Put Social Media to Work for Recruitment

Since its conception, social media has served many purposes for millions of people. We use it to stay connected, share our feelings, and learn about new products. Now more than ever, social media can be used to recruit the right person for your next physician opening.

Think about this: Facebook is the most visited site on the Internet with more than 845 million active users. There are 225 million people with Twitter accounts, with an average 50 million logging in every day. Linkedin, social networking for professionals, is home to over 1.5 million users who are healthcare professionals. With numbers like these, which are only going to continue to grow, why wouldn’t you be using social media for recruitment?

While social media is a convenient method to reach a wide number of candidates, keep in mind a few important points while using it as a platform for recruitment:

1. Don’t use social media as a job board. Rather, use it to communicate openings by linking to your hospital’s career site via a tweet or Facebook status update. Posting relevant news clips, articles, and facts will keep readers checking your page and will make it more likely for them to see when you post openings.
2. Know your audience. Attracting a patient to your hospital is much different than attracting a prospective candidate. Messages will have to be adjusted from those that are used on patient pages. Include information about transitioning to the area and testimonies from current staff.
3. Get them talking. Pose a question to your audience that relates to a relevant post. Giving prospects the chance to voice their opinion will make them feel more involved. Social media is all about discussion.
4. Be mindful of HR policies and laws. Through their comments, prospects may reveal their age, political affiliation and/or religion. It may be wise to devise a best practices manual for social media recruiting.
5. Use more than one platform if it is appropriate. The more people you can reach, the better your chances are for finding the right fit. Linking your accounts together will also benefit your recruitment efforts. If you post a new job on Linkedin, tweet about it, and update your Facebook status with a link.

Something else to keep in mind– the number of users accessing the web via a mobile device has doubled every year since 2009, making social media more prevalent than ever. Your right candidate is out there. With these five points in mind, you may find him or her through social media.