How to Eat an Elephant...Social Media Style

If you would have asked me last year at this time about social media, I would have said "you mean LinkedIn?" LinkedIn was the only social media I had time for while working for a large staffing agency. I have been very fortunate over the past 13 months to have found an employer who puts more of an emphasis on social media strategy. They have given me the resources to learn this part of recruiting, and it has been a very exciting journey. 

Before starting with my current company, I had used LinkedIn, but I was just scratching the surface of its potential. Once I started to look at LinkedIn, as well as other social media, differently it changed my whole thought process on how this tool can help me with recruiting.

It can be intimidating getting into this space for the first time. Social media is very easy to start, but very hard to keep caught up if you do not know what you are looking for. My first couple weeks at this employer I had the chance to spend some time with our social media guru, and was able to get a great foundation for starting on this exciting new journey. By no means am I claiming to be an expert, but I do feel I have become a knowledgeable user of Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook.

When I first started using these sites for recruiting it was bit overwhelming trying to figure out how this tool could really help me find the right talent. I was looking at this ocean of people and thinking there is no way I could possibly find the right person. The key to social media, from my experience, is to take a different view on how this tool could help you. What if I did not need to find the candidates, but have the candidates find me? I could act like a light house guiding in the boats in the dark of night, and to start doing this I needed to become someone who can add value. I am not referring to adding value by always posting about the exciting positions I was looking to fill, but adding value by providing relevant information. This information could be about my company, or interview techniques, or resume strategies, or interesting industry articles...I think you get the point! What is the common theme? This is all very non-threatening information to the candidate. As soon as you are able to establish yourself as an expert in your industry, you now have the attention of potential candidates (this method cab be applied to all social media).

If you are someone who just adds job postings to your social media accounts, I feel you are looking at social media completely wrong. A potential candidate will not be looking at you as an expert, but as just another recruiter.  Who wants to be "just another recruiter" in a world filled with mediocre recruiters?

You may be thinking at this point, "I've tried this and I'm still not seeing candidates come to me." This is the exciting part, because its not about you! It's about creating awareness for your client and the position they are looking to fill. You may not get a ton of resumes e-mailed to you, but you will see an increase in the candidates who apply directly for the position. If you are able to accept this and stick with a strategy, you will slowly start to see success on these sites. It is a long process, and it will require you to change your habits. I have been at it for the past 8 months, and I would not say I am anywhere close to where I want to be.

I've heard this saying a lot recently, and it holds very true to social media. "How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time."

Boolean Strings Made Simple

Knowing how to use a correct boolean string for internet searching is a great way to find talent no one else is looking at.  Using this tool for sourcing talent will give you an opportunity to find candidates no one else is looking at, and in most cases the contact information will come right along with the profile. I am not referring to your typical boolean search on your job boards, but a boolean search within the search engines (Google, Yahoo, Bing, etc).

Including this in your sourcing strategy is a powerful way to find new talent.  For this example, I will only be scratching the surface of this tools full capabilities.  If you are intrigued to learn more, I would encourage you to search the internet for more tips and techniques.

To get started you want to figure out what you are looking for. I am going to assume most recruiters are in search of resumes, yes? In many cases when a resume is published online, it will have the word resume directly in the URL or title of the page.  To sort through this you can use the following indicators;

intitle:
inurl:

It is important to use these together, as it will capture profiles with both the key word in the title as well as the URL.

(intitle:resume | inurl:resume)

      * | = OR (the | symbol is above the return key and is the       
        same key as the \. Press Shift \ to get | )

Next you will want to have the search leave out any unwanted terms.  As you get more experience, you will have a better idea of what these terms are.  In our example, we will want to exclude any job descriptions, or job postings.

(intitle:resume | inurl:resume) -apply -eoe -submit

      * -  = NOT (You should also use this for titles or   
        technical skills you are wanting to exclude)
      * While searching within a search engine, the AND is
        automatically assumed.  It is not necessary to use AND           while searching on these sources. 

You can get even more specific with file types, knowing most resumes will be posted on the internet as PDF, DOC, or TXT files (you can play around with this a bit as well. At times you will have candidates who do not use any of these formats). Another common form for resumes is SlideShare format. 

(intitle:resume | inurl:resume) -apply -eoe -submit (filetype:pdf | filetype:doc | filetype:txt)

This will get you a good foundation to start your basic resume search.  Now you are ready to put in your specific skills search criteria.  For this example, lets say we are looking for a front end web developer in the Phoenix, AZ area.

(intitle:resume | inurl:resume) -apply -eoe -submit (filetype:pdf | filetype:doc | filetype:txt) (phoenix | glendale | tempe | mesa | chandler) (ui | "user interface") java html css javascript jquery

When Searching on Google, I was able to Yield 205 search results.  Not all of these results will be relevant, and it will be up to you to go through and scrub the search a bit.  You will also find most search engines will take out the duplicate results, and you will not need to spend time looking at all 205 results.

**Quick Reference
AND: Not normally used for online search engines
OR: |
NOT: -
intitle: searches internet for word of phrase in the title of the website
inurl: searches internet for word of phrase in url of website
filetype: searches for specific file types on the internet

Welcome to the Recruiting Corner

My name is Ryan Harding, and I have been in the staffing industry since March 2006.  I started my career working for a staffing agency strictly focused on technical requirements.  In July 2012 I made the transition over to corporate recruiting, and my eyes have been opened to a whole different world.  Since making the transition, I have successfully placed candidates in a variety of different positions including; Marketing, Sales, Product Management, Project Management, Software Engineering, Software/Application Architecture, Business Analysis, Data Analysis, Quality Assurance, Technical Support, and others.  I can honestly say I am still challenged on a daily basis, and I still feel after all this time I have a LOT to learn.  When finishing up college, I can not say I set out to become a recruiter, but I believe because of my passion for people I was naturally drawn to this profession.  My passion not only extends to candidates looking for work (you can see this in my other blog WeLive2Work.blogspot.com), but also my fellow recruiters.  My hope is for this blog is to be a valuable resource for recruiters looking to gain some quick knowledge in the various skill sets they are recruiting for.  When you recruit for a variety of backgrounds, you need to be able to successfully ask the right questions and have resources at your fingertips on how to find the right talent for your client.  I am not the expert in all these areas, but I am hoping in time I will be able to bring the experts to this blog and have them contribute their knowledge in the topics discussed.  If you consider yourself an expert in the area, please feel free to leave comments on strategies that have worked for you.  As a team we will be able to set up a resource to will become invaluable to recruiters at all levels.

Thank you for all your contributions, and I hope you find some value in this blog!

Feel free to E-mail me directly with any feedback!