We recently held a topical call where NPAworldwide members and staff gave tips and answered questions on social media best practices for recruiters, such as when and why to use Twitter, what venues are best for finding passive candidates, the effectiveness of video communication, recruiter tools, and more. Here are some of the questions and answers from that discussion:
Does anyone tweet?
“I have 1 employee that focuses on social media. It’s a process. Like anything with marketing, your ROI you’ll see once you get more followers and post meaningful content.”
“I’ve been using Twitter for 7-8 years. It’s my window to the world. The information you get is phenomenal and it’s given me the opportunity to connect with people I wouldn’t have otherwise connected with. I’ve met quite a few clients through there. I’ve been able to follow CEOs of large corporations, and that helps me connect with them
“It’s about engaging people. It’s more a tool for connecting than broadcasting; more listening than talking. 90% of the time, I’m trying to curate info and engage with others. I have over 7,000 followers now – business professionals, recruiters, etc.”
Do you find candidates with Twitter?
“Yes; a good tip on finding candidates is to use a hashtag. Even a tweet like #myjobsucks is good enough for us to reach out to them and start connecting with them. It’s a very useful way to find passive candidates.”
How much time do you spend on Twitter?
“I don’t spend more than 15 minutes a day. It’s impossible to be online and in sync with a medium that’s 24 hours. I try to follow certain people, and leave alerts for certain hashtags, which helps me respond at my convenience. A tool like Hootsuite is useful because it allows you to broadcast your tweets. 15-30 minutes a day is more than enough, otherwise you can just get drowned in it. It’s more about the quality of people you follow and your engagement, rather than time you spend on it.”
Does anyone use video media on Facebook, such as posting video job ads?
“We’re working on video hot jobs to make it more engaging for candidates.”
“I’ve just starting useloom.com – It’s a great video email solution, and it’s free. I’ve been using it to get attention from candidates and clients, and it has worked great. Another NPA member sent me a Christmas card customized on loom… it was a personal video, and very endearing. Since then, I’ve made a couple videos, as a way to send a link or attachment, and used it to go after hard to get candidates. I’ve had people call me back and say ‘you’re the only guy who’s sent me a video.’ I had one client not getting back to me, I sent them a video saying ‘you’ve gotta get back to me,’ and it got their attention – it worked.”
I’ve been hearing lot of people saying they don’t think LinkedIn is going to be recruiter friendly in the future… What other tools do you use to find passive candidates?
“I work off referrals. I go to the company and find their names. Go and chat, see if they’re available, and see if they want to move. I am truly a headhunter.”
“A lot of people active on LinkedIn are recruiters, so good candidates are trying to hide from giving details. I find Facebook is a better place, because people are there for more social/personal reasons. It’s likely they are friends with classmates and other similar groups. The average user of Facebook spends 20-30 minutes on it a week, rather than 20-30 min/month that a LinkedIn user uses.”
“Instagram seems to be very popular with younger generation.”
“Snapchat is most used between people between 15-28.”
“A lot of my business is C-suite, and they don’t use social media. I use trade shows, calling companies, word of mouth. I get more clients and candidates from trade shows.”
What are your best practices regarding social media use in the recruiting world? Do you find that certain venues / strategies pay off, or on the flip side, are not worth the time invested? Let us know in the comments!
