Social media recruitment is becoming a bit of a 'thing' nowadays thanks to LinkedIn, Facebook and even Instagram, but what about Google+?
Yep, I'm referring to the same guys who boast the biggest search engine platform in the world!
The truth is, Google+ is somewhat of a hidden gem in the recruitment realm with more active users than LinkedIn, offering rich profile data and access to highly valuable candidates' niches.
Oh, and it's free to use as well.
If that wasn't enough to persuade you to give it a go, maybe the rest of this blog will.
As well as the previous points mentioned, Google+ has a wealth of other benefits businesses like yours can take advantage of.
Here are four great examples:
Unlike Facebook and Twitter, Google+ attracts more tech-savvy candidates and allows you to find the right people with certain credentials ' including education, qualifications, skills and experience.
While LinkedIn is great, it's also used like Instagram with users often only posting highlights of their life ' or in this case, their careers. The issue is that people judge those social media platforms, so you don't get a true indication of what a professional is like in the real world. In contrast, Google+ shows you the types of posts and comments they publish on a daily basis.
Facebook and Instagram are predominately used for images while Twitter is a platform used to express thoughts. Whereas Google+ is all about the user's personality through what they post. That's incredibly important when you have to make a tough hiring choice.
With Google+, you'll get a social channel which uses the powerful elements of its search engine platform. This makes it easier to contact other Google+ users and start a video conference to conduct screening interviews.
How do I set up a company Google+ profile?
As a rule of thumb, you should make your Google+ company page like a LinkedIn one by focusing on keywords and only including certain information.
To boost your presence, it's important to remember that Google+ uses the same principles required to improve your website's SEO.
By posting relevant content and information with links, you'll soon find yourself attracting more organic traffic.
You should also include links to all of your other social media profiles as well to help improve your company's presence across the board.
In regards to profile and cover pictures, think professional and inviting. On one hand, you need to present your company as a credible market-leader and on the other, you don't want to come across as too corporate. Strike a balance and you'll be onto a winner.
Taglines, introductions and bragging rights are an opportunity to fill your content with strong keywords, so get creative with your words to ensure you drop loads in without it sounding incoherent.
How to optimise my Google+ profile/company page for success
Once you've got your own personal profile and company page set up, it's time to think about building up your connections.
Just like LinkedIn, it's vital to find relevant industry candidates who you can reach out to when you have a new vacancy to fill.
However, this doesn't necessarily mean that you need to restrict your connections to just job hunters. Connecting with other business owners or people operating in the same occupation, job position and industry might just benefit you further down the line when someone is looking for a new challenge.
You'll then be able to send emails to a big pool of potential professionals who are in your circle, which is a much better way of cutting costs on speculative recruitment emails to the wrong types of candidates. Users will be notified when you add them to a circle, but won't be aware that they're in your recruitment one.
However, one of the best features of Google+ is the fact that you can contact other users without having to wait for them to accept your connection request. This saves you time and gives you an opportunity to headhunt professionals without having to pay for premium services like on LinkedIn.
To find the right professionals for your circle, simply select the People and Pages tab under the search bar, type in relevant keywords and you'll be presented with a list of relevant users.
The next optimisation step to take is to utilise the features of Google Hangout. Unlike any other social media alternative, you can add people to a circle, send them a compelling job spec email and arrange a hangout session to discuss in more detail in one seamless process. And the best part? You can record the discussion for free and analyse the candidate's responses in greater detail afterwards ' which will help you make a more informed decision.
The final step is to always post relevant content about your industry and your latest job openings. It will help boost your ranking and make it easier for candidates to specifically source your business.
Enjoyed reading this?
To discover more about how to recruit via social media channels, take a look at some of our previous posts:
Good luck!
