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"The way we communicate with each other has evolved rapidly over the last decade. Social media has further intensified the departure from traditional communication methods to redefine how people and businesses interact with each other. \nIn fact, more than half of companies on social media fail to have a social media strategy and in doing so, risk ignoring an increasingly dynamic and expanding audience. Recent social media stats show that more than 60% of adults are connected to one or more social networks, while 23% of online time is spent entirely on social networking activities.\nWhile social media has seen rapid growth at the consumer level, the gap between consumer and corporate adoption is widening. Businesses are continuing to figure out optimal ways to harness the reach of social media and translate its usefulness into results.\nOne area where the benefits are already beginning to outshine older methods is talent acquisition and recruiting. The sheer number of active users on sites such as Facebook have made social recruiting extremely advantageous. With so many people using social media, especially for employment opportunities, companies are expected to use social media to recruit for more than 80% of job openings in 2012. \nSo just how does social media benefit the environment of talent acquisition? Here are five shifts that are taking place now.\n1. It\u2019s Personal\nHiring has always been concerned with people, and the relationships formed through social media between candidates and employers are even more imperative. \nWhile candidates can reach out to key recruiters, companies form entire networks or talent communities to connect and engage with candidates. Social media is a tool that caters to sharing interests and engaging in conversation, making it easier to find a suitable candidate early on. After all, we do it so much everyday that it becomes a natural process. \n2. It\u2019s Transparent\n\nSocial media users tend to be self-aware of their brand because of how visible their activity and interests can be. Because of this, we must always anticipate some sort of reaction or feedback. No longer are your strategies and tactics a secret from those outside the company \u2014 they are fair game for criticism, even by the candidates themselves. \nThough your recruiting activities can open a Pandora\u2019s box of negative comments, it\u2019s still a good way to find new perspective on what you may be doing wrong and how it can be better. \n3. It\u2019s No Longer Just For HR\nSocial media talent acquisition allows for entrepreneurs and CEOs alike to find candidates directly, quickly and with a reduced cost-per-hire \u2014 especially for startups that lack traditional HR personnel or funds for a recruiter. However, social recruiting is not to be taken lightly; just because you can find candidates on Facebook doesn\u2019t mean you should throw away the rule book. \n4. It\u2019s Marketing\n\nA solid plan, a target audience, metrics and data are all required for effective social recruiting. With the introduction of Brand Pages on Facebook, your organization isn\u2019t any different from those selling a product \u2014 instead, you're advertising a place of work.\nThrough brand management, content creation and engagement, candidates and employers alike see the value of social interaction for talent acquisition. It\u2019s instantly measurable and targeted to something that older processes simply can\u2019t match.\n5. It\u2019s Being Shared\nEmployees on Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook are contributing to the efforts of recruiting through their own posts and tweets. Not only are open positions getting distributed as pieces of content to vast networks of people, but it\u2019s also facilitating the use of social referrals \u2014 one of the best sources of quality candidates. Job seekers are finding ways to take advantage of social referrals by keeping in contact and engaging with key members of companies.\nConclusion\nSocial media doesn\u2019t need to be the absolute center of your recruitment strategy, but it would be ill-advised to ignore the trend completely. These five factors are changing and advancing the ways we approach finding the best talent and taking it to a more personal, open and collaborative experience. \nWhat do you think? Does using social media mean less work for recruiting, or just more effective implementation of traditional ideas? \nSocial Media Job Listings\nEvery week we post a list of social media and web job opportunities. While we publish a huge range of job listings, we've selected some of the top social media job opportunities from the past two weeks to get you started. Happy hunting!\n\n Senior Manager, Social Media Communications at Deep Focus in New York City\n Online Product Manager  at Cars.com in Chicago\n Front-End Engineer at Yelp in San Francisco\n\nImage courtesy of iStockphoto, chris_lemmens, alengo"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://mashable.com/2012/06/03/talent-acquisition-social/>