Originally published regarding the Social recruiting by Rishabh Dev on recruitloop
The role of social media in our lives is widening every day. Not only are we communicating with friends, family and peers, we are using social media to locate suitable work as well.
Just like job seekers, recruiters are a part of the social construct that fuels social media and they are tasked with finding the most suitable candidate for a job opening. According to independent surveys conducted by AdWeek and Career Builder, more and more recruiters are already using social channels to find potential candidates. While both surveys offer a conflicting view on the numbers of such incidents, they do agree on one point – more than half of the initial recruitment screening is happening through social media channels.
Since most of my work revolves around using unconventional channels, I get a lot of questions about using such channels for hiring. So how does it all work out for the recruiters and the recruits?
Table of Contents
Finding the right match:
The basic construct of the process remains the same for both – be where ‘they’ are to find the best match. As the first step, recruiters have to define the persona they are looking for to fill an open position. Then, they have to define the platforms these personas are likely to frequent and target all efforts on those platforms.
Why use unconventional and emerging channels?
Social media thrives on the human connect. Everything is about connecting with your target audience at a more personal level. This gives an organization the opportunity to humanize the brand to enable a better connect with potential hires. The accessibility of top brands on social channels lends a human touch to these interactions.
Take, for example, what Deloitte did in 2010-11 to meet their recruitment target for The Netherlands. They used a combination of a new recruitment website and social recruiting media channels to reach out to the right candidates, and used Google Analytics to measure the outcome of this outreach.
Results clearly showed a 234% jump in applications through social channels. Very crafty work, and a huge win for Deloitte and the applicants in the process.
Choosing the right channel:
While LinkedIn remains the top social recruiting channel of choice for recruiters so far, the idea here is to go beyond the conventional channels and experiment a little. Here comes the concept of growth hacking your recruitment process.
In one of my previous posts about growth hacking, we saw an uncanny resemblance between growth hacking and The Art of War – “fight the enemy where they aren’t”. While there’s no enemy here, the concept still applies itself beautifully within the premise. Here’s how.
1. Running a Facebook ad campaign
Facebook is yet another social platform with a huge user base. However, it remains largely untapped in finding potential candidates for a job. But all is not lost just yet. Given its huge user base, it makes sense to run an ad campaign targeted at the desired persona to let them know you’re hiring.
Your CTA could be a form with an upload resume option or a direct careers landing page to guide the candidate on how to apply for the current openings.
2. Snapchat videos
The old-timers frown at the ‘10-sec generation’, but the fact is that it is highly effective in getting the message across in the shortest time span.
Snapchat is not new to the workplace. Many like GE are using it very efficiently to portray a positive image among prospective employees as a great place to work.
But apart from that, it can also be used to broadcast job openings and invite video resumés from candidates.
3. Instagram stories and videos
Instagram’s new ‘Stories’ feature mimics Snapchat in more ways than one. But at the end of the day, it can be used to serve the same purpose.
If you have an official Instagram handle instead of Snapchat, you can easily use it to do the same – broadcast job openings. With a broad outline of the profile and attract candidates to submit video response to your call.
4. Blogs on Medium
Medium can be an excellent alternative to LinkedIn. With blogs written mostly by experts and targeted at professionals in the related fields, it offers a unique opportunity to connect with the most relevant target audience for recruiters and potential recruits.
A blog post on Medium that lists out a set of reasons that make your organization the best place to work. It can help you get to the candidates with the right frame of mind suited for your organization’s culture.
The same post can be used in a Facebook ad campaign or shared on targeted Facebook groups to help increase the hit ratio of your efforts. Though you must make sure the targeted Facebook groups allow you to post such content on their timeline. You don’t want to jeopardize your brand’s image in a public forum.
5. Tinder – why not?
Come to think of it, Tinder is the recruitment ground for one of the most important job profiles of one’s life. And while we are on the topic of going all out innovative, why not try out Tinder for recruiting for your organization?
Create a Tinder profile or social recruiting group for the recruitment team where the right pitch and a ‘right swipe’ secures an interview for the candidate.
6. Facebook Live and Periscope
Facebook Live and Periscope are quite exciting channels. Live broadcast has never been so easy. Using it in conjunction with your other platforms to build up to a live broadcast of your job openings. It can prove to be a rather unique way to attract the right talent for your organization.
Whoever is interested, start an interaction with them and call them over for an interview if you shortlist them.
7. Slack channels
Cut yourself some slack and do a quick Google search for appropriate channels on Slack to broadcast your job openings.
The highly engaging and targeted environment of Slack will surprise you with its results.
Conclusion:
This here is just the tip of the iceberg. There are many other possibilities out there hidden in plain sight to innovate your recruitment process. Emerging channels like Product Hunt, Ello etc. may have something to offer to recruiters in the near future also. All you have to do is keep your eyes open for such innovations to happen and find out ways to leverage them to your advantage.