By Wendy Maynard
Positioning your company to recruit the best new hires is a crucial aspect of your marketing. In fact, many businesses are creating sections of their websites or entirely separate websites just to promote the quality of their working environment.
Social media is also a crucial piece to online marketing for recruits. It is increasingly becoming an important way to search for new applicants. Companies are running ads on Facebook and MySpace, and they are on Twitter. It’s also a way to keep track of your applicants and employees who may not be up to par.
According to a recent CareerBuilder report, the number of companies using social networking Web sites to screen potential employees has doubled in the last year, and what they have found has killed the hire for more than a third of candidates.
In its survey of more than 2,600 hiring managers, CareerBuilder found that 45 percent are searching for information on job candidates on social networking sites. Facebook, LinkedIn and MySpace are the top sites being screened, but 11 percent of companies that are hiring are also searching blogs and 7 percent are following job applicants’ Twitter postings.
Social media sites will become essential to recruiting in the next few years. More and more applicants will begin to use social media, blogs, and personal websites strategically to give them an advantage over other candidates. And the best and brightest talent will use the Internet to review their potential new employers with a critical eye. What does this mean for your company? It means that you should:
1) Make sure that your Web site has a section that promotes your company to new hires. This can include information about your internal culture, training, your hiring philosophy, benefits, and local attractions.
