Social Media and Recruitment for Education

Social media: it’s a phrase that inspires thoughts about real-time interaction, reminiscences of the flowing green fields in Farmville, and a healthy dose of anxiety if you haven’t been keeping up with the trend. With an astronomical growth in popularity of Facebook and Twitter—not to mention a user base who is spending more and more of their leisure time online—social media remains a premier way to tackle your recruitment initiatives. Recruitment trends in education have a distinct flavor. Read on and discover what strategies schools and universities are using to pull in top talent.

The multi-platform approach. Facebook, Twitter, blogging: educational institutions have been using a multi-pronged strategy to reach out to students and talent alike. As large educational institutions create spaces for sports and students activities, it’s a no-brainer for them to use separate Facebook and Twitter pages specially designed to advertise jobs opportunities.

Real-time feedback for job seekers. Nothing is more discouraging to potential job applicants than submitting their letter of interest or resume and then waiting… and waiting… and waiting. Posting their interest as a Facebook entry or blog comment allows an administrator to acknowledge them as a person and give feedback.

Research goes both ways. Just as candidates can click through and explore the culture and information on an institution of a higher ed., so too can a school explore the personality of a person. The tables have turned, and some hiring decisions are being made without ever meeting a candidate in person.

Smart Ways to Engage Employees

As successful businesses know, good recruitment strategies extend beyond the signing of the contract. How you retain quality employees can often lay the groundwork for a talented, savvy workforce—or, on the other side of the coin, a stagnant one.

Keeping your workforce actively involved in your company is simply good business. It saves money on the cost of rehires and keeps quality talent under one roof—yours. With the rise of what 360Blog describes as “elite employees,” investing in particular employees could yield benefits for years to come. That’s because these professionals demonstrate self-motivation, intelligence, and tact. As the sooth-sayers of businesses predict, a segmenting organizational pattern of businesses will put these elite workers in greater demand than ever.

But motivating an employee base isn’t as simple as flicking a switch. Strategies for engaging employees include developing innovative reward systems and marketing them internally. Give recognition (and prizes) where credit is due. Craft morale-bolstering events. Encourage feedback from your workforce, and seek out and promote innovative thinkers. Of course—this is all easier said than done! Luckily, there are partners (like us) who help bring it all together. In the meantime, take stock of your employee base and encourage engagement.

3 Quick Recruitment Tips for LinkedIn

It’s more than just a passing fancy: according to Socialnomics.net, 80% of companies are using LinkedIn as their primary source for finding employees. Smart employers are beginning to look at social media not only as an extension of their marketing efforts, but crowning it an essential recruitment tool. Why? LinkedIn puts to digital ink what job hunters have known for years: networking is the best way to land a position. The key for recruiters, of course, is wiring in directly to these quality candidates. Here’s a few pointers.

Get active. If you’re logging onto LinkedIn only when you have a position to fill, you’ll be staring into an empty basket every time. The best recruiters spend time building their network even when they’re full up. LinkedIn gives you some great ways to do that: inviting colleagues and acquaintances to connect, joining professional groups, and listing yourself by geographic location.

Be Generous. Offer advice to other networked professionals, check in every so often with a genuine, “how are you?”, and offer answers to questions in the “Answers” section of LinkedIn. Becoming a resource is the number one way to attract attention in the world of social media—and in the case of LinkedIn, more attention means better access to qualified candidates.

Stay Current. Update your own profile with links to your personal and company homepages, provide an email address, and keep information up-to-date. Staying relevant keeps you foremost in the minds of potentially perfect candidates—and after all, isn’t that what we’re after?

We’re Buyer Advertising. Nice to Meet You.

Where to start? The past few years have dropped huge changes onto our laps: major alterations to the way humans consume information, rumblings of economic uncertainty, and the coronation of social media. But no matter the ups and downs, this much is true: a brand remains the bread and butter of your company. A successful recruitment strategy is the engine behind success.

That’s where Buyer Advertising shines. For decades now (we came together in 1966, FYI), we’ve seen first-hand what brilliant marketing can achieve. What works? Bold approaches backed by innovative brainstorming. What doesn’t? Aimlessly firing shots off the port bow. That’s why we back up our portfolio of services with research. Every strategy we develop is fueled by extraordinary effort, innovative social media tools (such as this blog!), and good, old-fashioned elbow grease and burning the midnight oil. That’s a trade secret—don’t tell anyone, okay?

This space shall be our canvas for sketching out our thoughts on marketing trends, a place to scoop the latest buzz in recruitment advertising, and a portal to the inner-workings of our offices. Watch it! Join the movement. You’ll find us here, ready to lead the way: www.buyerads.com/blog.

Until next time,
Your friends at Buyer Advertising