Social Media as a Business Tool: Using Social Media to Find Employees
Social media, as we’ve discussed, can primarily help organizations communicate with customers and build valuable (and cheap) friendships. It’s no wonder you can’t avoid social media news and water cooler conversations.
Can Businesses Use Social Media For More?
Of course. Companies and leaders can look for future hires on social media sites instead of just posting a ‘help-wanted’ add in an online job database. It’s Employment 2.0.
Do you want to use social media in your hiring process? Here’s how…
The Process:
Finding Perfect Candidates: Take your job ad and send it out to bloggers in your industry. Post it on your blog. Tweet it. Put it on your company’s Facebook page. People aren’t shy about passing along job ads on social media sites since it’s a helpful for everyone. Finished? Great. Now a vast majority of people with an interest in your field will hear about the job and apply. That means you get a few more solid resumes.
Screening: Look up future hires on Technorati in order to find applicant’s blogs, Twitter updates, and some of their Facebook information. Look for over-arching personality traits that work well for you an your team team and go from there. In other words, if a person looks unbalanced online–avoid them. If they look interesting give them a call.
Setting Expectations: Maybe you want a marketing manager who knows Twitter well? Do what Best Buy did and require applicant’s to have over 250 Twitter followers. Perhaps, you want someone to contribute to your company’s blog. Find someone who has a good online writing style. Use your candidate’s social media status as a marker of their abilities and for your decision.
Does it Work?
Using social media as a head-hunter isn’t a science. You might waste time and effort. However, if you manage to reach out to a group of potential candidates in your field you will be able to find extremely qualified people.
Social media is a meeting place that displays aspects of people’s personalities–for the good and the bad. As social media profiles become more popular and influential in among employers they will likely become more manicured and less real. Perhaps coming generations will increasingly have two social media identities: one for the work place/school administrators and one for their social lives.
Tagged as best buy, bloggers, facebook, social media, technorati, twitter + Categorized as Leadership, Proactive Technology
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how to use twitter
how to use twitter…
According to a recent report , Twitter is getting the equivalent of 48 million worth of free PR per month, counting the value of mentions in TV, newspapers and magazines. The same survey says that Twitter gets even more media coverage than Google. Not …
I recently had the opportunity to sit in on a presentation of whether it is effective to use social medial as a tool for the recruitment process in an investment bank. Surprisingly, many of the top firms like Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan were taking advantage of the this opportunity to target a wide range of candidates through the use of social technology.
During the presentation, I had a few thoughts regarding the implications of using social media:
1. Quantity vs. Quality: It goes without saying that you are able to target a greater number of potential applicants with a job posting on facebook or twitter, but are you compromising the quality for quantity?
2. The person behind the profile: You brought up a good point in that individuals may manicure their profiles online to what they think organizations want. I think part of the appeal of social media is that it is a forum through which individuals can expand their social network and personalize their own little virtual world. With increased company involvement in this area of technology, individuals feel that they are under constant scrutiny and must closely monitor what is being posted on their profile. Could this cause a possible decrease in its use? Maybe.
3. Organizational Branding: I can’t speak for everyone, but as an avid user of social media websites, I find that organizations who use this technology for recruitment purposes are compromising their brand. It is almost as if they are selling out and can no longer rely on strictly reputation for applicant appeal. What does their job posting on a site like facebook, which has millions of users say about the firm’s selectivity?
4. Personalization (or lack thereof): It is no surprise that one of the inherent side effects with the rise of social media is increased impersonalized communication. I remember when it was normal for someone to pick up the phone and call another if they wanted to talk. Now, the “call me” has been lost among the talk of “text me,” “bbm me,” “facebook me,” etc. Calls are reserved for only those situations that are urgent or important. Are we falling victim to a technology that encourages faceless communication or is contacting someone via a wall post more personalized?
Thank you Sam for writing on this topic. I think it is very relevant to the contemporary issues faced by organizations. It is certainly entertaining to read about.
-Eric
Sam,
This is really an interesting talking point. I am a Linkedin user and there are already head hunters using it to advertise positions and target individuals.
Some of the recruiters in Linkedin are advertising the number of connections (some put 1 million!) they have as a way to lure business. On the same page, you also see them advertising tens of positions waiting to be filled. Did we get the picture?
I don’t know about other people but I would have second thoughts responding to these recruiters unless it is through trustworthy connections.
Linkedin is a network used by business professionals where one can easily track down another person’s background and profile. It has a high level of authenticity and credibility than other media such as twitter, MSN and facebook where you don’t know who is really on the other side listening to you.
Why would you be interested in advertising positions over there? I know it’s free but the argument is it’s an overall futile and pointless thing to do, and your clients might not be happy about it.
The other thing is – shouldn’t you be worried that your competitors are following you?