Four No-Fail Social Media Hiring Tips

This is icon for social networking website. Th...Need to hire an employee fast? Social media has straightforward, effective and inexpensive (or FREE) ways to reach out to qualified candidates.

More than 90 percent of companies are using social media to find new employees, according to a recent Jobvite study. The most popular:  and  and .

If you’re up to the challenges presented by recruitment, here are four no-fail tips for using social media to find your next superstar employee:

Offer incentives for referrals.

Most people have a personal social network, so by leveraging contact lists of current employees’, you immediately increase your influence.

When you place a listing, offer incentives to your existing employees for helping you search for the right candidate.  Have them promote the company—and make the search quicker—by getting the word out through Twitter Facebook and other social networking platforms.

Remember, not all motivations have to be money: Paid time off can one of the best incentives.

Start with professionals on LinkedIn.

As the largest professional social network, LinkedIn is an ideal place to find and recruit new employees. While you can post paid job listings on LinkedIn, its search functions can help you seek out those passive job seekers, potential hires that are already employed.

Modify your search to people with the specific experience you’re looking for, using categories such as former employers or skills to target specific groups.

But shared connections are always the best; this way you can ask for an introduction.

A premium membership can also increase your chances to contact potential employees; a paid version also allows you to post job positions in groups related to your industry.

Have Twitter Hashtags work for you.

Twitter hashtags are a fantastic way to target users by interests and skill. Effective hashtags are related to your specific industry of job you need to fill. When posting links to the job listing on Twitter, hashtags can ensure that people who might be interested in the position will take notice.

At the least, you should use the hashtag #jobs, along with your area and other terms representing your company: #sales, #customerservice, #retail or #marketing.

Hashtag search are also perfect for active job searchers, by tweeting with the hashtags #resume, #hireme, #jobwanted or #needajob.

Dig a little deeper for the potential candidate’s social media presence.

Social media can help you find qualified candidates, as well as get a better idea of the people you consider for a job.

A word of warning; be careful to use only information found on public sections of Facebook profiles and timelines, Twitter feeds and LinkedIn profiles. It can save you from charges of hiring discrimination.

Appropriate interactions, recommendations and endorsements on LinkedIn make a candidate more attractive to employers. Users that post nothing but status updates about partying, drinking and similar behavior on Facebook and Twitter—although extremely popular in today’s socially connected world—may indicate a lack of wisdom (or knowledge of how social media works).

This leaves you questioning a person’s suitability as a future employee.

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