Facebook forRecruitment

W hy i t i s w o r t h t o b e c o n s i d e re d

Summary

• Facebook is a great place for sourcing• Facebook is a bad place to contact people if you do not have any connection• Cross-referencing with other social networks, such as G+, LinkedIn or simply to

google the person, makes contact easier• The use of filter is essential for sourcing success

There is no need to be shy. As long as you are offering something which really applies to the approached person, there is no need to be afraid of any negative response.

Taking a look on the current stage of discussion within the recruitment community, there are three kinds of answers to the question: “Should I use Facebook as a recruitment tool?”

All three answers are correct as their level of accuracy depends very much on the “how” and “when” of facebook use

I will not approach a person with a job opportunity in a non-professional network. This is like being invited for tea and asking the host’s wife for a date!

If a person wouldn’t like to be approached, she or he wouldn’t post professional information for public access. This means the person likes to be found!

Not for direct contact …

…but great to check background and make the picture complete

Facebook is like a big strawberry field in the summer time: Just because the fruits are close and there is no fence, it doesn’t mean that you simply can take them.

But if you ask politely and take the work to collect carefully, you do have a good chance for being rewarded with the most delicious and freshest fruits you can imagine

It is work, but it is an effort worth to be taken.

And so my recommendation is simple: If you go on facebook for sourcing, do behave as on a strawberry field, avoid just jumping into the middle and grab what ever you can get, but select wisely and stay focused.

If you are not at least a friend of a friend, try cross check with other social media before sending something which will end unseen in the “other” inbox.

Do a full sentence search. Buzzwords won’t work anyway

Use filter functions in order to decrease the number of hits.

Be personal in your approach, you are knocking on the living room’s door and not on the office entrance.

If you are interested on how it can work out for you to source on facebook, this 25min tutorial might be of interest for you, at least it helped me:

http://youtu.be/EV5EP9Mcy1g

Johnny Campbell, owner and founder of Social Talent gives a 25min tour on how to use facebook for sourcing in the most clever way. Please note that the “paid messages” option he mentions is not any longer available.