Getting Social In Recruiting

Adding important people to your team is always a challenging task. The hardest part is getting to know someone in such a short period of time through pressure filled interviews, phone calls and padded resumes. Trying to see if a person is the right fit to lead a critical role in your organization should have more than a 20 minute window.

Through social media you can now get a bird’s eye view of someone and even seek out talent that can boost your organization to the sales and growth you anticipated when you needed to bring in new talent.

There are 2 ways to look at social recruiting, the background check mentality or the sourcing mentality.

The Social Background Check

The social background check method is something that tends to get a lot of press from media outlets looking for stroies on why people are not hired, due to inappropriate Facebook photos or Tweets that are derrogotory. This process is usually done inbetween one of the pre-screening or interview phases, where someone in HR inserts the applicant into Google or a tool like Spokeo or Whozat , which are people search engines that spider social networks and communites for the people in question.

A good example of a hire gone bad through social search is the Cisco case. A job applicant who had just lefted their interview posted this message on Twitter:

Cisco just offered me a job! Now I have to weigh the utility of a fatty paycheck against the daily commute to San Jose and hating the work.

Cisco was monitoring and responded with:

Who is the hiring manager. I’m sure they would love to know that you will hate the work. We here at Cisco are versed in the web.

For how many cases we hear of the bad, there are always the good hires that go unnoticed. There are applicants who have amazing blogs or social presences. There are 5 star recommendations on LinkedIn or an online portfolio and search engine result that leaves the rcruiter happy to bring in this person to join their team.

Social Media Sourcing

Companies that are using social media to source candidates have the upper hand. Unlike a traditional job seeker, a candidate who is found and sought out is generally currently working, freelancing or making an impact somehwhere in their company or on the web somewhere. This means their trust level is high and they are good at what they do. They will however, be a tougher sell to leave their current position.

With social media you can source very easily based on searches, categories, keywords and professions.

This can be done through tools like Twitter Search, AllTop and Google Alerts as well as being involved in the community and seeing who the key players are. This is generally done through following conversations on blog posts, comments on Twitter and looking at places where authorities are created – LinkedIn answers is a great place to start.

The next best place to find candidates to add to your team is through professional networks. There are broad based networks like LinkedIn , where you can find great talent through your connections, in groups of the aforementioned Q&A.

A better place to find specialists is through niche networks that specialize in a certain field. Brazen Careerist is a great network of young professionals with a strong focus on the marketing, PR and career industries. Health Career Web is a solid place to find nurses and other healthcare professionals.

The key to sourcing is knowing the candidate that you want to hire from the inside-out. Know their background, their language and their hang-outs. Then use technology and social media to find them.

Who Can You Hire Through Social Media

One misonception is that you can only find marketers or exectuives using social media. There are so many people sharing so many things on the web. There are so many niche networks and people looking for work in this economy that you can really find the ideal candidate and learn more about them now than any time in history.

Have you used sourcing to find a candidate? What do you think of using social media for background checks? I’d love to hear more in the comments below.

This post was written by Greg Rollett, a social media and lifestyle design marketer from Orlando, FL.