At some point in the past couple of years, you have probably felt pressure to increase your company’s social media presence. You have been told that if you fail to embrace social, you are falling behind.

Believe it or not, the push to social networks is not limited to corporate marketing. Recruiting via social networks like Facebook and Twitter is actually gaining popularity. But does it work? How can we use it effectively? Let’s see…

“In a study released last spring by The Career Advisory Board (CAB), 82% of independent workers claimed that word of mouth was their top source of work. Supporting this number is MBO Partners own State of Independence report that found that 75% of independent workers cited word of mouth as their main source of work. As for social media, 6% (CAB) and 2% (MBO) cited this as a top source of work.” – via http://www.huffingtonpost.com/

Ok, so we remain unconvinced. But should we write off social media in the recruiting industry altogether? No. Social media is here to stay, influencing employer branding as well as recruitment strategies across the board. While it cannot replace the conventional “match-making” element of the recruitment process, it can definitely add value to this process.

How to use social media wisely: The key here is strategy. Here are a few tips…

Brand your company: Today’s top talent is looking to the Internet to assess the best companies that they want to work for. Job seekers are constantly on Twitter and/or Facebook in their every day lives, so having a focused presence on social networks is a great opportunity to get your company brand across. Employers that are succeeding in this area are doing the following:

• Blogging on topics that effect their business and their customers
• Maintaining complete profiles on all social media websites
• Sharing content on trends and current events within their industries
• Running contests and events to engage their following
• Utilizing LinkedIn Premium accounts to target their job postings to job seekers
• Publicizing company outings and events
• Setting up SEO and Google Analytics so that job seekers are able to find them through their search terms

If you are a company looking to utilize social media to enhance their employer brand, we invite you to arrange a time to speak with our in-house experts. Go to https://www.gainor.net/clients/ to arrange a call.