10 Common Social Recruiting Internet Sourcing Myths BUSTED - Workology

10 Common Social Recruiting Internet Sourcing Myths BUSTED - Workology Busted! Common Social Recruiting and Internet Sourcing Myths Busted! Common Social Recruiting and Internet Sourcing Myths As a former dark horse of the recruiting world (I think were past those days though, right?), social recruiting  and internet sourcing have had plenty of time to accumulate some big, big, myths. Myths some staffing leaders and recruiting managers have held onto because, well, its just kind of hard to keep up to date on whats really going on with social recruiting and sourcing. In my experience these myths create a life of their own and are furthered due to lack of recent knowledge, experience, and education.  Often times these same leaders who perpetuate these myths forget that with the Internet we are in the business of finding and driving people.  And that these people and candidates we are actively sourcing and recruiting dont use the online and resources and tools in the same way that they are accustomed.  My candidates arent on social media.  Rubbish. Facebook has 1 billion active users, according to Yahoo! Finance. TechCrunch reports Twitter has 170 million active users, and Google+ has 100 million. Youre telling me your candidates arent using any of those social networks? Or Pinterest? Or LinkedIn? Or YouTube? Or Quora? Or Meetup? Or GitHub? I could keep going but i’ll save it for another post. Social media is awesome! Join every network right now!  Just because I can name a lot of social networks, doesnt mean I should set up a profile on all of them. By all means, research other social networks. Set up a company profile or page and give em the old college try. But you may find that some of them arent really worth your time. Thats alright! The best recruiters use data to identify which sourcing activities yield the best results if a social network isnt helping you out, cut it loose. Google+ is dumb. If you went through that new social network evaluation I just linked you to and you think its dumb, alright, I believe you. But dont discount the tremendous SEO value in Google+. Posts from Google+ are being indexed in the SERPs, and authors Google+ profiles are showing up next to those results and improving  click through  rates on listings. Even if youre not seeing a lot of engagement on Google+, you might see a bump in your organic search rankings for your jobs as a result of your activity there. Pinterest is only for B2C organizations and you can’t recruit on it anyway.  It is totally awesome for B2C recruiters, to be sure. But usually when someone says a channel is only for B2C, the B2B recruiter in me takes that as a challenge to prove its not so. You can check out a blog post by Blogging4jobs own Jessica Miller-Merrell on How to Recruit on Pinterest. I should only try to get fans and followers that will become candidates.  Quality is important, yes, but dont underestimate the power of a large social reach. Remember some of these points next time you bemoan acquiring a fan or follower that would not be a fit for your current openings remember: More fans and followers means youre gaining access to their fans and followers. If theyre an influencer, their clout transfers to you by association. When they share your jobs, your SEO improves. They may still refer candidates your way. If my friends and family Like every update, my social presence will rock.  You cant just have your mom and uncle Like every job post you put up on Facebook. The EdgeRank algorithm is a tad bit more sophisticated than that. You need a variety of people interacting with your content both to grow your reach, and to show up in users news feeds! I have to respond to candidates immediately, especially on social media.  Theres no doubt a speedy response is appreciated, but it isnt always required. People understand that youre running a business. There are other things going on. If you get back in a timely manner, but not in mere seconds, its alright. Do NOT get personal.  The jobs you publish in social media should always keep your target audience in mind but that doesnt mean you cant also publish content that shows your brands personality. Or, frankly, even your hiring managers personality. There are people behind your company and its jobs; dont be afraid to show that with your own special brand of humor, pictures of people that work at your company, and links to news content that you find particularly entertaining even if its not directly related to your industry. Hashtags are not wicked important.  You know those tweets that look like this? XYZ is hiring #jobs #marketing that talks about #mobile #ATS  The point of Twitter hashtags is that they join together common conversation threads. So while its nice to have a hashtag for an event, like a webinar or a trade show, dont lose your mind if it doesnt become a trending topic. Its not necessarily going to blow your hiring goal out of the water if it does think of hashtags as a way to be more user-friendly for those following the hashtag, not a way to make all your candidate sourcing dreams come true. Social Recruiting is only for millennials.  Thats not really an accurate picture of social media users these days. If you think the only people using social media are millennials and theyre just not part of your target candidates think again. 40% of Facebooks active users are over age 35. 52% of 55-64 year old internet users have joined a social network. 93% of U.S. adult internet users are on Facebook. Social Recruiting is free.  Its free to join, but its still a resource investment. Yes, its often cheaper 45% of recruiting leadership cite social media has a below average cost per hire, surpassed only by candidates generated from referrals. But just like any other recruiting channel, youll have to invest some resources behind social recruiting and to really make it take off, its only natural youll have to up that investment (that investment by the way is in people who ‘get it’ and can do it the right way for you). What other common social recruiting and hiring myths did I miss?  What type of resistance have you encountered when talking abou the benefits of internet recruiting and sourcing?  Feel free to share your favorites below.