by Evelyn Amaro
Many people in HR question whether social media can help them. Here are 5 ways you can successfully use social media to help with HR endeavors.
1. Training and Development – Social Media can be a great tool in training new employees. Creating an internal Youtube channel for new hires is a great way to train new employees and save training time by having the new employees watch these training videos as part of the orientation process. This is also a great reference for employees trying to learn the ropes or for those who need a refresher course. Click here for an example of a company using YouTube for HR.
2. Recruiting Talent – Nearly every individual has jumped on the social media bandwagon and this can be a huge advantage when it comes to your hiring needs. Social networks are a great place to find candidates even before actually engaging them. LinkedIn is a huge tool to be used in your recruitment effort. Here you can preview the potential candidates work history (if filled out properly) and you are able to find candidates in your industry, holding the title you are interested in hiring for and many times, an outline of their resume. Another key tool is twitter. Running a search on twitter will lead you to a number of interesting people in your industry who can be considered SME in the field you are attempting to recruit for. TwitJobSearch is also used to scour twitter for what you are looking for. Facebook is creeping up the ladder as a recruitment tool competitor. This is usually done by creating a Facebook Fan Page with keywords related to your company and industry. You then find people with similar interests to “Like” you page. From there, you send out updates pertinent to your company and your followers. Here is a great article explaining FB for recruiting in more detail.
3. Brand Promotion and Marketing: By continuously engaging in social media networking, your company name and areas of expertise grows one follower and/or viewer at a time. Soon you will find that your followers and loyal customers/clients start promoting your business for you. This goes hand-in-hand with #8.
4. Communication leads to Expertise – If you consistently communicate and share relevant information via your social media networks, people will soon see you as an expert in your field. This can lead to a number of positive possibilities including: more sales, more clients, more candidates, and more rand exposure. It also helps to derive instantaneous feedback which can help better shape your marketing efforts.
5. Relationship Building – Lastly, the key to all social media efforts and what will lead to your company and HR success is relationship building. Joining HR groups and networking with your fellow HR people and connecting with your clients, customers and potential candidates.
Are there other ways you use Social Media to help HR? Let us know!
