Social Media for Recruiting – Post and Pray approach?

Every decade brings a new buzzword with itself. This one brings – “Social Media”…

Early-users has definitely started calling it ALA “Dot Com Bubble” of internet. We have to remember that it merely serves as a “Tool” and not as an entire “Strategy” with a stand-alone usage.

Well, with this post I would like to highlight a big “Don’t” in Recruitment as far as social media goes. Social media does give a large visibility on internet with it’s advance tools and technology. However,
just merely using them does not mean that a Recruiter 1.0 (I call it Inbox version) upgrades to Recruiter 2.0 (Social Media). What do I mean?

– Let me explain….

A Recruiter 1.0 is one who gets a job requirement, post it to various job boards, newspapers etc and waits for his inbox to deliver goods. It’s a classical case of recruiter who “Post and Pray” to get good
resumes and fill in the requirement. Now suddenly this Recruiter 1.0 hears good things about Social Media craze and decides to use it to have a competitive advantage. So what does he do? He creates a log-in in Twitter / Facebook / Linkedin. Without putting too much thought-process – he starts bombarding them with loads of their requirements. He now thinks that he has become Recruiter 2.0 as he is leveraging latest recruitment technology. Take a stop now – Is he really adding any value to recruitment process? Is this a new version of Post and Pray Recruiter who previously used to depend on job board and this one depends on Social Media??

What is missing? – CANDIDATE ENGAGEMENT…..

The biggest advantage with social media is that it gives you a tremendous opportunity to touch-base a huge target audience – directly /indirectly. However – your success depends on how you engage your audience, increase your following and then use them as your network to spread message about open requirements.

OK – let me demonstrate my point.

Post and Pray Recruiter

Opens an account on Social Media.
Does very little to network with existing friends, colleagues and other network.
Bulk post all current requirements with copy-paste from job boards with bold URGENT on top of every posting.
Post and Pray for responses!
Pray for response!!
Still pray!!!
Grudges about Social media not working.
In a while – looses his interest and leaves his twitter / facebook blank.
Back to square one – post and pray!

A Real Recruiter 2.0

Opens an account on Social Media.
Includes his entire “real” network into “virtual” networking along with spreading awareness of these
networking sites and their usage.
Starts engagement process by trying to identify target audience and posting relevant topics.
Searching for top people in the industry / technology / domain – follow them.
Engage with various people about job/industry discussions – share news, knowledge.
Broadcast your twitter account on various internet channels to attract followers.
Contributes / responses to relevant tweets and share information. Make the presence feel to followers.
Creates a special place on social media to engage new requirements in attractive fashion; trying to create an
“Employer Brand”. Generates lots of curiosity / interest of followers /
audience in his/her social media activities.
Slowly and surely creates a platform to post jobs and receive proactive queries about new positions.

Interestingly – Social Media is still a very new channel in recruitment. There is no limit to how you can use them. It has a huge power in attracting right people; however it needs a little sensitivity to negate adverse effect. (Well, that’s a different topic)

In all – you need to decide whether you are a “Post and Pray” recruiter OR a Recruiter who is ready to explore new ways to engage people in Social Media. Do not use Social Media like your candidate database – it is definitely an ART to identify a section of your target audience and engage them. I would also advice organizations who are using twitter/FB accounts for PR/Sales activities. Don’t publish what you want people to see – Publish what people wants are interested in. It’s a gold-mine which give returns in longer term – don’t use it like database; it will backfire you…

Happy Socializing!!!! (Through Social Media).

Sarang Brahme

@sarangbrahme

Comment by pam claughton on August 13, 2010 at 11:07am: When you say 'engage people on social media', sharing news, knowledge, discussions, etc, how much time to you anticipate a recruiter spending on this? I this is where I have a bit of a disconnect with social media. I just don't have time to follow lots of people and chat with them, as I'm too busy working.

Comment by Sarang Brahme on August 13, 2010 at 11:48am: Pam,

I totally understand where you are coming from. However, one have to invest to earn returns. It's not huge time that one has to spend; even if you are spending 10 - 15 mins a day on these activities - you can build a good network within few months. It is as good as engaging and networking people face to face OR physically. Social network gives you tremendous space to do this. You must have invested some time to build your physical network of people / candidates which must be earning you goods now.

Comment by K.C. on August 13, 2010 at 1:14pm: Great blog!

Not much to add - except to point out that most great recruiters probably have a base of past contacts that they have met through searches, past clients or people they have placed. One way to jump into the fray and take advantage of many of the benefits that Sarang mentions is to set up a Social Web location (Linked In, Google, Twitter, Ning, Facebook what have you), and begin inviting your contacts to join you at this place... After a while you'll have a lot of them doing so - and if you choose the right location they're probably already there! This can become your base of Social Web interaction that you can now invite new folks to join and it should grow.

The best part is that like Sarang points, it doesn’t have to a huge investment of time. How about each morning you send a, ”How's it going everyone?” and maybe a posting of a blog or article you found that you think the majority would enjoy seeing - that’s about it...if you want to do more than you do more. Certainly the ebb and flow of the recruiting week offers snippets of time to check in - and now instead of a pretty inactive database of contacts in your Outlook that you touch once a quarter if you're lucky - you have something way more vibrant that took very little to create...

Just a thought...

Comment by Jay Perreault {DCTechRecruiter} on August 13, 2010 at 3:18pm: Sarang,

I liked your blog so much that I added it to my site under recruiting ideas. You may see it posted here http://dctechrecruiter.com/recruiting-articles for additional comments if you'd like.

Thanks!

Jay