So many blogs. So many opinions. So many failed attempts, but also some awesome case studies. Yes social media & recruitment is a minefield of confusion, misdirection and advice from folk who ain't never done it.

Here's 5 useful little guiding lights, from a bloke who's been doing it hands-on since 2009; that remind you, and encourage you, that you don't need to tip your recruitment agency/team upside down.

Well, you've been dying to get some proper use out of that damn thing for months and years. Well it's the perfect place to try and do something with clients and candidates who refuse to pick the phone up to you. The confusion of social media so often stems from not knowing who to target. So, if you chose to populate your CRM with seemingly relevant people, then do the same with your social prospects. Candidates, clients, contacts – take the journey from CRM, to LinkedIn, to beyond. Hopefully you have chosen a modern day CRM, that allows you to integrate social media naturally anyway; then your social media communications can sit on a level playing field, with your telephone call activity. In fact, done well – it outshines it.

Please no, not Russell Brand. The scary bit about branding on social media is that it is marketing. Let's be honest, most recruitment entities don't like or understand marketing. It's ok to admit it. You weren't made that way. Actually, the branding bit is pretty easy – but I would suggest you need advice. (I can do that bit, if you need) But what you are doing in building your brand well, is in essence increasing the potential for people to say nice things about you. That's good – it gets you business, gets you people, and increases inbound enquiries, profile and kudos. Now branding does *not* mean, your logo. Nobody buys logos. It means the substance of your people, your service, your interaction with your community, your stories, your original content, your thought leadership, your value and credibility within your marketplace. People buy from good people; we all know that. You can't share those stories on the phone, and your brochure is out-of-date as soon as it's printed. Social Media gives you platforms to keep rolling news and content alive and current.

Ok, so let me start with this. If you are the CEO, MD, Founder, Head of Talent Acquisition, or whatever you want to call yourself; then YOU should be on social media. Not as your company brand, but as you. You've gone this far to create a good agency or team – now go stand out proud from the front. But aside of that, if we haven't the budget to hire a social media specialist; then we have a habit of asking our sales people to manage social media channels. Invariably, your best sales people hate change in method, they like tried and tested methods; and they are great already. Don't screw them up, by trying to make them write tweets 5 times a day then. They're not going to stop and listen to the conversation they might create; and their work will be outbound. Bad social media. Find the unsung superstar in your team, that everyone loves – who you hired because they have awesome people potential, can select well, gets the industry you serve; but it turns out is utter pants at sales. I bet they'd be great at social media. Given they they no doubt want to succeed proactively, they will more likely *want* to be great at social media. (If I come to train your recruiters to integrate social media, I will ask them at the end of the first session who actually wants to do it. Anyone that is honest, and would rather go back and continue make sales or headhunting calls, I would willingly set them free – they will *never* want to embrace it. Pointless for me, pointless for you). Find your superstars who can run with it, don't crowbar in the nay-sayers. The other people to choose, are people already highly conversant and technically aware of your industry. Difficult to do ‘social' with a .Net developer on a social channel, if your best shot at conversation is “How the devil are you?â€'.  

            Don't miss your opportunity to hear more from the author of this post (Award Winning Social Recruiting Strategist Steve Ward) at HR Tech Fest 2016. More details here.

Everyone talks about sourcing, finding hard-to-reach talent, etc – when we hear about Social Recruiting. For the recruitment agency out there, and for the executive hiring team; the need is for business development. Wins, not just Finds. At CloudNine, 100% of business came from social media potency and visibility, or recommendation from the reputation we created through that visibility. (see 2. Think Brand). B2B is about building relevance, relationship and trust – and where sales calls fail, is that they are, well… salesy. By targeting prospects expertly through social media, with conversation, market integration, relevant content and offline purpose,  the entrance to the relationship is more human and mutual than the pressure cooker of an unplanned sales call.

Most social media platforms, are probably not for you. The problem with social media integration is that some bright spark will say “XYZ did this thing on Snapchat – you could do it too!!â€', and then we all think we can do it. Stick initially to sound and solid bases; based on where you already have a hunch your industry is. Use existing specialist communities, conversations and groups as your catalyst for identifying socially active connections; and where relevant – use ‘dark social', i.e. niche forums and specialist discussion areas – to find relevancy in your communications. Your inbox will also be full of apps, extensions and tech-wet-dreams that will promise to make you a better recruiter. Choose these carefully, and from good neutral advice. Too many will complicate what is a perfectly human process we've been doing for years; but people would have us believe that it's a mystery online.

And that's the point, it's a human process that you are already probably pretty good at. If I could have added a sixth, I would say don't fear online and business. (I could add more too, naturally…) It's what your competitors are doing, and large and progressive brands are already leading the way and have been for years. Don't get left behind, and don't be afraid to ask for help.

Steve will be presenting at HR Tech Fest in Melbourne, 27-29 November 2016 on “Helping HR People Fight the Fear of the Rising Personal Brandâ€'. 

Steve Ward is an award-winning social recruiting strategist and digital recruiter. His passion and purpose is to help people and companies integrate social media into recruitment, branding and talent attraction. With 22 years recruitment experience, he is credited as being one of the first (in 2009) to undertake what people would now call social recruiting. He also writes the well-known therecruitmentmisfit blog.

 

This article originally appeared on Steve Ward's LinkedIn Pulse.