Since it's around the time of Hallowe'en, we thought now would be a good time to look at when you're being the Freddy Krueger of the recruitment world and scaring off candidates when using social media.
The likes of LinkedIn, Twitter and Google+ have made it a lot easier to find and approach candidates when you're trying to fill a role, but how do you know when you're taking social media too far and actually putting your candidates off applying for your jobs?
Well, to help you figure out where you're going wrong, we've put together a list of five ways you're scaring off candidates on social media.
1) Sending Generic Messages
When you're contacting potential candidates on social media, there's nothing worse than sending a generic message where it's clear you've sent the same note to loads of other candidates.
You might think your message sounds genuine, but it's obvious when a recruiter has just mass-messaged multiple candidates, and this lack of personalisation will put people off applying as they don't feel like they're being personally headhunted.
Instead, take an extra minute or two to include some details about the person in the emails so it seems at least a little bit personal.
2) Posting The Same Content Over and Over
While it's great to be active on social media and promoting your jobs on your own channels in a good way of getting eyeballs on your roles - you still have to be creative with your content.
Whether it's a LinkedIn update or a tweet, posting the same thing over and over hoping for different results is just spammy and will ruin your reputation in the eyes of the candidate, who might question the validity of the role.
Instead, try and mix up your posts by sharing interesting blogs as well as jobs, or engaging with your followers. This will humanise your presence and possibly make candidates want to apply for your jobs.
3) Bombarding Them With Connection Requests
This point is mainly about LinkedIn, but is one we've seen time and time again.
If you request to connect with someone, unless they say that they don't know you, you can send multiple requests as long as you have their email address - but this is not advised as it comes across as very unprofessional.
In a similar vein, if the candidate has accepted your request and you messaged them in the past about a job and they declined, whatever you do, don't message them again about the same role!
This seems obvious - but it does happen, believe us!
4) Approaching Them With Irrelevant Jobs
Again, this seems like such an obvious point, but one that does crop up.
When approaching potential candidates about job vacancies, make sure it's actually relevant to the person you're contacting.
For example, if you're recruiting for a social media manager role and you contact digital marketing managers in the area - make sure they have specific social media experience before contacting them, as this avoids wasting both yours and the candidate's time.
The same goes for location - be aware of the commute a candidate would have to make before contacting them. It's no use contacting someone from London about a job in Manchester, is it?
5) Pestering Them On Multiple Channels
While one of the wonderful things about social media is the variety of platforms you can connect with people on, it also has the ability to make you look like a bit of a pest.
Tweeting them, requesting to connect on LinkedIn, friend-requesting them on Facebook - it's great that you're active on all channels, but come on?!
Pick one platform to approach that particular candidate on and stick with it, otherwise you'll risk being reported for spam.
So there we go, some things to avoid doing to scare off candidates on social media! Do you agree with these points or have any of your own?