Recruiting with Social Media

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Social Media as a Recruiting Tool
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I use (and have written about) Social Media fairly extensively. One aspect I hadn't previously written about however, is using social media as part of your recruiting strategy. As I use social media extensively for business, between Facebook, Linkedin and Twitter, I have thousands of connections, with almost all being professionals in the hospitality, restaurant or wine industry. Due to this, it has made sense for me to post links to jobs posted at WineAndHospitalityJobs.com these postings have generated some strong interest in these jobs. I also follow what others in the industry are doing in this regard.

Some of the things I have noticed:

Linkedin is bursting with job postings! However, I have not seen much action/response/traffic around most of them.

Facebook has been great for me for generating qualified candidates for jobs. However, I am connected to 2,000+ industry professionals. Most companies are using their online presence to connect with customers, who are not typically potential candidates.

As far as Twitter, I have not used Twitter for recruiting purposes at all.

I did a little research and found some articles on recruiting through social media. And while I think they are well though out, it sounds like it would make most small (or even medium) sized employers cringe - the time commitment of having a social media presence that is dedicated to recruiting would requires a FT person simply to manage the process! (Read 6 Aspects of a Social Media Recruitment Strategy Every Company Shou...)

What I'd like to know is:

Are you using social media to recruit, and if so, what have your experiences been? I created a very brief survey to collect the data, you will find it here. Your participation is much appreciated!

-Margie