Surveys have shown that 85% of staffing leaders utilize Social Recruiting avenues - yet most of the clients we work with lack any formal social recruitment strategy. With all the choices available and potential legal, audit or regulatory entanglements many recruitment leaders are confused or even paralyzed by fear. Hiring organizations know the recruitment world has made a dramatic shift, and recruiters know they need to meet prospects where they already are, but without a clear strategy many end up jumping blindly into social recruiting and make easily avoidable mistakes. 

If you think the best way to recruit with social media is feeding your jobs RSS feed through twitter but then get distracted with new entries into the space such as Google+, we wrote this article series just for you and hope this helps you avoid an epic #fail by falling victim to some of the most common mistakes.

Why your social recruitment "strategy" failed:

Lack of Research on the Platform
Don’t forget that Social Media is just that – MEDIA! That means it is about branding and visibility. There’s way too much hype around   social media. Anyone can create an account on the hundreds of social sites for free. Most people just jump blindly onboard the shiny new social site because it is cool, hip or trendy, or just because some pundit recommended it.  Hold on! Start with a bare profile and   poke around, don’t reveal much or import all your connections just yet.  Is your target market there? If not, BAIL!

Are your competitors there?
If so what are they doing well and how do they suck? Are there cool apps you find immediately and easily useful? Is there communication or just lots of self promotion? Before you go ahead and fill out your profile and import all your contacts, ask your connections in other social sites what THEY think – use quick ad-hoc polls or surveys like Facebook Questions or LinkedIn Answers to see if this new place is going to appeal to your established audience. If not, just leave your bare profile on there to protect your user name and come back in a few months to see if there’s new traction.

No FOCUS!
When you do an email blast you know precisely who you are reaching right? So it’s the same thing with social media. Don’t just go for numbers. A large amount of followers means absolutely nothing if they are the wrong audience for your message. Sure, with social media we can target with laser focus, but first did you identify WHO you are trying to reach?  When you know who you want to reach then focus on making meaningful connections with influential or connected people. Having 100,000 followers who have no idea what you are talking about is not as good as having 1,000 followers who actually read and repost your messages. 

You were inconsistent!
Social media is not about “a quick second here” and “I’ll get around to it.” Weather its daily, weekly, or monthly get on some semblance of a regular schedule.  If you are not visible to your audience on a regular basis they will move on to other channels and stop checking back with you. Make a spreadsheet and plan ahead a few months, when you get a burst of ideas put them into the spreadsheet so that when you are busy or can’t think of something at least you can draw from that. 

You were pushy!
You are not going to get success by getting in people’s faces and  blasting them with volume. Get a book on Marketing 101 and you’ll see that  social media is more about Pull Marketing thank Push Marketing. Start  conversations, engage, don’t “advertise” all the time. A bit of pushing is ok,  maybe 10% or 20% at MOST. Before you go pushing though make sure you have an  established audience otherwise you’ll cut your success short before you even  begin. Once you are credible and trustworthy, and the “pull” is happening then  the “push”can be effective. Push too soon and you’ll blow your  opportunity.
 
Focused on the wrong goals.
“More candidates” is not a good goal for social media. Broaden your scope.  The ROI is in hits to your career site which improves your SEO and reduces your traditional advertisement spend. Or look for newsletter signups, increased applications, higher quality of respondents, or improved employment brand recognition.