Case Study On How To Use Social Media In Recruiting

One of the biggest criticisms of social media is a lack of results. Sure, we know that sites like recruitingblogs.com bring us value, but naysayers want to know how many hires we've made for the time spent.

It's not always easy to get those numbers. It can be hard to track, and when you do track them, you don't necessarily want to pass that number on to competitors. Luckily, Rehabcare was open to me talking about their success.

My latest column is up on ERE.net on how a Rehabcare used social media to help meet some very tough recruiti....

My thoughts on the process are here at StlRecruiting, and the actual column is at the link above.

"Barbara’s team has made a real effort to integrate social media into its daily work routines, which means the work is spread out, other departments don’t have to be involved, and time spent on the sites can directly be tied to candidate tracking. While no one can definitively say that a student joined because they listened to a podcast, we do know that the site offerings give the recruiters something to talk about, and candidates have something to come back to besides job postings and a vague benefit page.

In the last two years, the company has used a number of free services to enhance the site and its offerings:"

Something to note. This project started over 18 months ago - it's goal was not a quick fix, but the long term building of a platform that would deliver value. The platform, which is the blog, is now a central point in all of their online strategies, and one of the most visible online touchpoints for the entire Rehabcare company (do a search).

The search keywords are targeted, the blog has steady traffic, and most important, the recruiters aren't unduly burdened with extra work. Each service is designed to integrate into their day and save them time. Rehabcare originally looked at this as just a project. It's now part of their day. That's the biggest success.

And wait until you see what we have planned for 2009.

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Comment by Ben Gotkin on February 11, 2009 at 4:03pm: Jim - Good article, and good timing too. I have a related article coming up soon on ERE too, and my presentation at the spring ERE Expo is on this very subject.

Our social media efforts are home-grown, and we are about 6 months into our efforts. The numbers on these sites are all on a consistent upward curve, and we aren't even fully optimized yet.

It appears as if more and more companies are starting their own social media initatives, we may be nearing a 'tipping point' to where having a social media presence is more of the rule than the exception. I did notice the chat feature on their blog. Very nice addition, I haven't seen anyone on it yet, but very cool nonetheless.

Comment by Jim Durbin on February 11, 2009 at 4:13pm: Thanks Ben. The chat works sometimes, and not others, and to some extent, that's the point - they're trying new things out, and learning what works and what doesn't. Because they're closer to sourcers than recruiters, they don't always get candidates looking for a specific job, and precisely because they work with college students, the need to make it slick is less important than the need to be doing something.

This was not a large project. Several of my social media friends are ribbing me because I didn't make it look like a professional marketing site. But that works in Rehabcare's favor. This works because it's authentic, cheap, and doesn't require outside maintenance. If they had to drop 2 grand a month on me to make it work, they probably would have abandoned it. Instead, we went simple, and now it's in their blood.

I'll be on the lookout for your article - I think what the whole industry needs is concrete examples of what works, and a lot less hype. The simple fact that you're trying, consider six months to not be that long, and are building social media into your system suggests you'll be successful.

What I've noticed is that companies that are successful have been very quiet about it. Which makes sense, but is funny considering they're being quiet about something so open.