Social media is being used in every field, from research to recruitment. Social media sites today serve as a friendly place for employers to advertise their openings and for employees to hunt for a job. In fact, Adweek says 92% of companies use social media for recruitment. Recruitment via social media has become so mainstream that we have sites like LinkedIn which serve as a professional platform for employers and employees to connect with each other. However, you should know where to look for the right jobs or star candidates. Social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter too have business pages that belong to small or medium-sized third party recruitment enterprises. People use social media like Instagram, DeviantArt, and Behance to create their portfolios. This is where social listening for recruitment can prove to be of real help, by simply aiding the process of finding a candidate or a job for both parties.
How does Social Listening for Recruitment work?
With 92% of companies using social media for recruitment courting the millions of job applicants whose CVs and portfolios are posted online, one can only imagine the vast sea of data available. Selecting the right candidate is impossible unless we connect with the correct data. Social listening tools help you every step of the way when targeting the right group and short-listing the right applicants.
Define Keywords and Filter your Data
Every social listening tool is meant to accumulate data, group it and analyze relevant bits for you. Social listening for recruitment follows the same process. You may set up keyword-specific searches based on the industry, job skills or the specific roles being targeted. You can simply listen to the chatter related to “#interiordesignerjobs” to seek or fill a role in the field. Social listening helps you procure specific as well as generic data results. Search filters are a great feature within social listening tools which help you to narrow down your search to the very specific requirements.
Encourage the Social Media Participation of your Employees
Businesses suffer serious losses when open roles go unfilled as prospective applicants are turned away by negative online reviews left by previous employees, on online forums like Glassdoor and even Quora. Listening to what your existing employees have to say about you on social media can also help to build your image as an employer online, and act as the best way to attract wary job applicants. Happy employees generally spread the good word about you, and help you to attract similar-minded, talented candidates. Engaging with employees and helping them to succeed at work can be an employer’s way of ensuring that their employees go on to share their success stories and positive feedback about the office online.
Monitor Employer Brand Image
Online reputation management is a critical element for businesses today. It is critical on two critical fronts – one as a sound online reputation is what attracts more customers and then as an employer who needs to attract the right talent to apply for open roles. Monster’s Joe Buzienski says “make sure your company’s image, in words, photos, and videos, is consistent across Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and other platforms”. This makes monitoring your employer brand image important. Monitor not just what your customers think about your brand. Listen to all the chatter from professional forums like Reddit, Glassdoor et cetera to know what potential future employees think of your brand and whether your present employees are liking it at work.
Many companies have come up with other creative uses of social listening tools for recruitment. Some use listening tools to track popular hashtags for recruitment and use them for their posts to help candidates understand their company’s culture and so on. Social recruitment has a lot of aspects related to it. Emilie Mecklenborg, social media manager at Alexander Mann Solutions spoke about them during her recent #RecruitWithData chat on Twitter. She believes social listening can be a powerful tool for employer branding. And that it could be used to engage with passive candidates and help them to get to know your organization. Experts have long predicted that social media would completely change the process of hiring, and maybe social listening is another step towards it.