By Carisa Miklusak and Keshet Lemberg

When it comes to finding the best employee for a position, many organizations are now turning to alternate routes. Businesses traditionally relied upon industry contacts, expertise, job boards, and third-party recruiters to uncover the best match, but today the majority of corporations are also embracing social media as a primary recruiting tool.

In order to successfully utilize social media as part of a recruiting strategy, it is first necessary to understand how your target audience is using LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and other sites to land jobs. The most obvious reason why jobseekers use social media is to source companies for open positions.  For example, TwitterJobSearch is a social media job search engine that candidates rely upon as a resource to find open positions that are not always posted on job boards or company sites.

Moreover, jobseekers use online media to verse themselves in the culture of a target company.  Job seekers study company pages on social media sites to gather insight about the company’s culture via photos, videos, and information provided by the corporation. Companies such as MTV Networks have successfully built their presence on social media sites by encouraging users to ask questions, offer info, and seek advice.  Through its Facebook page – MTV Networks Careers – the entertainment leader sparks engagement with users, responds to questions, and posts open positions. Lured by news, rumors, and trends, people are drawn to online media sites by the appeal of industry chatter.  Professionals with social media know-how realize that industry chatter is an extremely valuable resource for gaining new and important information that can make them better candidates in the interview process.

Jobseekers in search of firsthand user-to-user information can easily connect with current and ex-employees through social media outlets.  A directory of people organized by area of expertise, profession, and hundreds of other categories is available to the public on Twellow, the yellow pages for Twitter.  LinkedIn provides similar information.

Candidates also use social media sites to scope out Recruiters and Hiring Managers to determine if they are a compatible match, and to gain helpful information for potential interviews and conversations.  To find excellent advice that is pertinent to a specific situation, jobseekers follow and connect with job search experts in the social media sphere.  Many such experts exist offering daily advice. Ideas, tips, leads, news, informative articles and best practices can be accessed at the touch of a finger by using Twellow’s job search to find people to follow who send out helpful information.

The vast array of social media tools now makes it possible for bold jobseekers to attempt to engineer their own opportunities instead of waiting to be uncovered by Recruiters and Hiring Managers.  Some follow employees at their target company until news of a fitting open position arises while others network their way into new positions by engaging in strategic conversations with potential leads.

By understanding why job seekers use social media to land jobs, companies can leverage their activity to more effectively and efficiently recruit new employees. When using social media as part of a recruiting strategy, it is important to create a consistent and automated method for uncovering the social identity of job seekers.

Sites like TiVo makes job opportunities accessible across major social media platforms so that anyone can post, direct message or update their status.  Corporations can benefit from the opportunity to build relationships with candidates in their target audiences by maintaining an official company presence on social media sites.  By following relevant people and igniting conversations, organizations can begin to create a healthy level of influence over their brand – a clear best practices in the social media sphere.

Moreover, companies can determine what type of information fuels the jobseekers’ interest by listening to the candidates and then provide that content on their social media platforms. In order to avoid an influx of irrelevant offers to their job posts, however, it is necessary for businesses to refine their searches by specifically targeting candidates by location, career interests, and other top candidate profile credentials.

Through social media platforms, companies can connect to talent anywhere in the world and access personal information about top industry leaders. Social media is as valuable resource for organizations of all kinds and sizes to build employment brands and make the right candidate connections.  It is equally as productive for job seekers, creating a platform where companies and talent alike can connect directly with multiple stakeholders in their target audience.

Carisa Miklusak is presenting Leveraging Social Media to Improve Company Culture online on June 1. For more information on this and other professional development opportunities, please refer to BC HRMA’s online calendar.

CEO of tMedia, Carisa works with diverse organizations to solve business problems. Leveraging hands-on experience gathered through executing emerging media strategies, Carisa designs and delivers practical and entertaining keynote speeches internationally. She hosts a background in online recruitment (Careerbuilder.com) and holds an MBA from Queens University.