How to Develop a Social Media Strategy for Recruitment

Over the past few months, I have noticed a significant increase in the number of HR departments, rather than marketing departments, approaching us to help with their social media strategy. With companies like Ernst & Young leading the charge on with over 30,000 fans on Facebook, more and more HR managers and recruiters are seeing the potential for social media to help them engage and connect with the right people, at a low cost. What many do not realise is that social media platforms can be used to help further reduce recruitment costs and reduce demands on internal resources.

The most common questions we’ve been fielding from HR Managers and Recruiters is should we be doing this? How do we do this? And where do we start? Twitter? Facebook? So in this post series we’ll look at why social media is shaping up as a valuable tool in employee recruitment, what the best practice techniques and approaches are, and showcase some of the companies who are leading the way with innovative social media recruitment strategies. Today, let’s just look into why, when done properly, social media is a perfect platform to connect with job applicants and some of the best practices in creating a social media recruitment strategy.

Why? You can target & connect with the right people for the job

Considering that as of June 2009 there were more than 6 million Australians on Facebook, 800000 Aussies on Twitter (a 6122% increase on June 2008), and more than 70% of Australian internet users visited a social networking site in that month alone (up 29% on the previous year), it’s pretty clear that there are huge benefits for recruiters to jump on the “social media bandwagon”. Moreover, it’s the perfect vehicle to reach out to savvy Gen Yers, the most common demographic found on these networks. That’s not to say social media cannot be used to target other demographics, as although they’re not technically “digital natives” Generation Xers have adopted social media just as readily as their younger counterparts and Baby Boomers, while more passive and information seeking in their interactions with social media, are also joining social networks by the masses as a means to connect with one another and meet their information seeking goals.

Additionally, by targeting people using social media, you are able to attract quality applicants and actively engage these people via these platforms. Consider if your company was looking for a young, social media savvy employee – why wouldn’t you go to the source? And then there’s the company’s image to consider. By having a presence across Facebook and Twitter, companies can position themselves as innovative, cutting edge, collaborative, authentic, and focused on employee success and career progression  (so long as there is a strong social media strategy), which will work in turn to attract more quality talent for positions and roles over the short to long term. An open, communicative, supportive and collaborative presence on social networks gives the company the opportunity to show a bit of their personality and add a touch of “human” to the Human Resources departments.

For job seekers, the benefits are clear – it’s a way to extend your social circle and tap into jobs that aren’t normally advertised. By connecting with potential employers via social media, job seekers can promote themselves and get their name out there – all vital things in today’s shrinking job market.

Why? It’s cost effective

Setting up and maintaing a Facebook Page will cost you nothing other than staff resources, neither will Twitter. Compare that to the cost of advertising on job boards like Seek and MyCareer, it’s no wonder why HR departments are looking for ways to shift their recruitment efforts from costly job boards to low-cost social networks. Moreover, there are ways to use social media, particularly Twitter, to help reduce costs and strains on company human resources. In the case of Twitter, it can be used to streamline and reduce costs (in the form of staff resources) normally associated with the day-to-day communications of liaising with candidates and applicants. Consider a heavy recruitment period, such as for a graduate intake program at a large firm – HR departments are often inundated with applications and frantically sifting through CVs, then the phone starts ringing with applicants asking questions re the progress of their application. How much easier would it be to broadcast a message via Twitter advising followers (the applicants) of they stage they were at with the applications e.g. “Applications for graduate lawyers now closed”; “going through 1st round of applications successful applicant will be contacted by Friday this week”; “Group interviews taking place on 2nd October.” It’s such an easy way to keep applicants up to date and thereby reduce the amount of time and resources spent fielding questions. The presentation below showcases and explains how to use Twitter effectively for recruitment.

How? Some best practice advice

One thing to keep in mind is that while it is quite easy (and free) to set up a Facebook and Twitter account, it can all be done in vain without a well thought out strategy. If no one knows that you’re there and if you don’t have a plan of action to attract applicants to your company’s social media presence, there’s almost no point.

Michael Specht, a specialist in HR technology and the application of web 2.0 tools, outlines seven key principles for a good social media recruitment strategy and these are:

1. Transparency
2. Conversation
3. Wisdom of Crowds
4. Data is Key
5. Speed
6. Reuse
7. Rich User Experience

For more info on this check out the short presentation below – there is some great stuff here:

I’ve focused a lot of attention on Twitter today, so in next week’s post we’ll look more into how Facebook can be used as part of a social media recruitment strategy and have a detailed squiz into a few different companies that are doing this well. To stay up to date with the latest on this topic and others from our blog simply subscribe to our RSS Feed.

Part 2 is now available – click here to read on!

And here’s the pitch: At 33 Interactions we specialise in social media strategy, planning, and execution so if you have any questions or are interested in discussing how we can help your company, HR department or recruitment agency effectively employ a social media strategy please email me direct on jenine@33i.com.au

Images by respres, liako and ginza-line.

About The Defectors

Jenine Wong is a Director of The Defectors. The Defectors are a boutique marketing agency specialising in social media marketing, intelligent web design & development, SEO, email marketing and online marketing.

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