This is the second part of a two part series on How Recruiters Use Social Media to Hire Job Seekers.  Click here for Part 1 and  also register for our free webinar on 2/26 on how to use social media in personal branding. 

As I mentioned, social media is a great way to network and engage with recruiters but it’s certainly more than that.  Companies aree moving beyond using LinkedIn, Job Feeds, and Social Sourcing to look for candidates to fill positions immediately.  Corporate recruiting teams are making a move to create a long term marketing strategy and ongoing campaign for building, growing, and establishing a relationship with potential job seekers.  This is affectionately called Employment Branding or Employer Branding in the HR and Recruitment space.

Employer Branding

The idea of employer branding helps to establish a relationship with the job seeker in real time and on the social network where they prefer.  By focusing on building a relationship with a job seeker on social media, employers hope to become the candidate’s company of choice just like social media is used in addressing customers in real time.  Because in certain geographic regions like Oklahoma City where they are recession proof, the job market for companies to hire top talent is uber competitive. The competition is fierce for specific industries like developers, engineers, and programming. When the job seeker begins their active job search, which is increasingly becoming more passive as job seekers are always looking for the next big thing, employers want the job seeker to think of them first.  The employer that invests in a major presence on social media wins the war of talent.

Many job seekers, certainly those in social media, are often surprised when I explain the very complicated strategies in play for recruiting and hiring with social media.  Companies like Rackspace have seen triple digit increases in web traffic after the launching of their career blog, RackerTalent.com, and a decrease in the number of candidate that apply for individual open positions.

Social media for recruiting and hiring is not a one size fits all.  Employers like Starbucks have found success filling open job positions and recruiting on Instagram while companies like AT&T focus on a number of different platforms including Twitter, Facebook, and creating their own talent network.  Even international companies like Sodexo and IBM are using social media in combination with pay per click and search engine optimization strategies to improve their quality of hire and target specific qualified job seekers with the goal of less not more candidates per application.  Every location, country, and social network dictates different strategies and options, but the overall goal remains the same – hire better, faster, and smarter using technology.

Job seekers need to be aware of this move by employers to leverage social media with what they refer to as “social recruiting” to fill, hire, and recruit for positions.  All online properties, networks, and communication channels are opportunities to reach out to employers to learn more, build relationships with recruiters and land their next job not solely because of a resume but using social media.

Using Social Networking for Your Job Search

As a job seeker, how you use these social platforms and social networking is up to you but know that recruiters, hiring managers, and human resource professionals are using sophisticated tools and strategies to monitor brand mentions, sentiment, and evaluating each individual platforms percentage of applications and source of hire.  Knowing this just might give you the advantage you need as you plan your job search and your online brand on social media.

This is the second part of a two part series on How Recruiters Use Social Media to Hire Job Seekers.  Click here for Part 1 and  also register for our free webinar on 2/26 on how to use social media in personal branding.