The recruitment industry has undergone a dramatic shift over the past decade. The rise of Facebook and Twitter has given recruiters the opportunity to engage with candidates directly. Here at Online Resourcing our focus is on adding value for our clients as well as attracting top candidates. Through our Talent Match application and careers site development we help our clients get to these sought after individuals first. This allows our clients to sell themselves and attract talent. The data you can build allows us to know the candidates’ careers better than they do.

Use social media to your advantage

As a recruiter it is important to spot in demand candidates before they’ve become active on the market. Use social media to keep yourself in the loop. LinkedIn gives you access to a full career timeline so you can find a candidate who’s been in the same role for a long time and you can be the one to tell them they should consider a promotion. The fact you have engaged with them and taken a real interest in their career to date gives you an advantage over those competitors using old-school recruitment methods like cold calling.

Establish lasting relationships

Building long-term relationships and actively engaging with your candidate takes time but you can quickly build relationships using initial connections on social media as a platform. Like and share content to make yourself visible. These relationships ensure you are the first call a candidate makes when they’re beginning to think of a new role.

Build your brand

The most sought after candidates are absolutely inundated with calls and emails from recruiters. Some even choose not to create a LinkedIn profile in an effort to avoid this. These candidates that aren’t so active on social media may be more difficult to reach directly, so building a brand is vital.

A well-known brand acts as an introduction, saving you working to convince your candidate to stay on the phone and giving you a platform to build on. For those candidates who actively avoid speaking to recruiters your brand is the only thing separating you from your competitors, when they do decide they’re looking for a move they are then in a position to reach out to you.

Work smarter to effectively engage your candidates, use your data wisely and you’ll avoid the days of chasing in demand candidates. This will make the process less stressful for you and more successful for your clients.