The simplest form of social recruiting is using Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+ and Twitter to announce a job opening, or to broadcast that you’re looking for work.  While these tools will help get the word out, you can’t be sure that right people have heard your message.  And let’s face it — sifting through wall posts or blanketing a generic message to your entire network has not proven to be very successful in most cases.  

 2. Making the Right Connections

Taking it a step further, social recruiting is about leveraging the right connections at the right time.  Job seekers will reach out their network (friends and friend-of-friends) to see which of their connections work for a particular hiring company.  They’ll ask about culture, job availability, and fit.  And hiring managers will do the same within their network.  They’ll ask for employees to refer candidates to help alleviate risk.  This method insures the message is getting to a targeted connection that might be able to help.  But it can be quite time consuming.  

 3. Curating an Active Talent Community

The most effective level of social recruiting leverages a platform like Ascendify, for talent communities to thrive.  Within talent communities, meaningful connections are established by leveraging connections within all social networks.  Employers, job seekers, recruiters, college counselors, mentors, and advisors, all play a role in matching job seekers with job openings.  The interactions within the community are relevant because all members have a common interest in the topics.  So, they share applicable news, post job openings, offer advice, make introductions, and build credible relationships. Once these relationships are established, job seekers have the knowhow to make better choices when applying, and hiring managers are able to source candidates that are a better fit.

Job seekers have always looked to their friends and family to help find work, and social media has made it easier to take networking a step further. As recruiting becomes more social, the old saying “It’s not what you know, it’s who you know”, will ring true even louder.

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Ascendify is a new social recruiting platform that’s transforming the candidate’s experience by improving the way job seekers connect with hiring managers. Ascendify dramatically reduces the time and effort involved in hiring by helping organizations build communities that leverage Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+ and other social networks to help people connect.