Editor’s Note: This is a guest post by freelance writer Catrin Cooper. Her opinions are her own.
Nowadays it’s easier to find quality candidates. With the use of social media, you can quickly make connections with potential candidates as they hang out online regularly.
The average internet user has over five social media accounts. People are going to Facebook, Instagram, and other channels to share what’s on their mind and converse with other people with the same interests as they have. Social media is a town center that becomes a focal point for interaction online.
LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook are the most popular social media sites where you can find and connect with candidates. These candidates are unlikely to be found through the more traditional (old school) methods of sourcing talent.
Although most companies are utilizing social media to find tech talent, some of them aren’t making the most of it. But in this post, we show you how to connect with the best potential tech talent through social media.
1. Engage in the right conversations
The best way to recruit tech talent on social media is to know where your potential candidates are hanging out. From there, you can communicate with them by engaging in the right conversations. On LinkedIn, you can participate in LinkedIn groups. Then, use hashtags to ensure that the tech talent you wish to hire can see your job openings.
2. Use the right recruiting techniques
But you need to have a strong recruiting brand on social media first. It’s one of the critical factors to help you get the best tech talent.
Make sure that your brand is a name that people know and respect. That way, potential candidates are more likely to reply to your direct messages or respond to your ads.
Having a strong recruiting brand can make it easier for you to attract top talent in the tech industry. Your followers can become your talent pool.
It means that you have a ready-made audience who could become your employees. It then becomes easier for you to entice them to submit their resumes or apply for your job openings. Your followers can share your job openings within their networks, thereby, increasing the reach of your ad.
3. Promote your business culture
When you use social media as part of your recruitment process, make sure that you share content to show that your business offers a great place for people to work.
One way to encourage people to talk about your company is to share your unique culture through your content. This type of content gets easily shared.
4. Use the power of influencers
To multiply the reach of your job openings, consider engaging with influencers. Most successful recruitment agencies do this as part of their strategy in building a strong social media brand presence.
Find influencers in your industry who re-share content and updates from other companies in your niche. These are the types of people you want to build relationships with so you can widen the reach of your job vacancy messages.
5. Explore niche networks
Although most people are on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, you can easily find potential candidates when you peruse niche networks. You must also look into forums. GitHub, for example, is a great place where developers share their knowledge. Moz is also an ideal place where marketers hang out and share their ideas.
6. Use social media advertising
Don’t just increase vacancy alerts across your Facebook pages or Twitter feeds. The reason for this is that your brand will look desperate. It can harm your ability to attract top talent. People don’t want to see their social media feeds clogged with a barrage of job postings.
If you have the budget, you can use specialists to run your PPC campaign on social media.
7. Encourage your employees to share your job openings
Doing so will make them an evangelist of your brand on social media. You may have strict rules about the use of social media. However, you can allow them to talk about their experiences while working with your company. But make sure that they do so in a responsible manner.
8. Make your recruiting efforts more engaging
One of the many ways to do this is to create recruitment videos that feature your staff. You can also create and share infographics that can include information about your products and services. Keep things interesting by adding images.
9. Use LinkedIn properly
Most job seekers use LinkedIn to find a job. That said, take advantage of this trend to recruit tech talent. This social media channel lets you post available jobs and search for potential candidates. You can sign up for LinkedIn’s Talent Advantage to use its exclusive tools for recruiters.
However, if budget is a problem, you can use free resources that the network offers. Start by building connections with people you know. They could be your current clients, co-workers, and friends. Join groups where you can connect with potential candidates. Find an affiliated group on LinkedIn to communicate directly with top talents.
10. Learn the recruiting tools of Facebook
The number of candidates you have in your database is nothing compared to the database of potential candidates on Facebook. The social networking site provides an easy and affordable way to improve your applicant pool.
Facebook Marketplace, for instance, lets you post your job opening for free. You can add the basic information about the job and add it to the right category, title, and description.
11. Complete your brand page
Before you even use job posting an ad on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and other social media sites, make sure that you have created your brand page. Doing so will help you showcase your company culture. Job seekers can find your page, see your job openings and learn about your company.
12. Use filters in finding the right candidates
Filters let you search applicants by a current company, years of experience and several factors that can help you narrow your search. LinkedIn has extensive filters that enable you to zero-in on your candidates.
13. Communicate with the candidates with a personal touch
You shoul avoid copying and pasting the same message to potential candidates that you wish to connect with. In your outreach, mention why you think the candidate is an excellent fit for your company.
Recruiting tech talent through social media is no longer a hype. Rather, it’s now being used as a vital tool to source candidates and promote company culture.
With social media, you can reach out to passive candidates. LinkedIn, for instance, offers a directory of professionals. It’s organized by company, job title, and other categories.
Moreover, social media allows you to look at the person’s work history without having to look at a resume. In that case, you’ll know if the candidate has experience for the job before you even reach out to them. By looking at the person’s posts, you can learn about their hobbies and know about their personality.
And most importantly, social media can help you filter out bad candidates. You can easily determine a person with a bad attitude by studying at what he’s sharing online.
Author
Conor McMahon
Conor McMahon is a writer for Zippia, with previous experience in the nonprofit, customer service, and technical support industries. He has a degree in Music Industry from Northeastern University and in his free time he plays guitar with his friends. Conor enjoys creative writing between his work doing professional content creation and technical documentation.
