How to Leverage Social Media Recruiting in Your Job Search

As a job seeker you probably grow frustrated with the current flood of information out there about historically low unemployment rates. It's almost as if the world is rubbing it in your face, saying everyone else has jobs...what's wrong with you?

Don't let it get you down. Instead, focus on what you can do to gain back leverage in your search.

One effective method is putting yourself in the shoes of recruiters, knowing what they need and are looking for, then pivoting that knowledge into an action plan to be visible and qualified.

So let's break down the life of a recruiter in today's social media savvy world.

If you thought that recruiter have it easy, think again. Social media recruiting isn't simply about posting jobs on multiple platforms and filling vacancies with the respondents, it's much more time consuming than that.

Social media recruiting is an ongoing process that demands recruiters remain available and responsive round the clock, not just 9-5 Monday through Friday.

It requires them to identify the best platforms that can provide maximum results, draft marketing messages, post jobs on relevant sites while ensuring that they follow their own distinctive culture, contact promising candidates, consistently communicate to keep them engaged, cultivate meaningful two-way relationships, and simultaneously track their efforts to know which channel is working best.

This entire recruitment life cycle can take hundreds of hours. Process that for a second, recruiters take hundreds of hours to find the best candidates. Well, that is if their process is manual.

Many recruiters use a feature-rich applicant tracking system, which means hours dedicated to the search turn into minutes.

So how do you leverage this information to your benefit? Check out the infographic below explaining some of the differences between social media recruiting (manual) and applicant tracking systems (automated) and see how you can make yourself stand out to any recruiter, no matter what system they employ:

Guest author Kelly Barcelos is a progressive digital marketing manager specializing in HR and is responsible for leading Jobsoid’s content and social media team.

When Kelly is not building campaigns, she is busy creating content and preparing PR topics. She started with Jobsoid as a social media strategist and eventually took over the entire digital marketing team with her innovative approach and technical expertise.