefits of social networking and Web 2.0 technology are now being realized across all talent management processes, but perhaps the greatest of these can be seen in the recruiting process.

In today’s market, more and more HR managers and recruiters are realizing the potential of social networks to engage the right people and connect with top talent–for little-to-no cost. Companies like Ernst & Young, Cisco, and Taco Bell boast over 30,000 fans on Facebook alone.

Nearly 70% of all companies are already leveraging social networks in their recruiting efforts, yet others don’t know where to begin. For those who haven’t implemented a social media recruiting strategy, the most commonly asked questions from HR managers and recruiters are:

• Should we be “doing” social recruiting at all?

• Where do we start? Twitter? Facebook? LinkedIn?

• How do we measure our progress and stay successful?

The goal of this eBook is to help you understand why it’s necessary for you to use social networks to boost your recruiting efforts and how to begin.

“Use of Web 2.0 Tools for Recruiting increased from 21% of those surveyed in 2008, to over 43% in 2009, a 105% growth.”//Aberdeen Group, 2009, HR Executive’s Guide to Web 2.0: Cracking the Code for Talent Management//

2010 Social Network User Stats

+400 million using Facebook+65 million using LinkedIn +75 million using Twitter

http://www.silkroad.com

http://www.facebook.com/ernstandyoungcareers?ref=search&sid=583581461.4050244446..1

http://www.facebook.com/Cisco.Learning?ref=search&sid=583581461.2992336004..1#!/Cisco.Learning?v=wall&ref=search

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Taco-Bell-Careers/38614264036?ref=ts#!/pages/Taco-Bell-Careers/38614264036?v=



Business Drivers for Social MediaAs you know, talent acquisition is the force that keeps your organization alive. It is the first step to building a successful workforce and retaining that workforce. Because of this, talent acquisition requires special attention.

Organizations can no longer ignore the vast potential of leveraging social networking sites in their talent management strategies. If you can reduce recruiting costs, increase your reach, and find more qualified talent through social recruiting, shouldn’t your company be maximizing their efforts? One of the greatest aspects of improving your recruiting process through social media is that it does not require a complete overhaul of your current system. Don’t be confused; social recruiting and social networks can’t replace your recruiting tools, but when used in conjunction with your current process the results are unbeatable.

Competitive AdvantageeMarketer reported in October 2009 that 74% of all Internet users have a more positive impression of companies that utilize new media to communicate them. If using Web 2.0 technology sets the tone for a positive impression, with all else being equal, candidates and employees will view the company that IS leveraging social media to be more desirable. Capitalizing on the networking features of

these tools are intriguing factors that hold the attention and interest of potential candidates, setting the tone for a strong competitive advantage. Making an effort certainly improves your chances at becoming an employer of choice.

OpenHire offers your organization a social

recruiting strategy right out of the box with features that facilitate social

sharing and networking.

Did you know?

of Internet users have a more positive impression of companies that utilize new media to communicate with them.

//source: eMarketer Oct 2009//

74%




Express Your Talent BrandSocial profiles help reveal the human side of your organization, giving it personality. Show off a “day-in-life” at your organization in the voice of your employees through a blog or photos. What better way to express your talent brand and show off what it’s really like to work for your company!

Hire Quality CandidatesRelying solely on Monster, CareerBuilder, and other major job boards is not enough anymore. You need to make social recruiting a complementary component to your existing strategies. Social recruiting provides a targeted, viral reach to the right candidates. It empowers employee referrals and enables companies to reduce recruiting costs by involving the whole company in the hiring process. Referrals from social networks or personal connections produce the highest quality hires at the lowest cost and have proven to lead to higher retention rates.

Immediate and Long Term Cost SavingsSetting up and maintaining Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn accounts will cost you nothing more than time and staff resources. Compare that to the cost of advertising on job boards and hiring agencies and it’s no wonder HR departments are looking for ways to shift their recruitment strategies to include low-cost social recruiting techniques. Not to mention the long term benefits of actually finding best-fit talent that will offer increased productivity.

Find Candidates for Hard-to-Fill PositionsSearching for candidates is also a great benefit of leveraging social networks for recruiting. You can slice and dice the “data” that social profiles list, such as: location, experience, skill sets and interests. With such advanced searching techniques you can find those gurus and executives that would otherwise be much more difficult to find–especially if they aren’t even actively seeking a new opportunity!

YOUR ORGANIzATION CAN EASILY ExpRESS ITS

TALENT BRAND THROUGH CUSTOMIzABLE CAREER

pORTALS AND SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY.tip!




Reach Passive CandidatesNot only do you want to attract and acquire top talent, but also the best fit talent for your unique organization. One of the most challenging aspects to filling your open positions is that more often than not the best talent out there isn’t in the market for a new job. So why are these “passive” candidates so important? With 99% of active applicants looking for a job due to being fired, laid off, a dislike of their work environment (or their boss!), there’s often a negative emotion

associated with the experience. passive candidates, on the other hand, are motivated by opportunity and are looking for a challenge, advancement or career move. These candidates have retained their current position for a reason and are a valuable asset to their employer. As numerous articles, papers and blog posts support, the desire to recruit passive candidates is on the rise and social media opens the door to millions of users allowing themselves to be discovered.

Build Relationships and Respond Quickly to Changing Business NeedsSocial recruiting is about building relationships with passive and active candidates by having online conversations rather than transactions. Gone are the days of one-sided job advertising. Sure, leveraging social networks is a FREE method of traditional job advertising but they aren’t going to work without engagement

OpenHire allows recruiters

to search and capture profiles from all of the major

social networks and import them directly into the

applicant tracking system–all without ever having

to leave the system or login across multiple sites.

Did you know?

The “passive candidate” population (those not actively seeking employment on job boards, postings, etc.) makes up 84 percent of

our workforce population. //source: HRMreport.com//


http://www.hrmreport.com/article/Passive-Candidate-Strategies-Winning-the-War-for-Talent/



The Early Adopter Catches the Worm...

and conversation. If you’re building your relationships (and thus your talent pipeline) over time, when the day comes that you need to rapidly fill a position, you’ve got the right network of people to turn to for help.

Start Here…If you haven’t already, begin by creating a corporate LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter account. At a minimum you’ll need a personal LinkedIn account for yourself as an individual recruiter.

If your company has already established social network pages (maybe through the marketing department) carve out a section to feature jobs and talent branding content–or better yet, go ahead and start new pages specifically for this content.

The ultimate goal here is to use social media as a window into what it’s like to work at your organization and begin facilitating those online conversations.

Ideally, HR should also encourage the use of personal blogs and social network profiles by employees and develop an incentive program to get them involved and recruiting through their own social networks. Have fun experimenting with new forms of social media and go with your gut to determine if they are the right fit for your company and recruitment strategy.

Are you ready? Go ahead and start looking for the best profile pictures and start building connections and sharing relevant content!

IS YOUR USERNAME TAkEN?

FIND OUT AT USERNAMECHECk.COM.tip!


http://usernamecheck.com/



Social Recruiting with LinkedInLinkedIn is the premier social networking site for professionals. Recruiting with LinkedIn to find talent is one of the best ways to communicate with a passive audience that can bring unique thinking, leadership and strategy to your organization.

By building authentic, virtual relationships through LinkedIn, people can make referrals or even proactively refer people to you when they hear of an opening. Imagine that you have 150 connections in your LinkedIn account and post an update about a new job opening to all of your groups. You have just communicated your message to about 3 million professionals online with a single, free posting.

Candidate search, coupled with LinkedIn job postings, helps you tap into the growing professional network that is adding millions of users every month!

LinkedIn Recruiting Tips• Build keyword and location profiles for

each of your open positions so you’ll know exactly what keywords to use when searching LinkedIn

• Search for employees based on references

• Search for candidates through past or current employers who may have employed people with the needed skills and experience

• Use InMail, your internal inbox at LinkedIn, to request assistance from your network or selected professionals to find a qualified candidate

• Respond to questions in the “Answers” section of LinkedIn

• For a fee, starting at $195 for a 30 day job posting, you can publish your open jobs on LinkedIn (multi-pack discounts are also available)

The average member is a college-educated 43-year-old making an annual household income of $107,278. //source: LinkedIn//


http://www.linkedin.com/answers/

http://www.linkedin.com/hiring

http://www.linkedin.com/hiring

http://advertising.linkedin.com/audience

1. Genuine recommendations from managers and colleagues

2. Complete profile with experience reflecting the skill set you seek

3. Memberships of groups pertaining to their profession

4. Has a picture

5. Has a decent sized network of connections

6. Lists interests and hobbies outside of work

7. Updates their status regularly

8. Asks and answers questions

9. Links to their employer, blog and other projects of interest

10. Showcases their involvement in non-paid projects related to their field (community, volunteer or conference)

What to Look for in a Candidate’s LinkedIn Profile



• Upgrade to premium accounts with InMail usage or purchase one of many LinkedIn Talent Advantage services for recruiters

• Create groups within LinkedIn to start a following for your jobs. Microsoft for example creates groups and then distributes jobs to these groups—it’s a great way for position type, degree type, Alumni, etc groups to be created and targeted with content and jobs

OpenHire allows you to

share your jobs directly with LinkedIn groups without

ever leaving the OpenHire system. With just a few

simple clicks, you could be driving candidates

directly back to your jobs!

Did you know?


http://talent.linkedin.com/



Social Recruiting with FacebookOf all the social networks users choose Facebook 2-to-1.* Begin by setting up your profile, either a Facebook “group” or Facebook “page.”

Which should you choose? Groups are generally the better choice for hosting a quick and active discussion on a particular topic, while pages are generally the better choice for building long-term relationships with your fans (employees and potential candidates for example). There is no right or wrong choice but a Facebook page may offer more opportunities to promote your talent-branding message and allow conversations to take place at the same time.

Facebook Group vs Facebook Page

Long urls

primarily used for discussions (wall and forum)

Messages to members via private messages

Less commercial, based on a topic

Members are generally willing to take action for the group and spread the word

Can promote with Facebook ads

Membership restriction to “invite only”

Customized vanity (short) URLs

Can be used for discussions (wall and forum)

Messages to members via targeted page updates

No mass messaging

Create events with invitations

Add applications

page Insights (visitor and engagement metrics)

Can promote with Facebook ads or widgets

Updates indexed by Google

Candidate can “Like It” (formerly they could become Fans)

Targeted stream posts based on language or location

promotional widgets featured on other sites to drive more fans

*Source // ReadWriteWeb.com//


http://www.facebook.com/advertising/?pages



Your Facebook page is your place to promote a blog or discussion forums, post photos and videos, feed your jobs, and build up a fan base.

Here are a couple of great examples of how Ernst & Young and Microsoft are targeting candidates with their Facebook page, allowing them to post and ask questions. The key here is to be active, present and responsive. keep your information interesting and current and be sure to answer questions!

Facebook Recruiting Tips• Get noticed by passive candidates with pay per click ads targeted by age, skill,

location, etc.

• Search for talent by visiting Facebook.com/directory and Facebook.com/find-friends

• Advertise your jobs for free by posting in the jobs section of the Facebook Marketplace

• Research applicants to get a feel for their online reputation and see if their profile supports their professional qualifications, their creativity, communication skills, and if they appear to be a good personality fit for your organization

• Adjust your privacy settings so your page can be found

• Link back to your Career Blog, Corporate Blog, and Career Site and let “Wall” conversations facilitate further promotion back to these key assets

• You should register with a user name that will function as a good short URL to your page like facebook.com/MyCompanyCareers


http://www.facebook.com/advertising/

http://www.facebook.com/directory/

http://www.facebook.com/find-friends/

http://www.facebook.com/find-friends/

http://apps.facebook.com/marketplace/

1. Respects the overlap between their personal and professional lives

2. Updates often

3. posts appropriate pictures of friends and family

4. keeps it non-controversial

5. Is a member of groups relevant to their profession

6. Illustrate solid communication skills

7. Appear to be well-rounded and a good personality fit for your organization

What to Look for in a Candidate’s Facebook Profile



• Edit the tabs (Facebook Applications) across the top of your Facebook page to offer many areas for candidates to explore: blog/news feed (using social RSS), extended information, YouTube, discussions, the notes tab to feature a blog post or list fun facts about your company, ask poll questions (ex. how do you decide which Facebook pages to like?), target students or executives, photos.

Social Recruiting with TwitterOne of the coolest things about Twitter, like Facebook and LinkedIn, is the searching component. Again, recruiters should be seeking the right candidate talent profiles and starting up a conversation or leveraging their personal networks to find additional referrals and candidates.

To get started simply create an account, choose a professional profile name (or handle), brand your profile to reflect your company, post some “tweets” and begin following people. It’s that easy! Your Twitter presence will grow from there!

Tweets (140 character messages) let you post information and have conversations that engage your followers, allowing you to:

• Advertise your jobs for free

• Find people by skill, location, interest, etc

• Find industry experts

• keep candidates updated on events and new programs

OpenHire allows you to share your jobs

directly with Twitter without ever leaving the OpenHire system.

With just a few simple clicks, you could be driving candidates directly

back to your jobs!

Did you know?




Twitter Basics• Tweets will show up on your profile and on the home page of those who have

requested to follow you

• “handle” is another name for user name

• put an @ in front of a person’s handle to direct a message to them

• Re-tweet posts you think are noteworthy that someone else tweeted by typing RT @ followed by the user name of the person you are re-tweeting

• Because tweets are only 140 characters, use short URLs

• You can follow anyone

• Use # (hash) to tag posts (ex. #jobs We have a need for…)

• Leverage search.twitter.com for advanced searching or other tools like http://tweepz.com/ or http://www.locafollow.com/

• Twitter is public so be conscious of what you’re posting

• Schedule tweets in advance using tools such as: (http://www.socialoomph.com/)

• Don’t always make your tweets about you and your company–be informative and helpful too

• The key is relevance–creating relevant dialog and following relevant people

The most important tip for a successful twitter account is INTERACTION. You want to create a relationship with fellow Twitter users, not just broadcast a message.

When you leverage recruiting software, your job postings can be automatically fed to Twitter as they are posted to your corporate career site–how cool is that! That’s like social recruiting on autopilot...but remember, it’s about engagement and not just posting jobs.

SHORTEN Up THE CHARACTERS YOUR URLS TAkE Up,

TRY HTTp://BIT.LY/

FIND pEOpLE TO FOLLOW WITH TWELLOW.COM

tip!

tip!


http://tweepz.com/

http://www.locafollow.com/

http://www.socialoomph.com/

http://bit.ly/

http://www.twellow.com/



Using the Right ToolsNow that you’ve got a firm grasp on the three key social networking sites, keep going! The goal is to make the right connections, to be where your target audience is. There are literally TONS of social networks out there; many are niche sites, focused on specific professions and interests. Think globally. Although each of the top platforms are global, many other social sites are regionally focused and shouldn’t be ignored by global recruiters. Try not to rule anything out!

CURIOUS TO SEE HOW “GENEROUS” YOU ARE?

OR HOW INFLUENTIAL YOU ARE? pUT YOUR

TWITTER HANDLE INTO TWITALYzER FOR A REpORT. OTHER

TOOLS THAT INTEGRATE WITH TWITTER YOU MIGHT WANT TO

CHECk OUT ARE TWEETDECk.COM, TWITTERJOBSEARCH.COM

OR TWEETAJOB.COM.

tip!

Follow My Jobs;ourITjobs

Follow My Jobs;marketingjobs

Follow My Jobs;EngineerJobs

CREATE MULTIpLE, TARGETED HANDLES WITHIN YOUR

ORGANIzATION FOR DIFFERENT JOB TYpES

(Ex: IT, MARkETING, ENGINEERING, INTERNSHIpS, ETC)tip!


http://www.twitalyzer.com

http://www.tweetdeck.com

http://www.twitjobsearch.com/

http://www.tweetajob.com



Take the Time To ResearchOften, taking the time to research prospects and using the information you learn to make a connection can really make the difference. You are more likely to capture the attention of a passive candidate and make a successful placement when you take the time to identify why they are a good fit for your company and find ways to connect on a personal level.

Make Sure Your Career Site is EngagingMore than likely, once you’ve piqued the interest of a candidate; they’re going to visit your corporate site and career portal to specifically research everything they can about your organization.

The candidate will want to know what your organization does, what you stand for, what the culture is like, what advancement opportunities are available and that’s just the beginning! The more information you provide them on your career site, the more engaged they are likely to become. This initial engagement is one of the most crucial moments for many organizations and job seekers.

OpenHire allows recruiters

to share open positions on their own social profiles,

plus over 80 niche job boards and social sites and

over 5000 sites through SimplyHired and Indeed’s

extended network. Reach your target audience

with ease.

Did you know?




A robust career center is a prime avenue for delivering your talent brand and a positive candidate experience. Studies show that nearly one half of workers indicate their company’s brand or image played an important role in their decision to apply for a job at their respective workplace. It’s also immensely important to make sure that your talent brand is consistent with your corporate brand. You want to be honest so that the people you attract are the right fit for your organization and not disappointed that what you’ve advertised isn’t reality. If the latter is the case, you can be certain that they won’t be around for long! You can also link to your corporate Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter pages (and be sure all your social network pages also lead back to your career site).

A great career site is the critical juncture towards building a relationship with all types of candidates, both passive and active. In addition to social networking, your talent branding message, career opportunity content and job listings are elements of a career site that can’t be overlooked. Even starting an FAQ section where candidates can ask questions and get real answers would be a great addition to your existing career site.

OpenHire’s

“Apply. Connect. Share” feature allows

candidates to, not only apply for a job,

but also share it with others through

social sites, in addition to traditional

mediums like email.

Did you know?




Start A Blog Targeting Your CandidatesUsing social media to provide a window into what it looks like to work for your organization provides validation for a candidate that leads to a feeling of trust and genuine interest in your company. Candidates ExpECT to be able to find out what it is really like to work for a company and they respect the companies that make that process easy for them. A corporate blog is a great place to start.

Blogging Tips

1. Use a sub domain on your company’s established domain name (ex. http://careerblog.company.com)—much better than using a Blogger, Typepad or Wordpress hosted URL

2. Use a tool that makes blogging easy (e.g. Wordpress or a tool that is prepackaged with your career site portal)

3. Write often

4. Answer questions with blog posts and be sure to ask questions that will facilitate comment answers

5. Encourage comments (don’t turn them off! That’s not blogging)

6. Invite guest blog posts from executives, managers and employees

7. Be a resource and give advice while linking to relevant articles across the web

8. Tag your posts in addition to standard categories

9. keep posts targeted around a focused theme or set of keywords to shoot for good rankings in the search engines

10. Use search-friendly URLs with your post title in the URL instead of having URLs that look like yourblog.com/?page=343

11. Submit to search engines (here’s where you go for Google)

12. promote your social networks with emails to existing candidates in your database and on your career portal


http://blogsearch.google.com/ping?hl=en



You can incorporate social networking into your career site with functionality like blogs and wikis to expose your organization and employee base to prospective candidates. This can be your company’s corporate blog or recruitment blog dedicated specifically towards potential employees.

No content is more exciting for candidates to read than day-in-the-life blog posts by the very co-workers they might be working with in the near future! publishing employee-generated content that shows the real soul of your company is the best method for showcasing its culture. Additionally, using photo, video and audio sharing helps those stories come to life! Corporate blogs are also a great place for hiring managers to share information on their current vacancies and needs!

Your corporate career blog will pay dividends in the long run as you build awareness of your organization and a relationship with that candidate–making it that much more comfortable for them to choose to build a career with your company.

Organizations that utilize blogs, wikis and internal social networks demonstrated a 26% year-over-year improvement in employee engagement. //Aberdeen Group, 2009, HR Executive’s Guide to Web 2.0: Cracking the Code for Talent Management//




Measuring Social Recruiting SuccessTo make your case for building a social recruiting strategy you must be diligent in measuring success trends over time. Building your “fan” base and showing a positive return on the time investment isn’t going to happen right away. The key is to watch for growth to justify your success.

Below are key performance indicators you should consider, but each company is different. Start by asking key questions about what a successful program will look like, this will help point you in the right direction.

Set clear goals and measure your progress.

Integrate Your Social NetworksMany tools exist to help you keep all your social networks up to date with new content without having to go to each one individually. Here are just a few of your options:

1. TwitterFeed.comThis is easy to set up and allows you to feed your blog to other services like Twitter and Facebook. Just enter a source URL for your careers or corporate blog and then the login information for your social network profiles. Be sure to create an account with Bit.ly and grab your ApI information and enter it into the advanced settings! You’ll also be able to see reports on how many people click through to your blog from these sources.

• Visitors

• Visits

• page Views

• Subscribers/Followers/Fans

• LinkedIn Group Members

• Linking/Backlinks

• Tiny URL clicks

• Retention rates

• Referral success rates

• Candidates by source

• Quality of hire (based on 90 day and annual performance reviews)

• New hire wins (how often do you successfully recruit top talent)


http://twitterfeed.com



2. Ping.fmIf you want to do a simple update to all your favorite social media profiles including Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn, you can post from your phone or email from anywhere with this easy account.

3. Add the Twitter Application to Facebook

Automatically post your Twitter updates to Facebook by adding this Facebook application to your account

4. TweetDeckDownload a desktop or mobile application to post to both Twitter and Facebook.

ConclusionSocial media is changing the recruiting landscape just like Monster and CareerBuilder job board sites did years ago. With hundreds of millions of users worldwide social media has created a new avenue for recruiters to reach top talent.

Although you might not be actively seeking passive candidates now, the reality is they make up 84% of the working population and it’s in the best interest of your company to connect with this group of people. By leveraging social networking technology in your recruitment process and getting your jobs in front of these candidates you are taking the first step towards building a relationship and significantly broadening your reach.

Get creative with your social recruiting strategy and ensure you attract the ones you want. By not leveraging social media in recruiting you risk not being able to tap into the networks of these qualified and well-educated professionals and make a great first impression.


http://ping.fm/

http://apps.facebook.com/twitter//session

http://apps.facebook.com/twitter//session

http://www.tweetdeck.com



About SilkRoad technology and OpenHire RecruitingSilkRoad technology inc. is a leading provider of a full suite of talent management solutions that significantly improve the talent within its more than 1500 customers worldwide. With a suite that includes solutions for recruiting; onboarding and life events; performance; learning; employee intranets; and Core HR, SilkRoad offers the most comprehensive talent management suite on the market.

SilkRoad’s recruiting management solution, OpenHire, offers the most complete solution for integrating social recruiting into your recruitment strategy. This is done in several unique ways:

Search and Capture Passive and Active CandidatesOpenHire integrates seamlessly with all major social network sources, including LinkedIn, Twitter & Facebook, allowing recruiters to seamlessly search for passive candidates on popular social networking websites, all from within the OpenHire interface. Not to mention, OpenHire integrates will all major job boards as well. After capturing the most qualified candidate profiles into the recruiting database, it’s easy to begin nurturing those relationships without ever leaving the system.

Job DistributionOpenHire also integrates directly with Simply Hired and Indeed to ensure that your job openings get posted to over 5000 partner sites. Easily reach passive and active candidates where they are.

Apply, Connect & ShareAdditionally candidates and recruiters alike can share open positions through social networks with a click of a button! Rather than just allowing candidates to apply, they can see whom else they might know at your organization through integrations with LinkedIn & share open opportunities with their networks!




Career Portal StudioDon’t just post your jobs, engage top talent & showcase your talent brand with a superior career site! You’ll have the flexibility to change and update content on the fly, using HR-friendly administration tools, so you virtually eliminate the need to get IT involved.

partner with us and you’ll have all the tools you need to implement a social recruiting strategy, power an engaging career portal, find top talent, and know where your recruiting dollars are most effective.

To learn more and watch a few videos about OpenHire social recruiting capabilities and how social networks changed recruiting,

please visit http://www.silkroad.com/social.


http://www.silkroad.com/social