Katrina Collier – Social Recruiting

Today I welcome to the BRAND New You show Katrina Collier from The Searchologist.com

With knowledge gained from over a decade of in-house and third-party recruitment, Katrina teaches companies to use social media to gain access to their candidates directly on many social channels, such as LinkedIn, Google+, Facebook, and Twitter.

She has been recognized as a thought leader by social recruiting solution Work4 and is one of The 100 Most Influential People in HR & Recruiting on Twitter.

Katrina was named one of The Top 15 Recruitment Experts to follow on Twitter by Bond US and she has been quoted in The HR Review, Society for Human Resource Management, The Staffing Stream, and Cambridge University’s Strategies for Success.

Katrina completely understands what companies are looking for when trying to attract the best talent which means for the active job seeker or for even those of you who are passively looking, Katrina knows how to connect companies with candidates in this social recruiting age.

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WHAT IS SOCIAL RECRUITING?

Social recruiting is a real thing. It’s not a fad or a buzzword. It’s quickly becoming the way top companies recruit talent.

Katrina defines social recruiting as simply using social media channels to recruit. However, it doesn’t replace the more traditional methods of recruiting.

If used correctly social recruiting will compliment a company’s recruiting process. However to implement it successfully within a company, employers must develop a strategy to find, engage and connect with candidates directly on social media.

SOCIAL RECRUITING INCLUDES EMPLOYER BRANDING

Because social recruiting involves becoming active on social media employers have the opportunity to utilize content marketing to help define their employer brand. This can be done using any of the three types of content previous discussed HERE.

Katrina advises companies to become more transparent about what happens inside the company. They should use social media to share their expertise and insights on what the company is doing.

Sharing this level of information on the “inner workings” of a company is a new concept for many companies and they need to remember to keep it real.

The main emphasis should be on telling the story of what it's like to work at the company and she recommends only occasionally sharing a job post as part of a company’s social recruiting strategy.

If done correctly people will naturally want to share job openings with others for you.

One side-effect of “being real” with your efforts is it could cause job candidates to de-select themselves from the hiring process.

This is a good thing for the company. This means they will attract only the candidates who resonate with the company culture.

The final result will be higher employee retention, better cultural fits, and increased employee referrals which are the highest quality referral a company can get.

HOW JOB SEEKERS CAN ENGAGE IN SOCIAL RECRUITING

Most recruiters will start their search for you on LinkedIn which has become the default starting place for recruiters.

However it's important to point out recruiters will use Google to search for you as well. The more savvy social recruiters will even look to the larger social sites such as Facebook, twitter, Instagram , Bechance, GitHub, StackOverflow, etc.

So what does this mean? You must have a good online reputation. Always remember this:

“Think through what you post. Ask yourself if you would you share it with your grandmother.”

If the answer to this question is no, then don’t post it. The one time you post something objectionable that's the time a recruiter will be looking for you.

Good social recruiters will search social sites that align with requirements of the position. As a candidate your job is to know which social sites you should be on, create a profile and starting sharing content.

TIPS FOR GETTING FACEBOOK RECRUITER READY

I’m not a fan of Facebook however after my discussion with Katrina she may have convinced me to give another go. For you as a job candidate Katrina had the following suggestions to help “spruce” up your Facebook profile.

1 – Lock down your Facebook profile

When was the last time you checked your account settings on Facebook? Take a few minutes to review how your account is set up. Facebook has been known to change settings when it does updates.

2 – Review your Activity Log

To find the activity log click on the padlock in the upper right hand corner then select See More Settings. Once there in the “who can see my stuff?” section take a few minutes to review you activity log.

Have you been tagged in any unflattering or unwanted pictures? Are any of the pictures questionable or would be viewed as questionable by a recruiter?

Have you left any comments on posts that can be taken out of context? Have you posted anything people might find objectionable? Take the time to clean these items up before starting your search.

3 – Are your posts shared publicly?

If you share something publicly on Facebook once all of your future posts will be shared publicly as well. In the “who can see my stuff?” section change your post settings back to friends only.

Pay attention when commenting on someone’s else post as well. They may have their settings on public which means your comment/opinion goes out for the world to see.

4 – Unfollow annoying friends

So this one doesn't fall under the “getting Facebook recruiter ready” category but if you have “friends” in your timeline who annoy you, you can unfollow them.

This is not the same as unfriending them. Unfollowing them just removes their updates from your news feed.

NOTE: To not risk being unfollowed yourself always add value in your conversations or updates.

5 – Identify the companies you may want to work for

Once you’ve identified a company you would like to work for, go Like their company page. Pay attention for updates and spend sometime engaging with them. Add valuable and relevant comments to their posts. The company will take notice.

6 – Participate in groups.

As LinkedIn continues to remove popular features and add ones no one is asking for, Facebook is becoming more of a business and personal mix. Find some professional groups and start adding value. Use the opportunity to network and make some of those weak connections D. Fish and I spoke about.

Using Instagram as part of the job search

With Instagram it’s all about the hashtag. Use the search feature to locate jobs by searching for #jobs. You can even search for the company you want to work for as well by using hashtags.

I personally find Instagram great for finding conversation starters while preparing for podcast interviews. People share things on Instagram they like and are passionate about.

Because of this a quick scroll through their posts will reveal a few conversation starters for people you want to connect with. This is great if you're looking to strike up a conversation.

For example a quick scroll through of my account will reveal I’ve vacationed in Europe, I’ve gone to Comic Con and I recently went to the Foo Fighters concert. Any of those topics will get me talking.

How to use Twitter as part of your job search

Twitter is my personal favorite social network. It can be confusing at first but it's worth the time investment.

The magic happens when someone you follow, follows you back. So it should go without saying you need followers.

Katrina suggests the best way ways to increase your chances of gaining followers is to look fabulous. Here are five ways to help you look fabulous.

1 – Great profile picture

Probably no surprise here but I see bad profile pictures every day. Use a more professional headshot and for goodness sakes whatever you get rid of the egg. If you keep it no one will follow you. Ever.

Twitter is a social media platform. Let’s have a look at you.

2 – Make use the background image

You can change your background image. Use the image to help communicate to others what you are about or what they can expect to see from your tweets if they follow you.

3 – Have a compelling Bio

The first step to having a compelling bio is to actually complete your bio. Sounds simple right? Yet so many people don;t complete their bio.

Use your bio to help people understand what you’re going to tweet about. It helps to put a relevant link in your bio as well.

4 – Share content

Don’t just share any old content however, share content that shows your expertise and knowledge. This way you demonstrate your subject matter expertise which will make people more inclined to follow you back.

5 – Make use of Twitter lists

Twitter lists are a powerful way to manage and organize your twitter connections. Once you start getting followers it will be hard to keep up.

Lists allow you to segregate people into like-minded topics so you can easily keep on tweets related to a specific topic.

BONUS TIPS TO HELP GET THE MOST FROM TWITTER

ManageFlitter

ManageFlitter is Twitter bio searching tool. Job seekers can use it look for recruiters and HR individuals. The advance search functionality allows you to hover over the search results to view someone’s latest tweets.

This will help you understand if the person is actually using Twitter. You don’t want to follow someone who is not an active user.

Topsy

Topsy allows you to find influencers in your space to follow and expand your knowledge and connections with them. Engaging with them can help you become known, liked and trusted by them.

Always remember: One of the most powerful things you can do on Twitter is to retweet someone or reply to a tweet with a question.