By: Shari Dalton
Listen up recruiters, I’m about to give you one of the greatest pieces of social media advice you’ll ever get. We get asked for advice on social media recruiting almost daily. So I’m going to give you a little teaser today with my #1 piece of advice for recruiting on social media. Are you listening? Here it is: STOP PROPOSING MARRIAGE ON A FIRST DATE!
Shari, what the hell does that mean? Let me explain. Several recruiters we talk with spend hours putting together pay packages and posting them on sites. They do this and they see almost zero return on time investment. Why? Well, besides the fact that there are several other recruiters from other agencies posting the same exact positions, these recruiters aren’t providing anything of value.
The purpose of social media is to be SOCIAL, people! If you want to post jobs, go to a job board like Indeed or CareerBuilder. When you go on Facebook or LinkedIn and post jobs, but fail to engage your audience in any other way, you’re essentially asking them to marry you on a first date. They know nothing about you, have no reason to trust you, and unless you’re flashing major dollar signs, aren’t likely going to say yes.
You need to take your target audience on some dates! Get to know each other! Let them know you’re “one of the good ones” and you won’t just “love ‘em and leave ‘em”. You’ve got to prove to them that you’re worth the engagement (a phone call and hopefully some paperwork) and eventually a trip to the alter (a contract).
I will use myself as the perfect example. On LinkedIn I get message after message on a daily basis from people offering me their services, asking me about my “pain points”, telling me all about why I need to use whatever it is they are selling. Every time I read them, it infuriates me. These people know nothing about me or my business. They’ve never liked a single posted I’ve had on LinkedIn. They very rarely share anything of their own on there. They’ve not done any research. Worse, they’ve not offered any value. They pretend to think they know what I need and they ask for my business. How easy do they think I am? HOW RUDE! I’m not that kind of girl!
That is not the way it works. Recruiters, if you’re going to be on social media, get social! Engage with your audience! Get to know them, and let them get to know you, too. Like what they are posting and engage in conversations with them. Share a funny story that happened to you at work one day or ask for help. Share content from your company that could be helpful or share an article you read that you think others may enjoy. Stop chasing and start attracting the type of professionals who can “pick up what you’re puttin’ down.”
Now when you post jobs, people will know who you are! They will recognize that you’re someone who knows the business and has something of value to offer. You won’t be some stranger in the night anymore!
Now, I said that this was my #1 piece of advice, and it is. But remember, if you’re going to be on social media, there is a rhyme and reason for each platform and you had better have a good strategy in place for maximizing the time you’re spending on them. It’s easy to get sucked into social media and not see the ROI. That’s a blog for another time!
Happy engaging!
