Social Media is a Two-Way Street in Recruiting

Recruiting has always been about networking — at least within our own circle of clients and candidates. Now it’s all about social networking and expanding the net to build lasting — and more profitable — relationships. This may make old-schoolers in this business a little uncomfortable, because it means sharing information that our industry once taught us to guard like pit bulls. But as the economic climate of 2009 proved beyond the shadow of a doubt that when jobs are few and candidates are abundant, we all benefit from leveraging every contact we have.

You already know how social media is changing the way we screen potential candidates, even before we lay eyes on them. We can now research their pages on Facebook, LinkedIn and MySpace to get a more complete idea of their personality, interests and activities. Twitter gives us insight into their communication style. We can even use RSS feeds and podcasts to shop for potential candidates. But all of this is only one side of the social media coin.

For as much as we can learn about candidates, we should make information on our firms equally accessible, because let’s face it — candidates are tracking our social media footprint to see why they should put their future in our hands. With that in mind, here are a few ideas to help you use social media to help candidates connect with you.

• Create a company page on Facebook that serves as a resource for candidates and convinces them that you’re the recruiter they need.
• Use Twitter to immediately broadcast job openings across your candidate and corporate contact lists.
• Welcome and adopt new technologies — such as video resumes and digital profiles — to share candidate information with employers.
• Use LinkedIn to connect with professional contacts and clients to establish a candidate cross-recommendation network.
• Consider creating a two-way exchange for FAQs on your website where candidates can ask questions, get answers and have everything become a searchable resource for others.
• Blog and post comments to other blogs. This is information sharing at its best because you’re providing thought leadership and best practices that establish trust and drives clients and candidates alike to your website—not by selling, but by proving your worth.
• Consider creating podcasts on topics candidates want to know about, like switching careers, breaking into the job market after college, interview techniques and so on.

Committing to a social media strategy is a huge step, but it’s one of the greatest sources of free publicity and networking you can have. Does it mean your peers will know what you’re up to? Yep. Does it mean you’ll have a lot of work to do to keep your pages and blogs current? You bet. But when done right, the investment of time is a small price to pay for a bankable pipeline of talent. And that’s exactly what social media can help you build.