Everybody hangs out on social networks because they are able to connect with others through social media sharing. Social media consists of text, pictures, videos, graphics and animation found on social networks. Twitter, for instance concentrates on text sharing which they call tweets. Pinterest concentrates on sharing pictures and graphics, YouTube concentrates on video sharing and Facebook can share practically everything that’s why they are the largest social network.
Considering that social networks are where most of your market is at, don’t you think it would be a good idea to hang out there too? Welcome to Social Media for Recruiters 101! Here are 3 ways to make social media work in your recruitment business.
1. Build your network
Are the right people in your contact list? There is usually a limited number of invitations that can be sent out and a limited number of friends that you can have. For Linked in you can only send out 3,000 invitations. In Facebook you can only have 5,000 friends. Although these figures seem large, they are not enough because not all of them will end up being your client or candidate. This is why it is important to use your space wisely. If your recruitment business has a niche then you should strive to connect with people in that niche.
2. Use your wall
Once you’ve got the right people in your contacts list, you can use your status message or wall to post job ads, announcements and even ads. This way, prospective candidates will be alerted when there are jobs, clients will be alerted of your services and your name will “ring a bell” with everyone who will see your posts. Just remember that each post has a “shelf life” before it gets buried so you may have to work at posting on a regular basis.
3. Build relationships
It is not enough to invite prospective candidates and clients to be your contacts nor is it enough to just to post job vacancies, company ads or announcements. You also have to engage with people. Via personal messages or chat you have to talk to your contacts or friends and try to get to know them a little more. You have to answer their questions if they have any and you have to constantly provide information that would be of help to them so they will get the idea that you know what you are doing. Your contacts and friends are your prospective candidates and clients and by engaging with them you are also building your relationships with them. People will only work with other people that they trust and this is what you should be aiming for – to be trusted.
By doing these 3 things you can almost be sure that social media will work for your business and your social network presence would obviously be worth your while.