The search for IT talent: how to recruit IT specialists using social networks

          Hiring the right people to get the job done can be tough. The whole process starting with posting job announcements, to scheduling phone and face to face interviews translates into costs for the company. If you’re looking for developers with specific skill sets, then things tend to become even more complicated.

          With social media on the rise, it’s no wonder that it started influencing the way recruiters search for skilled and talented candidates, especially when it comes to finding people for the senior IT positions.

          Initially, employers used social media to drive traffic to their careers website, expecting that once a potential candidate got there, they’ll submit a resume. Nowadays you can see a change in this trend, meaning that social media became the main source for building and developing the employer’s online brand.

          By far, the most frequently used social media platform for business is LinkedIn. From NNC Services’s experience, establishing an online presence on LinkedIn should be one of the several online tools you’d have available when it comes to finding the best candidates for your company.

          Here are some examples of social media channels frequently utilized by the most competitive IT companies worldwide:

          1. LinkedIn – the biggest social media network for professionals, LinkedIn gives you several options to develop your online brand as an employer beginning with the company profile page, listing the services/products and jobs that can be published. Furthermore, as a business you have the option of getting involved in custom groups that gather thousands of specialists around specific topics.

          2. YouTube – on this video sharing platform Google created a video channel specially designed for those who’d like to work for the search giant. Life at Google has over 20.000 subscribers and tens of videos featuring company employees talking about their experience at Google.

Videos play an important role in developing a company’s online brand. Creating short videos showing what’s it like to be an employee of your company can have a real impact on potential candidates, not to mention that they can be done with a minimum investment.

          3. Facebook – the largest social media network in the world represents one of the best ways to communicate with future employees. Here are some ideas of what you can get done through Facebook when it comes to shaping your company’s brand: post pictures from the company’s office, create albums with photos done in team buildings, post updates about the company’s social programs.

As an example, HP’s Facebook account: HP Careers has over 33.000 fans, creating a community of loyal followers that already work or have the potential of becoming HP employees.

          4. Pinterest – when it comes to leveraging Pinterest for developing a company’s brand, there’s no better example than Intuit. The company successfully developed and manages their online brand using Intuit Careers as an account to keep users up to date with photos and videos about the company’s culture, perks and most importantly their available openings.

These are just a couple of examples of how social media is being used by IT companies around the world to establish and manage their online presence using social media.