Part Three: This is the part 3 of the 3 part series The Good, The Bad and The Ugly of Social Media: Stories and Lessons from the Recruiting Desk
In the previous 2 parts of this Blog series, I’ve covered everything from the communication of shady competitors to the upside and downside of Social Networking tools. I would like to end the 3 part series focusing on the positive by providing my individual professional highlights of the last year as well as my company and colleagues accomplishments using Social Networks.
2011 ended the debate once and for all about the validity of Linkedin as an invaluable IT Recruiting Resource – My Company had an increase of over 400% growth in 2011. While not all of the growth was attributed to just “one thing”, Social Networking for candidates helped us increase our candidate headcount. We saw an astonishing 15% plus increase in candidates that were placed as a direct result of Linkedin and an astonishing 20% plus increase in candidate responses utilizing Social Media posting platforms.
Social Media Postings / Social Recruiting Tools
More tools became readily available last year to help expedite the posting process and making more jobs accessible to candidates that utilize Social Media for Job Searches. Most ATS Systems were using Automated Posting features but new “Social Recruiting” tools such as Bullhorn Reach and Job Magic made it easier to manage postings either directly or indirectly from your company’s ATS System. I personally benefited from posting more jobs to my Linkedin Network using Social Recruiting Tools. The ability to automate the postings directly from my ATS system and scheduling the postings to refresh twice a day, gave me more time to actively source, direct recruit and work the “Underground Job Market” that is more networking and referral based.
Increased Social Media Smartphone Functionality
The best thing about having an iPhone or ANY phone running iOS / Android / Windows is the ability to respond quickly to candidates that are interested in your jobs posted on Social Networking sites. New Smartphone Social Media functionality allows you to post and work with candidates on the go. Our company recruiters are synced to our ATS through our Smartphones and that has allowed us to get candidate information quickly and has enabled us to add Social Networking App functions that may not be readily available to competitors or our clients. If you do not have a Sync function, I encourage you to download Linkedin for your phone OS.
Building Successful Networks
Social Recruiting is only as successful as the networks that you build. The recruiters that have been successful are those that build networks of the candidates that they market. In part 2 of this series, I mentioned that you need to be careful when including other recruiters in your network. I should have elaborated to further state that it is an ABSOLUTE that you grow your network of talent to include .NET / Java / UI / Mobile developers, ERP (Oracle, SAP, etc.), Business Intelligence / Data, Infrastructure, PM’s/BA’s, QA’s.
Today might be a good day to disconnect with a large number of recruiters and send invitations to anyone that you’ve screened, interviewed (Internal and client) and placed on contract/contract to hire /direct hire.
Building a network of technical talent was HUGE for me over the last year to year and a half. This “Push” to secure more talent in my network was one of the highlights of my year in that I saw a bigger return of interest in my Job Shares and Posts.
Going forward in 2012
I encourage you to increase your talent networks, utilize Job Posting and Social Recruiting Tools including the proper software / hardware. I guarantee that you will see similar success in the coming year and, hopefully, less of the Bad and Ugly!
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