Source: Socialtalent
Social recruitment first emerged around a decade ago and has been gaining quickly importance ever since. It is the intersection between social media and recruitment – allowing companies to utilize data, which potential employees share online. Moreover, companies often create their own social media profiles which are focused on recruitment.
The rise of social recruitment, like the rise of many other phenomena related to the internet, has been exceptionally swift. Almost all recruiters nowadays employ it, albeit to a different extent. However, social recruitment still has a lot of myths and half-truths associated with it. In this article, we break them down into 3 main aspects – general, your own platform and the way you think about potential candidates on social media.
General Recruitment Myths:
1. Social recruitment = LinkedIn, Xing & Co.
To get a general myth out of the way, social recruitment isn’t only constrained to “pure” recruitment platforms like LinkedIn and Xing. Depending on the field you’re working in, there are many more viable options. Pinterest, for example, can be much more valuable than the previously mentioned sites if you’re looking for professionals in creative fields. Twitter can help you find authors, content creators and other people that like to talk about and advertise their brand. Facebook is great for building and discovering existing networks, which can be a great source for finding new recruits. Each and every platform has some advantages, but which one you use is highly dependent on your field of work.
Recruitment Myths Surrounding Your Own Social Presence:
1. Posting new content every day
You don’t need to post new stuff every day. Don’t feel the need to fill those empty pages with something, anything. Quantity is important on social media, but it can’t replace quality. A couple of engaging posts a week will be worth much more than senseless updates. You don’t want your potential network to get annoyed by spammy content. You want them to enjoy and interact with it. On the topic of content, posting nothing but job offers is a definite no-go for social media recruiting. That’s just plain old recruiting without using the potential of social media. Build communities which can spread your message.
2. The need to be 100% professional
Being professional is not a bad thing, but being purely that quickly becomes a disadvantage. You’re trying to get people to work for you – show them what your workplace has to offer. And no, I don’t just mean benefits and vacation days. Introduce your team, make a video tour of your office, etc. Showing some personality is a great way to make people feel welcomed as potential new recruits.
3. You must use every channel
At the beginning of this article, we talked about the different social media channels that can be used for social media recruiting. But please, and I cannot stress this enough, don’t use them all. It’s a waste of resources and not even productive. Spreading yourself too thinly will result in a lot of unmanaged profile, which show a lack of activity or creativity (e.g. not posting often or posting stuff that has no real value). Focus on a couple of channels that really make sense for your company and your candidates.
Recruitment Myths Surrounding Your Candidates:
1. You can only find millennials on social media
This myth might have been true fifteen or ten years ago, but the internet in general and social media in particular has now become an overarching societal phenomenon. Almost 50% of Facebook’s users, for example, are 35 or older. So, don’t worry, your social media recruitment isn’t going to reach young professionals exclusively. There are a lot of people with plenty of experience and expertise on social media.
2. The need to be 100% professional
Wait, wasn’t this myth discussed several lines ago? It was, but it also applies to your potential workers. Once you realize that the standard of being 100% professional doesn’t necessarily apply in social media, you should adapt your expectations. On most social networks, your candidates are not going to only show the 9 to 5 side of themselves. They will also present themselves in personal situations, eating dinner and drinking a wine with friends. Don’t judge them too harshly – rather consider it a rare insight into their personality which your team can profit from.
3. Only job seekers matter
The final myth we’re going to take on is that only people who are looking for work matter. This misconception falls short for a couple of reasons. First, people who are not currently looking for a job might do so in the near future. Nowadays people switch jobs way more often than they did in the past. Secondly, social media is about building a network that can spread your message beyond the people you reach directly. Even if the people who spread your message aren’t your target audience, the people they spread it to might be. So don’t discard them.
