Three Secrets to Winning with Social Media Recruiting

As an employer, you might be tempted to jump into social media recruiting headfirst.

Perhaps you want to take a summer intern and begin a Twitter feed to attract a new crop of candidates.

It is certainly reasonable to want to hit the ground running with social media recruiting (it is the hottest thing in hiring), but in your haste you might forget the golden rule of social media recruiting— as an employer, you only have one chance to make a first impression.

The candidate’s first impression is one that will last.

At that point, you are totally in charge of what the job seeker takes away from your social media recruiting efforts.

Three secrets for winning with social media recruiting:

To succeed in social media recruiting, you had better get a plan!

You need a strategy—pre-planning in social media recruiting is the answer to making your brand attractive to potential employees. You need to create a desire in the best-qualified people you can find; they need to want to work for you.

Building a social media recruiting strategy means a number of things:

Closely looking at the competition
Finding an exclusive selling feature for your specific business
Using that particular feature in which to build a theme for your social media recruiting

Social media recruiting is at an all-time high, so is the scrutiny of high profile companies. Most employers will go into any contact with a qualified candidate putting their best foot forward—just like an in-person interview.

This is not something best left to interns; you want your best people to monitor social media recruiting.

Simplicity is the key to social media recruiting

The easiest rule to remember social media recruiting is KISS—Keep It Simple Stupid.

The best-qualified candidates will have more choices than unqualified job seekers will. The surely do not have time to waste. Sporadic and unfocused contact will quickly lose the reader’s attention, as well as limit response rates.

Above all, for social media recruiting to be effective, it has to appeal to the most qualified candidates. Short, clear and descriptive messages will capture the attention of the right candidate.

Leave out fluff—and avoid irrelevant details, at least until the in-person interviews.

“Social proof” is coin of the realm for social media recruiting

In today’s connected world, social influence—experts call it “social proof”—can be the most powerful forces to transform the curious into the committed. Social proof is the currency that gives your company value in your marketplace or industry. Companies need social proof to turn job seekers into actual candidates, applicants and eventually new employees.

Often, the candidate doesn’t much care what you say about your own business, but they do pay attention to what others say about you.

Just look at mobile sites like Yelp and Foursquare, you will see the power of a great testimonial. That’s social proof.

Use social proof to optimize social media recruiting in a number of ways:

Endorsement and awards for your business from well-respected and credible professional organizations
Testimonials and worthwhile content from current employees
Links to articles, reviews and mentions in leading media

Optimizing social media recruiting will ensure both applicants and employees understand their roles and how effective they can be to your company and its success.