1. Using social media for recruiting
The biggest challenge that recruiters face is to reach out, engage and hire top talent. You ask any
recruiterandtheywanttobewhere themostqualifiedand talentedpoolof candidatesis.Socialmedia
channelssuchas LinkedIn,Twitter,etc.have made iteasierforthe recruiterstoreach outand create
such a pool of talent for filling up their most critical positions.
Thisuse of social mediaforrecruitingneedsiscalledsocialrecruiting.However,there ismoreto social
recruiting than just hiring the right talent for open positions. It gives the recruiters, job seekersand
organizationsmultiple advantages.At the same time,one has to be wary of usinga powerful tool as
LinkedInforhiringas any activityon such platforms instantlygetsbroadcastedto a large networkof
professionals. Throughthisblog,I’dliketotouchuponsome of these advantages.I’llalso trytotouch
upon some potential areas where users of social recruiting might need to maintain caution.
EmployerBrand: Social recruitinggivesanopportunitytocommunicate directlywiththe prospective
candidates. It is an opportunity for recruiters to showcase the candidates and potential employees
the culture that exists in the organization. They can showcase what it is like to work for the
organization.The catch,however,isthatif yourorganizationcultureisnotgreatthenyoucandovery
little aboutit.Employerbrandingwilldolittle tobuildyouremployerbrand.Ratherhavingapresence
on social media channels can be a very precarious situation to be in.
Talent Pipeline:Social mediaprovidesplatformtobuildpipeline of talentthatisgenuinelyinterested
in working for your organization. Havinga pipeline of candidates ready for your critical hiring needs
savesa lot of time,effortandmoneyforthe organization.Itisefficientandgivesyoudirectaccessto
top talent. However,itis a differentthingto builda talentpipeline andto use it effectively.Sending
out a wrong message regarding your hiring needs can result in a situation where your network
becomes unresponsive. This can be more harmful than being helpful.
Access to passive candidates: One of the things where social media outscores other hiring channels
is the access that it providesto passive candidates.Passive candidatesare essentiallynotlookingfor
opportunities actively but might be open to connect with recruiters or business leaders from your
organization.LinkedInalonehasaglobal memberbase of more than380millionusers.Notallof them
wouldbe lookingfora job at the same time.Therefore,passive candidatescan become part of your
talent pipeline, can give you access to the right candidates from their own networks and can even
become interestedin your company if the right job comes up. Recruiters, however, have to be very
cautiousabout the kindof messagingthatis beingsentout to such candidatesbecause ittakesa lot

2. of effort to convert passive candidates into serious candidates while it is very easyto lose them out
with a single wrong message.
Network: Social media literally gives unrestricted access to recruiters to global talent and an
opportunitytocreate theirownnetwork.Itisaplace tobuild theirpersonal brand. Insome ways,this
is equivalent to taking traditional route to recruiting top talent but with the aid of digital channels.
The recruiters need to be sure to divide the line between personal branding and networking for the
sake of buildingpipelinefortheorganization.Manyorganizationsdothisby usingprofessional licenses
forsome of the digitalchannelsbutitisnotpractiseduniversallyandalldigital channelsdonotprovide
professional licenses.
Analytics: Social mediachannelscangive accesstodata and insights thatrecruitershave longsought
for but have not been able to get. Recently a social media organization showed us with a click of a
button where we have gained talent from and to which companies we have lost talent to. Not only
that, it gave us absolute numbers in terms of how we stack up vis-à-vis other companies. Such
powerful data points and other analytics can help our recruiters gain insights and work on them
proactively to reduce outflow of talent and also know about the right places to hire from. The
organizations will,of course, have to invest in building the right analytics teamto take advantage of
such data. Without such a team in place, we might just see the tip of the iceberg.
These are,of course,justsome of the benefitsof social recruiting. Ultimately,social mediaisanother
tool in recruiters’repertoire tohelpselectthe rightcandidate forthe job. It mighthelpingettingthe
rightcandidatesmore efficientlybutusingsocialmediarequirestimeandeffort.Social recruitingtakes
many cues from traditional ways of recruiting but provides a digital edge to it.