Using Social Media As A Head Hunting Tool
With the increasing presence of computers and the internet, which is now global, employers and recruiters have a larger bank of potential employees who are also looking for jobs. Earlier, when jobs were advertised or found through headhunters and recruiting agencies, the available pool of potential employees for restricted. Now that social networking sites have expanded their user base, social media candidate sourcing is the new buzzword in finding top talent.
All employers want the best fit for the available jobs. The right candidate can help any employer increase and improve business. As larger numbers of professionals than ever before use any or all of the social networking sites, social media candidate sourcing is an even more effective recruitment tool.
The three main social networking sites are Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. Facebook is for social networking and friendships, LinkedIn is a more professional site, attracting a large workforce and Twitter is a microblogging site. YouTube and Google + are also part of the recruitment process. Apart from these there are a host of smaller, more niche sites like Bebo, Classmates, Ning, Worky, Friendster and Plaxo which can be used for recruitment purposes. There are different ways to use each site to attract the right talent.
So how do you go about using social media candidate sourcing?
Sign up for an account using the company name and register yourself, giving as much information as necessary. Some of the sites have special pages for companies. Update the content regularly.
Have a presence on the sites and even if small, try and build a brand name and attract followers. The larger the number of people in your network – coworkers, ex-workers, business associates, friends, classmates – the greater the chances of your getting the right candidate/s.
Spread the word that you are recruiting with details of the position, your requirements from the candidate and other information.
Paid ads onsite – this is another effective social media client sourcing tool. You can pay to put your jobs ads on LinkedIn, for example. Or you can run competitions or offer rewards as a way to get people on your network and tap into the talent pool.
If you have a separate company website, you should still have a presence on social networking sites. In fact, if the sites are linked there is even greater and faster exposure.
What is important when you use social media candidate sourcing is that you can actually check your candidates online and save a lot of time. For instance if you go through Facebook or LinkedIn pages of a potential candidate you can get a better idea of whether or not the candidate would be the right fit with your requirements.
Whether you are seeing top level, middle level or junior level candidates, you can surely us social medial candidate sourcing to find the right person for the job.
