The Career Tree Network Blog

Many recruiters are starting to see the benefit in using social networking websites, like Facebook, Twitter and Youtube, for candidate recruitment.  In some organizations, access to these websites is blocked, making them very difficult to use.   

If you invited me to speak to your leadership team about why your organization should use social networking websites, this is what I would say:

“Social networking websites offer a new way to communicate with candidates and provide additional tools to source candidates.  In order to remain competitive, your organization must use the same communication platform as your target audience.  Given the size and popularity of social networking websites, your organization should have a presence on these websites to assist in your candidate sourcing strategy.”

On December 31, 2009, I made a prediction that on-line video would be the #1 trend in health care recruitment in 2010.  I recently came across something on YouTube that has been viewed over 6 million times since it was posted in mid-November.  It’s a video that was created by the employees of Providence St. Vincent Medical Center in Portland, Oregon. 

You can’t help but smile when watching the video…and I’m sure that it’s been a big boost to the organization’s recruitment efforts. (Click on the image below to watch the 3.5 minute video.)

Many organizations are starting to harness the power of social networking websites within their recruitment efforts. These companies have probably created a Twitter account and Facebook fan page and are now working to keep their pages maintained with a continual flow of content.

Smart organizations are keeping their content interesting so that the target audience stays engaged. And lazy organizations haven’t updated their account since Christmas, or use some fancy automated system that posts a cryptic update for each new job posting.

Given the work involved with using social networking websites, it’s important to build your fan base so that your efforts aren’t wasted. A good rule of thumb is that you should have four times more fans/followers than the number of employees that you have.

Example: Let’s say that Weidner Hospital has 800 employees and their Facebook fan page has 90 people. This is not good. A better number would be something closer to 3,200 or higher.

Keeping your social networking profiles updated involves the same amount of work whether you have 5 fans or 50,000 fans. You need to work on building your fan base so that your labor investment can reach a wide audience and thus increases your potential pay-off (ie: sourced candidates).

Increasing your fan base is best accomplished through a dedicated marketing effort. Ask your marketing department for help…or call Career Tree Network.