Social Media for Recruiting

1 Nov ’09 JPappas © Jamie J. Pappas. All rights reserved.

Social Media for Recruiting

November 2009


We’re here to talk about Social Media

What is social media? Listening to your audience

Contributing via social media Tips & tricks of the trade Executive Support


What is social media?

Teams should have a clear plan in place before engaging in social media activities.

�  Blogs �  Feedback &

Suggestions �  Photos

�  Videos & Podcasting

�  Social Networks

�  News Aggregators

�  Social Bookmarking

�  Commerce & Collaboration

�  Communications & Entertainment


And a few more examples…



The audience

Tip: Know your reply ratio – try to keep them in balance – try to have a conversation.

A deep understanding of your audience is critical to building and joining conversations that add value to both your company and your audience.

Who… are we trying to reach?

Where… is our target audience?

How… are we going to engage with them?

What… are we going to share with them?

When… will we share it and how often?

Why… do they care?


What can you contribute via social media?


Social media does not live in isolation. It’s an extension of blogs, websites, and traditional media.

�  Links to PR, blogs, videos, photos, news, interesting articles

�  Conversation and debate

�  Connections with people and brands

�  Mix of broadcast and conversation

�  What else?


Go beyond “What are you doing?”


Candidates want to get to know the company, as well as well as the people at the company when making a decision.

�  Publish UGC that shows the real soul of the company and tells the story, use photo, video, audio to help those stories come to life

�  Have real Q&A sessions where candidates can ask questions, get real answers, and have this exchange be indexed and searchable

�  Build and cultivate the company’s candidate/career presence on Twitter, Facebook, Linked, etc. through real two-way dialogue

�  Encourage recruiters, hiring managers (all employees really) to seek out potential hires and build relationships with them


Tips for Using Social Media for Recruiting

�  The right profile: People follow people but also follow brands – make the brand image reflect what you want people to see about the company

�  Spread the word: Put a link on your e-mail footer, job postings, .com and other online accounts, e-mail your contacts and fellow recruiters and suggest the same

�  Keep the conversation going: Use social media to update people on current recruiting activities – not only job postings, but events, articles

�  Find top talent: Really good people are inquisitive so many will be checking out SM; think about how LinkedIn or Monster search is used by recruiters!

�  Job postings: Get your job headline right as that’s all that will be seen on most social sites. What are your key selling points? Brand – title – location?

�  Follow top candidates: Finding great people is hard; getting them to connect can be harder. See if you can follow them and start a conversation on Twitter.

�  Keeping in touch: Stay in touch with folks that leave, as well as those that have showed an interest in the company. You never know when they may be interested again or who they know that will be interested.


Top 50 Companies using Twitter for Recruiting

Source: http://www.job-hunt.org/job-search-news/2009/06/09/top-50-employers-recruiting-on-twitter/


Keys to Success on Any Platform

�  Committed resource(s) for each platform

�  Seed community with great content from committed contributors

�  Customize the look and feel to match objectives

�  Promote it!

�  Encourage active participation

�  Manage with consistency

�  Listen & Optimize

The full potential of a social media campaign is realized in the long-term, not in one-time campaigns.


Getting Executive Support

�  Tap into executives that “get it” or have shown and interest and enable them to be advocates

�  Highlight realistic goals

�  Be honest with budgetary needs – nothing is free

�  Articulate your goals per each tool

�  Metrics never hurt

- Are you getting more resumes?

- More high quality candidates?

- Filling jobs quicker?

- Spending less on recruiting?

Establishing clear goals for your efforts will help you to frame and execute your social strategy.


Key Take Aways

�  Set clear goals and match them with available tools

�  Start small and focused

�  Provide strong guidance and coaching at the outset

�  Communicate, communicate, communicate

�  Don’t underestimate the need for training

�  Committed staff is a must

�  Understand and embrace emerging social technologies –they’re important to us, and to you

Establishing clear goals for your efforts will help you to frame and execute your social strategy.


Questions?

Feel free to reach out to me at any time! Jamie Pappas Manager, Social Media Strategy [email protected] www.jamiepappas.com

Technology

Social Media for Recruiting