A Success Story - Using Social Media to Recruit. And There Are More....

It's noisy in the blogosphere when it comes to using social media to recruit. Lots of folks have things to say about it. How to do it. Why to do it. What's so great about it. Some folks have a little bit to say about metrics and measurements and results. But I feel like it's not often enough that we're talking about results. I like hearing about folks who have gotten jobs because of social media, like you see here. But still, I don't see enough success stories. We can't be out there on social media proclaiming all of its greatness if we don't have results. So what have you done with it? 

Here's a success story of mine. A recent hire. It's a good story. 

September 17th, 9:13am. I put out a tweet using my personal account  and it's pretty harmless. I say I'm going to be looking for some entry level folks interested in health policy/healthcare comms. That's all I wrote. I didn't include a link to a job posting. I just made the statement.

September 17th, 1:08pm. I receive an email via Facebook from someone interested in the health policy role. It turns out that her friend follows me on Twitter, saw my tweet and told her about it.

They go to this blog which is linked to my Twitter profile. They find a link to my Facebook account which is linked to on the blog. And then I received the email. And then I asked for her resume. 

September 21, 12pm. I did a phone interview with her.

September 23, 12:30pm. She comes in for her first round of in-person interviews. 

And then a few more interviews a few days later. Then a final interview. And then I made an offer just a few days after that. She started working for APCO last week and we're all thrilled to have her on board.

How 'bout them apples? Right? I tweeted something pretty harmlessly. They went to my blog to learn more. They then contacted me via Facebook. And then the wheels started turning. Twitter. Blog. Facebook. Oh, and one other detail about this story? Her friend was following me on Twitter because a recruiter at a competing company recommended that she follow me during an informational interview where she was asking about people in the industry to pay attention to for jobs. Read that again. Community matters. Networks matter. Relationships really matter. And - there was no cost to this hire except for the investment of time and effort I've made to be a good, contributing member of the social media community. That's it. 

And there are other success stories out there. So, what's yours? What have you done and where have you found success? Help me de-mystify using social media to recruit. Hit me in the comments with your stories.

PS - I'm going to be talking about this story and the many other success stories at the Social Recruiting Summit in NYC on November 16th. Will we see you there? We're going to be having conversations about social recruiting tactics and strategies - not just more pie-in-the-sky ideas. Come meet me and Kelly Dingee, who will also be in attendance, there. 

Editor's Note- Jessica Lee is a Senior Employment Manager for APCO Worldwide, a global PR firm based in D.C. Like most upscale HR pros, she spends half of her time on recruiting, the other half on ER, Training and OD.  When she's not hammering a candidate to determine Motivational Fit, she's thinking about the future of HR, wondering how she can avoid using the job boards (but of course not rely on just social media) to fill the next spot in her organization.

 

Comments

[twitter.com/sullivanmarkd]

Jessica,

I hope to meet you at the socialmedia summit next month. I too have had a success story via Twitter/SoMed and recently hired a recruiter on my team. Simple post, person responded saying they knew someone looking, exchanged emails, resume received and rest is standard process.

Cheers,

Mark

[Dorothy C. Beach]

Wondered if this is worlking mainly for a younger candidate set? That is, you are finding the audience and referrals mainly coming from those under say 35?

[Ben Gotkin]

WOOT! Great story Jessica.

My favorite story has to do with LinkedIn. At my prior employer, I was handed a job in HR to fill that had been open for several months. We needed someone with OD and Coaching experience, plus they needed to walk on water...

I did a search on LI and found someone who lived locally, but worked in another city. I reached out to see if she was interested in talking, and it turned out that she was. She was commuting long-distance 50% of the time, and that was starting to get old. She was on LI for networking purposes primarily, but she was not actively looking for a job and didn't have her resume or profile posted anywhere else.

Long story-short, she was perfect. Several months of trying to fill this position via job boards and headhunters had resulted in nothing. One search on LI (a couple years ago when LI was less than half the size it is today I might add), turned up someone that we would not of found otherwise. Needless to say, I've been a huge LinkedIn advocate ever since.

[Keith McIlvaine]

Great post. I have had success on Twitter as well hiring a sales executive. This is an excellent way to connect with a wider market, it's just that not everyone "get's it" yet.

Keep it up and can't wait to meet you in November!

[Kevin W. Grossman]

Excellent news. Even if it's not a pure-play social media win but instead a combo pack of old school / new social media, those are successes. We're in the process of screening applicants for a new position and are seeing the social media mix response.

Same thing with sales, which I know the jury is still out with many HR suppliers, but we'll be posting our own social media success stories soon.

Well done!

[Chernee Vitello]

Jessica -

Looking forward to meeting you next month at the social media conference. Excellent post, and there needs to me more metrics about the success social media has on hiring, this year alone 80% of my hires have come from leverage an aspect of social media in my daily work. Looking forward to your presentation.

Best -
Chernee Vitello

[twitter.com/MarketingEire]

Jessica,

Great article. I have had similar success with LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and through my blog. I think it's all about the people you are connected with, who will help push out your content and who will assist you with referrals. I believe social media has a different reaction time to how we source in addition to this process. My best reaction times can from instant to 48 hours.

Social media is now a daily part of our roles.

Looking forward to hearing how the conference goes.

Lindsay

[Pete Radloff]

We hired our first employee from Twitter about 1 month ago. Considering we started using Twitter in earnest for recruiting in May, it was a huge success.

We had put out some tweets about hiring recent college grads, especially those with a concentration in Advertising or digital media.

I received a tweet from a recent (May 2009) grad, who was in a job that was just a job. She was keen on our company and sent a DM to me. Within 5 minutes, we had shot a few DM's back and forth and I had her resume.

Long story short, she was the perfect fit, especially since she was so in tune with our business space, and her use of Twitter was a key indicator of her relevance. Just another example of how SM can change the way we recruit.

[Jds1031]

Recruiting Success Story using a Social Media Site.

[jessica lee - fistful of talent]

@mark - we will meet for sure! looking forward to it. i like your story. just like mine - simple exchange built off of the network you built through social networks. the hard work is building the network and community - but from there, things seem to get easier!

@dorothy - i think some networks attract certain crowds so it's why i think being diverse and having an integrated approach is important. personally, i'm seeing folks all across the board coming from twitter and facebook though. twitter is skewing older and older too - check this out: http://blog.comscore.com/2009/04/twitter_traffic_explodesand_no.html

@ben - WOOT to you too! linkedin is still a nice, trusty site, i think!

@keith - you'll have great stories to share in NYC as well! i'm looking forward to having you there so folks can hear things from the Unisys perspective!

@kevin - thanks! i hope we all keep in mind (for now, at least) that social media is a piece of the puzzle but not the be-all, end-all! cheers to you guys for your success too!

@chernee - wow! 80% i'll definitely have to call you at the social recruiting summit then. you will surely have great stories to share!

@lindsay - the speed factor - great point. it's one of the reasons i love social media as well!

@pete - another great story - i love it! i hope to hear more.

[Barbara Burke]

Jessica..

I also have a social media hiring success story. I subscribe to the ERE.net newsletter. On July 30, 2009 I read the featured article. It was so well written, accurate and extremely entertaining. I decided to look up the author on LinkedIn to become part of my network. I found him and we became connections. Fast forward approximately 3 weeks and I was viewing Monster.com's "Keep America Working" Twitter page (I work for Monster). And I saw a tweet about a Social Media job that Monster was looking to fill. I emailed Matt (my new LinkedIn contact and the author of the article) and made him aware of the job. Mind you, he and I had never spoken live but based upon his online persona and the article, I felt strongly that this would be a role he'd be interested in and qualified for.

He applied for the job (posted, of course on Monster.com!) and was contacted within one week for an interview and a series of follow up interviews took place over the next few weeks. Exactly 60 days from the day his article appeared on ERE.net and I connected to him on LinkedIn, he was offered the job at Monster! And it was on October 5 that he and I finally ever met in person......after the fact! His first day at Monster was on October 19.

We crossed paths in cyberspace due to our common affinity to the recruiting profession via ERE.net. Then, social media tools brought us closer together and the sharing of information started. He was hired for a social media job via social media tools and the job he landed was a Monster job posted on Monster! It all came together!

It realy works!

[Susan Strayer]

Jessica--it all goes back to the fact that people get jobs from people--not job boards, not websites etc. I think we all need to think about social media and social networking as a new and better way to connect people. The internet and job boards were a precursor to this. So yes, social media works. But I think we should drive the discussion around the fact that it is the medium. The content shared, the etiquette around it the demeanor in which it's delivered affect success. I see way too many companies just Tweeting jobs and not utilizing social media to engage.

I want to see successes where we use social media to educate, engage, and help candidates self-select. Because if we're only using it to post jobs, it's just another job board.

What you did Jessica begins to get at that--you used social media as a status update and that provided the engagement. Eager to see how companies can take it to the next level.

Are any companies tracking source effectiveness? If so how? And how do you track that candidates may come in through multiple sources? They may get referred by an employee but are educated through Twitter.

Food for thought.

[Kimberly Spikes]

I can't say enough about the power of networking, and using social media to bolster your network!

Here's my recent success story: I subscribe to the LinkedIn weekly updates, and I noticed a former colleague updated his profile to reflect the name of his new company. The name of the company sounded familiar, and I realized it was because I had just applied for a position there (but hadn't heard anything).

I connected with him on LinkedIn, asked about the position, and he spoke directly with the hiring manager about my resume. I proceeded to the interview phase and now I have the position, but being relatively new in the field, I most likely would not have landed an interview were it not for the LinkedIn message alerting me that I had a contact at the company!

[twitter.com/TaraRepucci]

Here's my social media recruiting success story.

During a client meeting with an HR VP, he mentioned his open Director of Recruiment position. I posted the opportunity as my LinkedIn status. One of my other clients saw it, shared it with an unemployed colleague and the rest is history.

What I love most about the story is that the unemployed colleague is a former client of mine with whom I lost touch. I get to work with him again! He was also about to move out-of-state for a less-than-perfect opportunity after five months of job searching. I feel like I really made a difference in his life, as corny as that may sound.

[www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1327233459]

Jessica - Thanks for this article. What I really appreciate is your enthusiasm for social media applied to HR - but also your ongoing quest for other means to attract talent on the Web without using outdated job boards.

[Chris Young]

Great success story, Jessica - thanks for sharing! I've included your post in my weekly Rainmaker 'Fab Five' blog picks of the week (found here: http://www.maximizepossibility.com/employee_retention/2009/11/rainmakerfabfive.html) to help my readers better understand how to leverate the social media tools available to them to find great talent.

Be well!

[Marcela Morales]

Thanks for the article, which I got from something totally unrelated to recruiting, but would like your approval to use during my presentations to collaboration clients.

[Anuncios pessoais]

I am so impressed with the article. I was touched and inspired when I read it. Thank you so much for sharing this and keep posting interesting matters here. Keep it up and more power!

[Skyros]

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