Moving from “What” to “How” in Social Recruiting

It’s no secret that businesses understand the impact that social media can have on brand awareness, recruiting, and the all-important bottom line. The sheer size of these networks is staggering, and it allows businesses to put their companies in front of an enormous amount of people. As of yesterday, Twitter reached 500 million users a little over a month after Facebook announced they expect to have 1 billion users in August—which means roughly 1 out of 7 people on earth will have a Facebook page. There is no doubt that social media is here for the long haul.

However, there is a difference between casually spouting off the tremendous growth in social media and knowing how to capitalize on this phenomenon to bring the best talent to your organization. The blog on Social Talent raised an interesting point on social recruiting this week, stating “No longer is the question ‘What should I do?’ It seems we have moved on to the often more important question of ‘How can I implement this?’”
Establishing a social media presence for your company is more than simply creating a Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn company profile. You need to constantly monitor your social presence because increasing exposure to your brand can be a double-edged sword. Social recruiting is relatively new— there’s not a plethora of books, lectures, or case studies to fall back on when you have a question, which can be frustrating. At TweetMyJobs, we understand that embarking on a new way of recruiting can be a daunting task to undertake, and we’ve built our business around trying to make social recruiting easy to use for all businesses, not just the ones that grab the headlines.
To help you take that initial plunge, we’re offering up a few kernels of advice to help your business execute a social recruiting strategy.

1. Determine your objective. Social recruiting has a variety of benefits, and it’s important to have a clear definition of what you hope to gain from launching a social recruiting initiative. Are you only filling one position? An entire department? Or do you work for a company that always has open positions available? There’s no “one-size fits all” approach, and determining what your company’s needs are will help determine the types of tools that are required
2. Create the strategy. After determining your organization’s needs, develop a plan and understand the tools you need to accomplish your goals. There are services that can help you, whether you’re filling one position, or if you need the total package to help you manage recruiting efforts for a Fortune 500 company.
3. Execute. Once clear objectives are reached and a strategy is formulated, the execution phase does not seem as daunting. By finishing the first two steps, the prospective has shifted from “How do I do this?” to “Here’s what needs to be done.”

The fact is, we’re just defining what social recruiting is and isn’t and getting closer and closer to that blueprint for success. We’ve already determined that social recruiting is real and now it’s time to figure out the ways that your business can tap the huge social media pool. Despite the initial challenges, it’s essential to include social recruiting when thinking about how to fill your open positions. As Winston Churchill once said, “I never worry about action, but only inaction.” If you don’t take advantage of social recruiting, and act, your competitors may leave you behind.