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Though picking up the telephone is still how Sarah Feddersen makes most of her connections, the recruiting specialist for Paragon IT Professionals has found a couple of hires by using new tools in social media.

Starting out as a simple way to stay connected with friends, social networking sites have now become professional resources, fostering connections between employers and potential hires. Companies are launching Facebook pages, recruiters are networking through LinkedIn and people are announcing job openings on Twitter.

It’s a very proactive tool and innovative tool,” Feddersen said. “I think it will continue to grow, and you’ll see more and more recruiters from other companies use it as well.”

“What I think is starting to drive recruiting through these systems is just the huge open access to people, the wealth of information that’s out there and the shortage of talent,” said Kris Jensen, vice president of corporate services for Wisdom Worker Solutions. “I think employers and recruiters are beginning to get much more creative about how they try to find qualified people for jobs.”

Jensen said social networking sites offer a chance for employers to get to know candidates on a more personal level. “They can communicate with each other in a bit more informal sense,” she said, “which really is how they will connect as employer and employee.” Plus, using these sites creates a network that extends beyond Central Iowa, and employers or recruiters can get referrals from people they know, which can help solidify a decision to hire a candidate.

In return, people are promoting their professional qualifications in their online profiles. Those who aren’t on these sites, most often Baby Boomers, could be at a disadvantage compared with the more technically inclined Generations X and Y.

Social media in action

With 85 percent of college students on Facebook an average of 20 minutes a day, Principal Financial Group Inc.’s internship group made a case last year that the company needed to have a presence on that network. Principal launched a page in May and now has “132 fans,” or people affiliated with the group, mostly former interns or college students interested in the company.

The site is a way for Principal to offer information to students about Principal’s jobs, culture and programs without screening potential candidates in return, said campus relations consultant Josh Ingalls. The company also has found that when it posts videos or has contests, such as asking interns to post how their education helped them in their Principal internship in exchange for money to buy books, the number of page views jumps.

“I think we’ve seen a very positive response from the college population,” Ingalls said. “Just the fact that we have it and we’re out there.”

Principal also has a growing presence on LinkedIn, which has resulted in six or seven new hires since the company began actively networking on that site 10 months ago. It is working on creating a networking group for former Principal employees on the site to help the company stay in touch. Principal also has a presence on YSN, a professional-development networking site for college students, and is working on a blog for its career Web site that talks about the company’s leadership development rotation program.

Because the campus recruiting staff is small and focuses its visits on nearby schools, the social networking sites “gives us an opportunity to have a reach outside the Midwest,” said Misty Johnson, assistant director of recruiting and diversity.

In the eight months Feddersen has worked for Paragon IT, she has found a couple of people through LinkedIn who have been hired by her client companies and is in the process of filling another position with a person she met through Twitter.

She primarily uses these two sites to network and search for potential job candidates. With a network of about 100 people in the Des Moines area on Twitter, Feddersen often asks for referrals for jobs and sends out a weekly “hot job” update. The benefit of Twitter, she said, is that she can send out a short blurb to the entire network or directly contact people who may not want their employers to know they are looking for a job. She also has had people contact her directly based on her profile on the site.

LinkedIn has been a successful tool, she said, because people can write a lengthier biography and she can search for people with specific experience, such as project managers with a health-care background. She can view profiles in her direct network as well as connect to people in the second and third degree (those people who are connected to people she knows directly).

Paragon IT also has a company Facebook page and Twitter account, but spokesman John Myers said it’s up to individual recruiters how they use social networking tools in their jobs.

Innova Ideas & Services hasn’t used social media to target potential job candidates, but senior marketing strategist Nicole Torstenson suspects that the company’s social media campaign this summer helped it attract new clients as well as new employees.

This summer, Innova launched a viral marketing campaign to raise awareness of its brand. Company representatives would show up at events, videotape people sharing their hidden talents and then post those videos on the Innova Web site, where people could vote on whom they liked best. It used text messaging, a Facebook page, Twitter and other social media tools to spread the word about its contest.

Caution

One of the main risks in using social networking sites is the possibility that employers will use them to screen potential hires.

“Employers have to be careful of all the personal information,” Jensen said, “because not all of that information is necessarily factual.” The other problem, she said, is that Baby Boomers may appear clumsier than members of Generation Y because they may not know how to use the technology as well. Jensen said these online sites are better tools for expanding networking and looking for potential employees.

Principal has chosen not to use social networking sites to screen job candidates after interns stressed that is not how they want to be approached and because the information could be unreliable.

“We have a passive approach to it,” Ingalls said.