How are you feeling about your organization’s succession plan? Can you trust that you have the right talent that will stick around for the next 5-10 years?
What if positions do open up, are you planning to wait for someone to drop a résumé on your desk, or do you have a plan to reach out and grab the talent you want? Does the talent you want know about you?
With the rise of the social Web, recruiting has become a two-way street.
Future leaders are social
Your future leaders are looking for jobs using social media, and even if they aren’t actively seeking work, they are showcasing their skills and may entertain an offer if you reach out to them.
Want to start out on the right foot with a potential Millennial employee? Let them know their profile caught your attention. Who isn’t flattered by a little unsolicited attention from a potential employer? And Millennials are not the only ones using social media—55% of those aged 45-54 have at least one social networking profile.
Gain visibility with social media
Social media is an excellent recruiting tool for a few reasons. You gain visibility into the talent that is out there and you make your organization and posted positions more visible to those seeking job opportunities. Plus, you want to show future, younger generations that you’re “hip to the times” so to speak, that you can communicate at their level.
A recent survey of over 1,000 human resource leaders and recruiters showed that over 93% have used LinkedIn to find talent, 66% found qualified candidates on Facebook and 54% found talent on Twitter.
Recruiting with LinkedIn
LinkedIn has over 200 million members and 74 million of those users are in the U.S. LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional network. The beauty of LinkedIn is that it combines job seekers and potential employers together in the same place in a professional capacity.
LinkedIn is actively changing and adding features to make it easier for companies to find talent. They have been improving their search capabilities, allows you to monitor individual candidates and even recommends people that might be good to look into.
Recruiting with Facebook
Facebook currently has over 500 million users, 50% of which log in every day. That’s a big talent pool. Users probably aren’t on Facebook looking for job opportunities, but it’s still a good platform to build your brand’s awareness and make potential employees interested in your company. And of course, posting jobs on Facebook is a great way to spread the word about openings.
Recruiting is about searching, and Facebook is ever improving their search capabilities. The new graph search may make it easier for you to find your future leaders on Facebook. Already, 50% of employers are using Facebook for recruiting and more than half of them expect they’ll be increasing their use of Facebook in the recruiting process.
Recruiting with Twitter
Twitter makes a great tool for social recruiters because it’s transparent, it allows for real-time discussion, and makes it easy to respond to candidates. Twitter allows you to keep up with prospects in 140 characters or less, taking less of your time while allowing you to remain responsive to those engaging about opportunities.
Post your job openings on Twitter and use hashtags with keywords. Be sure you are concise but detailed. If you’re offering a job in Minnesota, use a hashtag like “#MNJob” Twitter is global, after all. Posting openings via Twitter will allow others to easily share your position with their networks quickly.
Use Twitter to recruit by using it as a search engine. Search for keywords that people looking for jobs typically use like #job, #resume etc. Participate in job hunt chats and resume chats to scout talent in those forums and get your name in front of potential employees.
Social media is like a never-ending career fair; profiles provide tons of information about skills and experience and its easy for candidates and employers to connect. Our future leaders are out there on social media looking for you and expecting to be found. Go get them.
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