So you may have caught the term, but what exactly is social recruiting?
Terminology and content
Well, the terminology comes from the more international expression “social recruiting” or “social media recruitment”. There is possibly a lot more to the expression than you had imagined. In short, social recruitment is the use of social media as a tool in the recruitment process. Social media in this sense (at least from a recruiter’s perspective) is a very broad term. Social media in this sense (at least from a recruiter’s perspective) is a very broad term. Take LinkedIn for example, which is often associated with a social media, but which many (myself included) would rather define as a social network. Now I will not go into the various media and the disputes here. Perhaps it would be better to define it as “interactive media recruitment”. This is because it largely concerns media where we can interact with others and/or can interact on other users’ published content. These are places where someone with the right expertise within available tools can select who can see your ad on the basis of users’ available registered information, activity and/or preferences. In social recruitment, in connection with job advertisements or campaigns for Employer Branding – be it via paid or free solutions.
The term social recruitment also includes the use of social and digital media to be able to find or seek out information about potential candidates. You have probably read several articles where you are advised to be careful with what you post on social media, precisely for the reason that the employer, or a potential employer, can easily look you up and create a negative impression of what they find .
Social recruitment is a demanding niche
From an advertiser/recruiter’s perspective, there is one thing that makes social recruiting difficult. There are few people who consider that most social/interactive media were not actually created with recruitment in mind. Their targeting tools were created for the much larger market related to advertising/branding/marketing – where a multitude of players have specialized. Many people who are aware that there are elementary differences do not know how to act on it, or think they have taken it into account and are doing things right. There is a very big difference in advertising the new products you have got on the shelf in your store vs. targeting candidates to land your new store manager. This is a topic we have written more about before (click here to read). Take my wife here for example (our biggest fan and constructive critic). I have a feeling she’s made it a mission to try and get us in bad targets. With a husband who claims to be a specialist in targeting, she is probably a bit sensitive when it comes to having completely irrelevant vacancies presented in her news feed on social media, or in advertising placements associated with the respective media (after all, she is not, for example, a electrician) – and help me, she is everywhere. If she can’t see who’s behind it, then a screenshot pops up on my mobile with a question as to whether it’s us who have missed it completely. No wonder I make sure we’re on our toes?
Our perspective
At Post Social, we have thus specialized in how to be able to use the targeting tools correctly in a recruitment context. I myself have worked in positions related to the labor market for almost my entire career – recruiting via social media since 2012. Back then (sounds very old, which it certainly is in this context as well) there were not many job advertisements or Employer Branding campaigns to be seen in social media here in Norway, but when we got to 2015 a survey showed that the entire 5 out of 10 would click on a job advert in social media even if they weren’t looking for a job. At least it hasn’t become any less, and yes, the potential extends far beyond just Facebook and LinkedIn! You just have to know how to utilize the other media also in the context of recruitment. The topic of social recruitment has proved more challenging than I thought it would be/will be when we first started down the path of specialising. This world consists of constant changes that we have to keep up with for our customers and I am not exaggerating when I say that I still (7 years later) learn something new almost every single day. Our customers benefit from lessons learned. Anyway, I hope you are now a little better acquainted with what lies behind the terminology. Do you have input, questions, feedback or praise that you would like to share with me? Yes, then you are welcome to comment below or send me an email at jes@postsocial.no.
Jan Erik Stuedal | postsocial.no
