Common mistakes of companies that use social media to recruit

Few companies these days, whether big or small, are not alert to the vitality of online recruitment in the year 2012. Not only are ambitious jobseekers using the now rather traditional-feeling online jobs boards, but they are also constantly typing their preferred job title into search engines and paying visits to social media sites – like Facebook and Twitter – to see the latest advertised roles from organisations that they admire. webrecruit (http://www.webrecruit.co.uk) looks at some common mistakes which companies make when trying to recruit via social media.

Failing to engage prospective recruits

In the world of social media staff recruitment, “build it and they will come” is certainly not a suitable mantra. That’s because you not only need to be highly proactive in driving visitors to your company’s online careers pages, but it’s also necessary to constantly introduce fresh, relevant and exciting content to those pages – whether in the form of written copy, images or videos. You need to get your target recruits interacting with your brand, whether by sharing content with others or communicating with your organisation directly, if you are to sustain their interest.

Not devising sufficiently well-targeted strategies

With the current economic slump equating to ever-decreasing marketing resources, you won’t want to waste them on a strategy that is not appropriately aligned with your business priorities. Just ‘trying any old thing’ won’t do, as such an approach fails to take into account the right audience for you to target when you are seeking to recruit staff. Different people have different interests, and are likely to converge on the same or similar platforms in order to share content. You need to not only know who you are trying to reach, but also what you want them to do, when you are determining the right social media platform and strategy.

Declining to ‘take the plunge’

But of course, you shouldn’t use some of the caveats above as a reason to avoid being adventurous with your social media recruitment advertising. It is likely, for example, that you have an extensive network of employees who can act as enthusiastic and approachable ambassadors for your company and yet so many organisations are fearful of taking that ‘risk’. In truth, the greatest risk often comes in not using your existing staff to generate referrals, which is also a good way of sourcing candidates that are more faithful and a better cultural fit to your organisation.

webrecruit (http://www.webrecruit.co.uk) offers a free, downloadable social media checklist to assist companies when they are recruiting staff via Facebook, Twitter and other popular platforms.

Editor’s Note: Webrecruit (http://www.webrecruit.co.uk) is represented by the search engine advertising and digital marketing specialists Jumping Spider Media. Please direct all press queries to Louise Byrne. Email: louise@jumpingspidermedia.co.uk or call: +44 (0)20 3070 1959 / +34 952 783 637.