{"id":25537,"date":"2014-02-19T15:00:05","date_gmt":"2014-02-19T22:00:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.smartrecruiters.com\/blog\/?p=25537"},"modified":"2017-10-17T10:00:37","modified_gmt":"2017-10-17T17:00:37","slug":"5-things-recruiters-struggle-with-on-social-media","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.smartrecruiters.com\/blog\/5-things-recruiters-struggle-with-on-social-media\/","title":{"rendered":"5 Things Recruiters Struggle with on Social Media"},"content":{"rendered":"

Social media can be infuriating. Or so I hear from the many recruitment businesses I come into contact with each day. It\u2019s really not that hard to use \u2013 and yet so many job\u00a0recruiters<\/a> feel frustrated with the results they\u2019re generating from their social media presence.<\/p>\n

So I thought I\u2019d share the most common issues I uncover when figuring out how to improve the social media presence of a recruiting business or recruiting team.
\n<\/p>\n

5. Not Clearly Defining their Goals.<\/b>
\nThis is absolutely key. Social media can pull you in all manner of directions once you start spending any time on it. It can also suck every hour from your working day if you give it half a chance!<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why it\u2019s key that you define from the outset what your goals are for your social media presence. Maybe you want your social media presence to generate new client leads for your recruiting business. Maybe you want to build a strong recruiting or employer brand<\/a> to attract relevant candidates. Maybe it\u2019s part of a wider strategy to boost your search engine rankings and thus increase the traffic you attract from Google and Bing.<\/p>\n

Knowing what you are trying to achieve is fundamental in determining the activities that you then engage in on social media \u2013 and in helping you decide which social media time sinks you will simply walk away from.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

4. Confusion Around Which Social Media Sites are “Most Important”?<\/b>
\nI hear lots of people say \u201ceveryone we need to reach is on LinkedIn\u201d<\/em> or \u201cGoogle+ is a ghost town.\u201d<\/em>\u00a0With 275+ million people on LinkedIn, 1.1+ billion people on Facebook<\/a>, and thousands of niche social sites divided by interest and profession – how do you know which one is right for your needs? When it comes to your choice of social media, it\u2019s not a case of one size fits all. The right social media strategy<\/a> for you will depend on your goals \u2013 and will depend on who your target audience is and where they can best be reached and engaged with.<\/p>\n

Often the simple exercise of looking for your target audience on each social site will throw up surprises. You may find there are far more of your target audience on a social site than you\u2019d supposed. You may discover they are far more active \u2013 and therefore far more easily engaged \u2013 on the social sites that you\u2019d hitherto ignored.<\/p>\n

So take the decision about which social sites to invest in as a function of your goals and as a function of researching where your target audience can be engaged.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

3. Adoption of the Mindset of \u201cHow Can I Help My Target Audience?\u201d<\/b>
\nLook at the profiles of recruiters<\/a> who enjoy lots of social shares of their content and achieve high levels of engagement with their followers. You\u2019ll see they share content that is of great value to their audience; they jump in to try and help when they see their network asking a question or in need of support; and they only occasionally ask the network for help (or self promote). By doing this, their followers eagerly look out for their next updates \u2013 and are always looking for ways they can pay that person back for all the selfless help they\u2019ve provided.<\/p>\n

For every recruiter who operates this way, there are 10 recruiters<\/a> who just share job adverts and self-promote. You\u2019ll invariably find that the recruiter who puts their followers first generates more candidate or client interest than the other 10 recruiters put together. That\u2019s why the right approach is so important \u2013 and why so many recruiters bemoan the lack of tangible results they\u2019ve seen from social media.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

2. Inconsistency of Content or Activity.<\/b>
\nThink of a great magazine you enjoy reading, or a TV program you rarely miss. The chances are those publications and program never let you down. They always deliver the premise of what you are expecting. Well individual recruiters<\/a> and recruiting businesses are ‘pseudo publishers’ when it comes to their social media profiles. Deliver a consistent quality and style of content \u2013 and with a regularity that doesn\u2019t yo-yo \u2013 and you\u2019ll build a growing audience of the niche target demographics<\/a>\u00a0you decided upon when you set your goals.<\/p>\n

But if your great content shares are interspersed with shares that are of no value, interest starts to waver. Similarly if you disappear from a social site for a couple of weeks, people will get out of the habit of looking out for your updates in the way they had done previously.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

1. Failing to Inject Any Personality.<\/b>
\nIf you\u2019ve ever worked in sales, you\u2019ll have heard the saying, ‘People like to buy from other people.<\/em>‘<\/a> Whether you\u2019re in charge of your individual social media profiles or the corporate accounts, some warmth, character and personality goes a long, long way.<\/p>\n

But don\u2019t take my word for it, experiment! If your updates have typically been rather dry and factual, try mixing things up for the next week. Inject some personality and fun. Then watch the results and decide on the approach to continue with accordingly.<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

In a Nutshell<\/b><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve shared five key ingredients to help you generate stronger results from your social media presence<\/a>. Be honest with yourself and your team. Are your corporate accounts falling short in any of these five areas? How about your individual recruiter accounts? Or your hiring manager accounts? All of these acting consistently and in unison is what you should be striving for.<\/p>\n

All of the above takes time \u2013 and often recruiters<\/a>\u2019 social media efforts are torpedoed by the simple fact that they\u2019re not able to devote the necessary time to doing all of these things well. If that sounds like the reality in your business, you either need to carve out time for these activities \u2013 or you need to hire someone who will.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

\"Social-Hire\"Tony Restell<\/a>\u00a0(@tonyrestell<\/a>)\u00a0<\/em>is the Founder of Social-Hire.com<\/a> and works with companies needing outside help in growing their social media presence. He’s a published author and a Cambridge graduate.<\/em><\/p>\n

Photo Credits ThoughtsonPublicRelations<\/a>, HipAsiWannaBe<\/a>, GetACoder<\/a>,\u00a0imagesbuddy,<\/a>\u00a0MediaBistro<\/a> (post media jobs<\/a> to MediaBistro<\/a>).<\/p>\n

100+ Blog Posts on Social Recruiting<\/a><\/div>\n
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5 Things Recruiters Struggle with on Social Media<\/a><\/blockquote>