Everyone knows Google, everyone knows Facebook, but what people don’t realize is just how much they have affected the recruiting industry. Facebook in my opinion is a tool for recruiters to keep in touch with their candidates and work as a relationship engine, with some sourcing and ad space mixed in as well. But what Google has just offered to the recruiting industry could be the next big tool that will spark retention and referrals, the two big R’s that make recruiters salivate.

Many people don’t fully understand Google+ yet, myself included. The general idea of it revolves around something Google calls “Circles.” The circles are basically networks of people you associate in different specified genres. The developers at Google decided to play off Facebook’s weakness of “not wanting my boss to see what I did last weekend” or “Not wanting my friends to news feeds to fill up with what I’m talking about at work.” So now with Google+ you can post content to different “Circles” of people without worrying about the other circles seeing it, aka different networks in one dashboard.

What Does this Mean for Recruiters?

Basically, you now have a centralized dashboard to broadcast jobs and news to different specific groups of candidates or hiring managers that apply to different specialties. Placing finance people but have different levels you’re hiring for? Sort your contacts into different circles and broadcast jobs to them as you pick them up. Do you have hiring managers you work with on a consistent basis? Throw some hot candidate’s specs up there to see if anyone’s interested.

How Do You Connect with People?

It’s a lot easier for people with Gmail accounts which I feel is common practice now a days. Google+ works like Twitter in the sense that you can follow them, but they aren’t obligated to follow you back, which eliminates any concerns of spam on your end. Basically if they see your jobs, it’s because they want to. I would encourage recruiters to ask candidates and hiring managers to connect with Google+ like you would with LinkedIn, not to say that this is a LinkedIn killer, or Twitter killer, but it might be a Facebook killer in regards to recruiting (bold statement, I know).

For Recruitment Marketing People

Hold off on creating a profile for your business, Google (as often the case) is way ahead of you, and will soon be rolling out a business profile platform that will help optimize the way businesses can interact with Google+ users.

What? You need an invite?

Well it’s time I finally reward you for reading Recruiting Reach, so for a limited time only I would be happy to send you an invitation (which I have available in bulk) if you Tweet the following:

Just read @TweetsByJmiller ‘s new #SocialRecruiting #Marketing article on #GooglePlus http://bit.ly/qhiFAk & he’s even sending me an invite!