Social recruiting can be an effective recruiting tool but its more than a presence on LinkedIn
Editors note: This article concludes a three-part series.
In the first article in this series, I focused on how to leverage employee social networking to engage and invite in customers and clients. In the second article, I talked about tapping into your connected employees to fuel disruptive innovation. In this, the final article in the series, I focus on tapping into your connected employees to fuel your social recruiting needs.
Why Social? Why Now?
Today we hear more and more about social media recruiting as the primary vehicle for hiring the more sought-after employees. In the modern war for jobs it seems two battles are occurring simultaneouslythe battle to obtain jobs and the battle to fill jobs, but generally not the same jobs.
The former is related to the shrinking pool of jobs or at least shrinking pool of solid, well-paying jobs in some industries and geographic locations and the latter referencing the shortage, or at least perceived shortage, of candidates to fill certain jobs in other industries in certain geographic locations.
To fight both of these battles many job seekers and employers are turning to social recruiting. Ron McManmom, a seasoned recruiter and the founder of an integrated recruiting and career services start-up called Careeradex, says that in the future all employers will be directly connected to all of their future employees. With social networks such as LinkedIn with its 300 million members, this is becoming more of a reality. But being technically connected by virtue of a shared indirect or even direct connection is not really being connected and it is not really social recruiting.
What exactly is social recruiting?
The misconception is that social recruiting is just traditional recruiting using social networks. But social recruiting is not posting jobs on social networks and not searching for and then contacting candidates via social networks or, if you are a job seeker, posting a resume or profile on social networks. Social recruiting is, first and foremost, social. At its core is building relationships and establishing a presence that includes being actively involved in networked communities.
The goal of social recruiting is to either:
Showcase your abilities and knowledge if you are a job seeker
Identify potential employees and showcase your organization to attract the attention of a great potential employee if you are an employer or recruiter.
Social recruiting is not a sprint; it is often a five-mile run and sometimes a marathon.
