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.
