Social media plays an interesting multi-tiered role for recruitment consultants.On the one hand, they’re keen to attract new clients, promote their business services, and find businesses that need new staff. On the other hand, however, they’re also looking for the next prospective candidates they can put forward for interview. Not forgetting the different types of recruitment, ranging from permanent placements, to temporary placements, to sometimes something in-between.

When one realises how broad the reach of recruitment can be, it soon becomes apparent how useful social media might be. The key, though, is to get the messaging consistent, despite the diverse nature of the intended audience.

How can a recruitment consultant stay consistent?

It’s a good question. The answer is to understand the values and ethos your consultancy represents and then hold true to those things and your brand in every interaction. This will ensure that whichever audience you’re attempting to reach with a particular post, the underlying message will remain on brand, on message, and authentic.

Which platforms suit recruitment?

As you would expect, different platforms suit different needs. With regard to attracting new clients, one has to think about where those potential clients will ‘hang out’. LinkedIn is the best starting place, with Twitter sitting behind it in support. LinkedIn is very much the B2B of social media. And if you’re looking for companies who need to recruit, that’s a good place to start.

On the other hand, the answer to this question with respect to finding potential applicants is a bit more diverse, and really depends on the type of recruitment you are doing. E.g. is it temporary or permanent? And what type of positions you’re recruiting for? E.g. bar staff or senior management?

It’s worth exploring this a little further…

Liking LinkedIn

LinkedIn is business focused… big time. It’s about online schmoozing, networking, connecting, and engaging. As a platform it actually works for both potential clients and candidates. When people are on LinkedIn they are in business mode. They are often looking for job opportunities, or people to fill job opportunities. And the demographic information available is incredibly useful, in comparison to other platforms.

Having a twitter strategy

Business and personal opinion mix and hold hands on Twitter. It is a good platform to reach out to candidates, as well as build a brand for potential clients. A key way to maximise this is via hashtags. Always think to link your posts to relevant hashtags, be they be about recruitment, a geographical location…or both. It’s very possible someone searching will see your post at a time when they’re actively open to receiving that information.

Facing off on Facebook

Interestingly, Facebook is not nearly as easy a nut to crack as people think. You need to have a business page, and people need to have ‘liked’ it to be presented with your posts in their news stream. It does have its place for attracting candidates, possibly more so than new clients, but it has to be done carefully. Facebook is about personality and engagement. It’s not about transmitting. Facebook users are presented with so many adverts, one more in their stream is likely to be dismissed by their eye before their brain even registers it. Far more effective, therefore, is to build your name via the personality of your brand. That’s done through posting interesting, relevant information about how to get a job, about your location, and about the individuals who work for you.

Summary thoughts

The key with social media for recruitment is to follow some strict rules:

·         Understand your audience – Research the demographics; use what the platforms offer to do this.

·         Research key terms – Understand what your audience – either clients or candidates – are searching for and use those key terms in your posts.

·         Engage your audience, don’t transmit – Provide genuinely useful information and encourage people to interact.

·         Be helpful and share content – Do as you would be done by, as they say.

·         Always respond – Positive comments, neutral comments, negative comments, you’ll get them all. But whatever comes along each day, always respond constructively. It’s amazing how quickly a negative can be turned into a positive when handled well. But it’s equally scary how it can work the other way.

·         Whichever platforms you choose, use them – Out of sight is out of mind; consistency and regular appearances make a difference.