Article Contributed by Dominick Frasso
Many businesses are just now getting the hang of how to use social media to improve their businesses. Sure, marketers have been trying to utilize Twitter and Facebook (and MySpace before it) for years; but today, other business units are finding ways to put the power of social media to work for them. For example, creating social media customer service channels has proven to be tremendously effective for some companies.
The human resources function is no different. There are plenty of ways to use social media in the recruitment process. In particular, LinkedIn offers businesses a direct hotline to professionals that might be a good fit.
Here are some ways that employers should be using LinkedIn today in the recruitment process:
- Start by developing a highly-relevant network of professionals. As an employer, you’re going to have professionals with a number of different skillsets but all within your industry. For example, a materials manufacturer might include engineers, CAD specialists, lathe operators, plant managers, and more in her network of professionals. These contacts aren’t necessarily the people that you’re going to try to recruit into your business, of course. Most of them are happy where they’re at. Instead, they provide you with the most extensive referral chain in the world. Your network will reach out to others in their network, bringing in prospects in droves.
- Develop active searches for candidates on LinkedIn using keyword searches. If a LinkedIn user lists their experience or qualifications, you should be able to find them via the search process. Share your contact information with these individuals, so they can come back to you when they’re job hunting (either actively or passively).
- Develop a strong company profile. Don’t just give details about where you’re located, what you sell, and how many people work for you. Talk about your company’s goals, about your approach to corporate responsibility, about how your company treats its employees. Make your company look like an attractive place to work on LinkedIn.
- Make sure your company profile can be found on LinkedIn. Likewise, you want to have keyword-rich company profile that indicates the types of work you’re likely to have. Don’t just stick with industry keywords; reach out into specific job functions, particularly those that seem to have the highest rate of turnover.
- Look to colleagues, as well. People that you’ve worked with in the past can be wonderful assets going forward. If they parted amicably, they might be one of your best employees yet again. If not, it’s still likely that they could send you some of your best employees for the future.
- Search for candidates by recommendations. Go to those key LinkedIn users whose judgment you trust. It might be an industry colleague, or it might be a former employee. Read the recommendations they’re making about others, and then reach out to the one being recommended.
- Join relevant LinkedIn Groups. There are groups by industry, by employment skills, by background, by professional membership, and more. Groups can be a wonderful resource for referrals, as well.
- Consider fee based posting of jobs on LinkedIn. The jury is still out on just how effective this will be. Chances are pretty good it’s going to bring in the traditional stack of resumes, from which you need to sift through and find the one needle. You’re almost always better off going the referral route and choosing half a dozen recommended individuals and bringing them into the interview and candidacy process.
- Offer internships. If your company does internships, LinkedIn is a great place to find candidates. Almost everyone knows a young up-and-comer who could use some real-world experience, and it may as well be at your company.
- Use LinkedIn cautiously. Be careful when it comes to zeroing in on your own employees and contacts on LinkedIn. Not all of the information on their profiles is going to be current. It might look like your VP of Finance is gunning for a position at a cushy job down in Southern Florida, when really he was simply messing around with his settings one day and forgot to change them back. Take everything on LinkedIn in stride, recognizing that not all of it is necessarily current, accurate, or relevant.
Below are 3 action items to start doing today to put this to work for your company:
- Identify and join 3 LinkedIn Groups related to your industry– use the LinkedIn Group Directory to find relevant groups. An example if you’re an advertising agency could be the Creative Designers and Writers group. This is a great place to built a network of creative talent that you can draw upon in the future.
- Contribute at least 1 meaningful reply per week for each of the 3 groups. Meaningful means that you add value to the conversation rather than just getting through your 1 reply per week quota. This will help group members realize that you’re a real person at an interesting company.
- Start a discussion topic once per week in one of the 3 groups you joined. The topic can be anything that would make for a good talk at a coffee shop. For example, ask for the group’s thoughts on whether an article’s prediction about your industry is accurate and why. This will help establish you as a more authoritative member of the group, which is helpful for recognition as you put out the word to your network regarding openings at your company.
Of all the social media tools out there today, the one most HR-friendly has to be LinkedIn. It’s a database of potential employees, a screening mechanism, a referral network, and more, all wrapped into one.
Use LinkedIn to enhance your recruiting and hiring process, get better candidates, and keep your business humming right along with the best people.
About the Author
Dominick Frasso is SEO/SEM Specialist at Vistage International, a membership organization that helps CEOs build successful companies through business coaching groups, executive coaching and executive development opportunities.