Here are some “number one tips” to help you with Social Media In Recruitment from some of the speakers of the 2^nd Social Media In Recruitment Conference in London:

• Josh Smith (Facebook)

Use it as an advertising tool and try different creative ideas, different target groups in order to find your exact audience.

• Lisa Scales (TalentOnView.com)

My advice for someone new entering the world of social media is that do not try to do all at once because it will be a failure, but choose something you are interested in and start working towards some plans.

• Bill Boorman (Bill Boorman Consultancy)

Begin with the ending mind: before you are going to it decide what you want out of it.

• Andy Headworth (Sirona Consulting)

Do not preach just engage and enjoy.

• Paul Harrison (Carve Consulting)

First just listen to these conversations going on about and between your business, employees, potential employees, etc. and that will be the bases to get involved.

• Alan Whitford (RCEuro.com)

Like Nike says ” Just do it”!

James Caan (www.James-Caan.com) about Social Media in Recruitment on the 1st Social Media In Recruitment Conference in London, 2009

…When the internet started everybody thought that the internet will destroy the industry, but after a while it became clear that just the opposite happened and the internet made the recruitment industry much more efficient. Time and cost savings: the way how we generate candidates today is far more efficient  and cost efficient than before. The cost of advertising were always very expensive, but online job boards decreased the advertising costs in some cases even with 80%. Before an advertising in a newspaper could cost around 10.000 EUR but today for just some hundreds of euros we can generate candidates, a huge difference.

Social Media like Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, etc. are the next phase in this recruitment revolution and will have a huge effect on recruitment. Very valuable and innovative tools with which far more reactive and pro-active service can be provided to our clients…

[Ref: http://www.socialmediainrecruitment.com]

• Communication
• Organization
• Security

1. Communication

After registering on a social networking site start to communicate by answering questions, asking questions, letting people know what you are doing and what you think is important and by this promote your company and move the attention to your website where more specific information can be found… Value conversations and invest time in follow-up.

You may segment people into groups according to the following classification and decide on an appropriate communication strategy towards the specific segments:

• Clients/customers
• Prospective clients/customers
• Employees
• Active Candidates
• Passive Candidates

2. Organization

Good social networking needs careful organization/planning and is a time consuming task, therefore allocate time for it and choose a person in charge and preferably design a Community Manager role in the organization.

3. Security

Communication on behalf of a company may risk brand reputation therefore careful planning is required!

Because of the big success of the social networking sites there are more and more hacker attacks against those sites. In some cases when clicking on a link a whole company network can go down or network security can be jeopardized…

It is important to have a well defined Social Media Policy which provides guidance to employees about how to interact on behalf of the company online and which clearly defines what’s acceptable and what is not.

The aim is always to try to get your target group to visit your website at some point!

Which tools to use:

A good advice is to stick with the big-three especially when you are doing your first steps in this new world: LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter .

There are important differences between these 3 tools what you also must take into account:

LinkedIn

LinkedIn is a fully professional networking site. As a company if you provide services or products to other businesses (B2B) then this is the first place to be. As an individual you can place your professional resume on LinkedIn, get connected to other professionals, get professional recommendations from your connections, etc.

What can you do on LinkedIn as a company:

- Define a LinkedIn Company Profile,

- Join the discussion in Groups,

- Post update messages,

- Research and mine resume/candidate database for candidates,

- etc.

Facebook

If your customer base is consumers, Facebook is probably the best place to start. Many people use Facebook daily to socialize with friends and family and their Facebook use has most of the cases nothing to do with business. You can create a page for your business but your main profile page is about you as a Person. Facebook is by definition a ‘Personal’ networking site. It is thus important not to get too personal if you’re using Facebook for business…

Twitter

Twitter is a kind of short messaging system (max. 140 characters). You can e.g. use it to update your status on LinkedIn or Facebook (distribute a message automatically to thousands of users), or to send out short descriptions of available job openings which in turn can be ‘followed’ by others, etc.

The advantage of Twitter is that it is fast and easy to use and that the messages are to the point (or should be) and may consist links to (your) websites.

Remember: The aim is always to try to get your target group to visit your website!

• The total number of PCs in use will reach 1.62 billion units in 2012, all of which are capable of Internet access, even if some are not connected.
• By 2012, the combined installed base of smartphones and browser-equipped enhanced phones will exceed 1.69 billion units. From 2012 onwards, this combined installed base will be greater than the installed base for PCs.

Nevertheless, most users in 2012 will use a PC as their primary Web access device and their phone as a secondary access device. However, as use of smartphones spreads globally, they will overtake the PC as the most common primary device for Web access sometime in 2015.

This shift means that many websites will need to be reformatted or rebuilt. Mobile device users typically make many fewer “clicks” on a website than PC users, and websites not optimized for smaller screen formats will risk reduced customer interaction and fewer transactions.

This market barrier will be of particularly concern to:

• Organizations in geographies where the PC is not as prevalent.
• Organizations with consumer-facing websites.
• Informational portals used by educational institutions and the government sector.

Online retailers, banks and financial service providers will be the most exposed to this risk.

[Source: http://gartner.com/predicts, Gartner, Inc., Gartner Top End User Predictions for 2010: Coping with the New Balance of Power]

• Two trends are merging
  that will drastically alter the future of the world’s trading economy:
  • The rapid rise of mobile and Internet technology adoption in emerging economies.
  • Advances in mobile payment, commerce and banking.
• Together they will open the way for a significant portion of the world’s adult population to transact electronically. For many of these newly enfranchised consumers from emerging economies, the ability to use short message service (SMS), e-mail or  payment accounts will constitute their first and only access to the estimated $1 trillion global economy.
• For global firms such as Coca Cola and Carrefour, it will provide electronic reach and the ability to transact with a significant majority of adults on the planet.
• For entities such as eBay, TaoBao or Craigslist, it will open a huge opportunity for consumer-to-consumer transactions.
• For mobile operators, Internet companies and financial institutions, it will open vast new markets for the provision of transactional and funds transfer capabilities.

[Source: http://gartner.com/predicts, Gartner, Inc., Gartner Top End User Predictions for 2010: Coping with the New Balance of Power]