How Social Media is Changing How Employers Find Talent

While some companies still sort through piles of resumes,  and referrals still rank as the top means by which to bring on new talent, more and more companies are realizing that social media is now an important tool for identifying potential talent. If you’re looking for the perfect hire, there’s a good chance you’ll be able to find that person through a social media platform.

By engaging in social media sites like Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, employers can target the talent they need and allow potential employees to learn valuable information about their businesses in a more transparent way than ever before.

Here are 5 tips for using social media to find potential hires:

1. Understand Their Demographics

Keep in mind the demographics of the most popular social media sites so you can target the right candidates. On LinkedIn, where users create online resumes within their profiles, users tend to be professionals with higher incomes. A high percentage of users are 55 and older. Twitter has the most diverse group of users in terms of race, income level and occupation, and Facebook’s demographics are starting to mirror the demographics of the U.S. The fastest-growing demographic on Facebook is women aged 55 and older.

2. Create a Centralized Platform

Create two pages on Facebook: a page for your business and a separate page strictly for recruitment purposes. This second page can serve as a centralized platform for your social media efforts. On your LinkedIn and Twitter profiles, direct job-related inquiries back to your Facebook recruitment page, where potential hires can see videos, photos, job postings and other information about your company. There are some applications that allow candidates to apply for a position through a social media site. If you’d rather receive applications through your company’s Web site, make sure you post a link that takes candidates directly to that page.

3. Be Proactive

Finding the right talent for your business isn’t just about screening people out based on the content you don’t like on their profiles. Screen people in, instead.

LinkedIn has an “Advanced” search box that allows you to search profiles based on keywords, industry, company and other criterion. If you want to go beyond LinkedIn’s free basic account, it offers three levels of paid accounts that provide features like organizing candidates’ profiles into folders and seeing more search results.

Facebook and Twitter have simpler search functions than LinkedIn, but you can find potential candidates by typing in the name of an industry, job title or university into the search bars.

4. Build Trust

Social media bridges the gap between the employer and the potential employee, giving candidates the opportunity to learn more about the employer and its brand.

Listen to what your audience is saying about you online. If you understand what people are saying, you’re going to be able to respond better to their questions. Establish user-to-user trust instead of just brand-to-user trust.

5. Allocate Time and Resources

Social media should only make up about 15% to 20% of your hiring efforts – whichever makes the most sense for your business. Social media shouldn’t replace traditional recruitment but should be a supplement.

A good rule of thumb is that if you have five employees who you trust to help with recruitment, ask each person to take 10 minutes a day on social media sites to hunt for potential candidates.

Is social media just a fad?

While social media is a fad that could pass with developments in future technology, what’s not a fad is the fact that social media has created a marketplace where employees can have a real discussion with future employers, instead of a static one. That more transparent avenue of communication is the evolution in recruiting that’s here to stay.