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."