At YES! Your Human Resources Solution, we’re always ready with recruitment guidance to help your business flourish. That guidance requires us to stay abreast of the latest and greatest ways to find top talent. What’s one way that’s growing in popularity every day? Using social media sites, such as Facebook and Twitter, to recruit applicants. This is known as social recruiting.

As social media attracts more and more users, using social recruiting can greatly expand your applicant pool, largely at no cost to your business. If this is news to you, stay with us—we’ll show you how to use two of the most popular social networking sites to get a leg up in the recruitment race!

Finding candidates with Facebook

With more than 750 million active users, Facebook boasts more potential job candidates than you could ever reach, even with a small army! To make the most of this massive applicant pool, make sure you’re using all the tools Facebook has to offer.

Does your business have a Facebook page? If not, consider making one. A Facebook page is a great way to expose your business to those millions of Facebook users, and it can also be used as a powerful recruitment tool. You can post information about your business and post job openings to attract candidates. To start finding ideas for your Facebook page, see what other businesses in the industry have posted and what people have “liked” their pages.

Did you know about the Facebook Marketplace? Through the Marketplace, you can post free job listings searchable by all Facebook members. To market to a specific group of people, consider placing a Facebook ad. Facebook ads aren’t free, but they offer targeted marketing based on criteria you enter, including key words relating to the position, and user age and gender. Facebook then shows your ad to appropriate users as they browse the site.

Recruiting applicants with Twitter

Whether you love or hate its frequent, super-short posts, Twitter can help you get ahead in the recruitment race. You’d be surprised how much you can pack into a 140-character tweet, including information about job openings and how to apply. You can even include hash tags with key words to make your tweet easily searchable in the Twitter community. Hash tags such as #employment or #job can go a long way toward getting your tweets—and your job openings—noticed by the right people. And tweets can go beyond advertising jobs: you can also drum up interest through information about the business’ operations, community events, and career fairs. Tweeting is also an effective way to stay in touch with recent graduates as part of your college recruitment campaign.

Looking for more followers? Find new contacts through a quick Twitter search by user name, industry, or hash tag. You can also look to see who’s following other businesses in the industry. And don’t forget to frequently reference your Facebook page on Twitter, and vice-versa!

If your business is ready to take the lead in the recruitment race, just say “YES!” As Orange County’s premier Human Resources consultants, YES! is the only solution you need to assist you with selecting and recruiting the best and brightest employees. We can provide solid support to your talent selection process, and continue to offer HR solutions as your business grows and changes. For more information about how we can help your business thrive into the future, visit our website or contact us for a free consultation!