Time to use Social Media to attract the ‘right’ candidate

In the old days your recruitment marketing should have enabled you to attract the ‘right’ person. The tone and style of your advertising would sell the opportunity and your organisation’s culture to attract the perfect fit. As well as helping to de-select the wrong type of candidates from applying, if used correctly – it saved your time, effort and budget by avoiding the need to sift through hundreds of ‘wrong’ applications. It was surely better to interview from list of 30 – 40 ideal candidates. (That was the theory, and principal, that  we always subscribed to. Unfortunately many others placed too much emphasis on the volume of responses rather the the quality of the applications.)

Nowadays that principal still stands as good practice and if you throw Social Recruiting into the mix, there is an even more fail safe way to ensure your applicants are the ‘right’ fit for the role and your culture. By adding yet another level of de-selection in the application process. The ‘two-way’ conversation Social Media enables, can do so much than merely promoting the opportunity and what you’re really like. It should leave any potentially ‘right’ candidate with the impression that they’d fit in and prosper in their career.  But only if you know how to exploit properly. And you use it as part of your employer marketing campaign. Just don’t expect social media to replace all the other mechanics you’ve always used in the past – certainly not yet.

But now is the time to get involved. It’s time to stop talking about it and actually start doing it. Remember that you should be building on your previous knowledge and experience in recruiting, not replacing them. Play with it. Experiment with it. See what benefits and advantages this new area can bring. Above all, don’t be afraid – be brave. You’ve nothing to lose – except the ideal candidates for your business, if you don’t.

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