In the Future, Interviews Will Last Six Seconds: Using Vine for Social Recruitment

February 7, 2013

For those of you who don’t know, Twitter introduced a new feature on January 24th. The new feature, Vine, is a mobile service that will allow the user to capture and share short and looping videos via Twitter. It is available on the iPhone and the iPod touch for free right now and will allow you to post up to six seconds of video.
Cool, right? But being a talent specialist, my first question is, can companies reel in top talent by using Vine for social recruitment?
It is always exciting to consider incorporating new technology and features into the talent acquisition process, but in this case I don’t see Vine being a game-changer, at least on its own. After all, what can you really show someone in six seconds or shorter that would entice them to apply to your company?
Recruiting needs meat, links to job descriptions, career pages, and other information about the company. In today’s war for talent, candidates want to know all the information before taking the time to apply or interview, and they want that information readily available.
Now, if you use your Twitter account to share your Vine video and include a link to the meat, you may just have something. This is easy to do as Twitter acquired Vine, and while you don’t need a Twitter account to sign up, it is easy enough to link them together when sharing.
That being said, you clearly don’t have time to explain a job opening in six seconds. However, you can show potential candidates something that would interest them enough to learn more. Some options include:

  • A short promo video for your company: Think snap shots of the office and a brief explanation of what the company does.
  • A quick feature highlighting your company culture and employee activities: Share a video of your employees helping at a charity or having fun at the office Christmas party. Give prospects a taste of what they could be part of.
  • Testimonials: Record employees saying one line answering the question, “Why do you love working here?”
  • An introduction to a new employee: This one is not as much for recruiting as it is for just getting your company out there in general. It would be a really cool way to show off new hires. Have them explain where they came from, what they will be doing at the company and why they are excited to work there. Prospective candidates will want to be in the next video!

The key is to keep it creative and fun. You only have six seconds and the goal is to catch candidates’ attention and get them interested in looking into your company and the current open positions.
Between Twitter and LinkedIn, social media recruiting is a must for your company. But make sure you do it right. There is a fine line between intriguing a candidate and turning them off all together.
For more examples of companies experimenting with using Vine for social recruitment (and more), visit the following:
The Jim Stroud Show episode: What Twitter’s “Vine” means to the Recruiting World
These Companies are Using Vine to Try to Recruit You by Kris Holt at The Daily Dot
6 Ways Brands Will Use Vine Videos as Content by Kevin Briody at Pace

What other ways can companies use Vine for social recruiting? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

 

Senior Talent Manager, Engineering

<strong>Meghan Maher</strong> is Senior Talent Manager, Engineering, actively recruiting top talent for OpenView and its Portfolio Companies. Her tech background has helped OpenView hire for nearly 20 IT and engineering positions. Meghan began her career at AVID Technical Resources, where she was a Technical Recruiter for two years.