Social Recruitment: 3 Ways to Optimize Social Media for HR

Social media is changing the whole hiring and recruiting game. No longer do the classified sections, newspaper articles, or even listings websites like Idealist, Indeed, or Monster dictate the market on job recruitment information. These days, wonderful opportunities and incredible applicants find one another by way of many different social media. Take a look at these 3 ways that hiring managers can use social recruitment to attract the best candidates.

1. LinkedIn - Using LinkedIn, the professional social media site, is the most obvious social media platform for attracting applicants. is a no-brainer. LinkedIn was creates specifically to foster industry networking, collaboration, and the sharing of professional information. Many use the the site to both find and promote new job opportunities for career growth. Promoting a job on LinkedIn makes it visible to people in your specific industry, and the site will go as far as to publicize your opportunity to targeted groups that are determined a good match b the site's algorithm. Social recruiters should make sure to have a current, accurate LinkedIn page, and that their employees are linking to that page as well.

2. Twitter - Using twitter to publicize and announce job openings gets your opportunities out there in real time. Social recruiters should tweet the job listing directly from your organization's account, and make sure to tweet it at (@) the groups and networks you're looking to tap into. Popular communities to tweet at include universities, clubs, trade groups, and even unions. Your reach will grow exponentially if you can get these Twitter accounts to re-tweet the posting within their networks. The trick to Twitter is not only to build you own following, but get those with large and relevant followings to re-tweet your posts. Sensible hashtags (#) that your target community is interested in are helpful to include as well.

3. Facebook - Despite the rapid growth of other social media sites, Facebook remains THE superhighway social opportunity sharing. Post the job opening from your organization's facebook account, and encourage your colleagues to post from their personal accounts about the opportunity as well. The best match for a position often operates within the same social ecosystem as a current employee, or other contact that you're already in contact with on Facebook. Inspiring your colleagues and industry professional friends to share a job opportunity on Facebook is a great endorsement, as well as a great approach to catalyzing great applications.