Social recruiting strategies for healthcare that go beyond the buss to developing strategies that deliver.

1. Social Media: Looking
Beyond the Buzz to
Develop Strategies
that Deliver
Your nurses are on Facebook. Great candidates are following your
competitors on Twitter. And many hospital executives believe
that social networking is a magic bullet for talent acquisition. But
crafting a sound social media strategy takes more than throwing
up a profile page and hoping candidates follow you.
s with most new
approaches, there is
confusion about what makes
an effective social media
strategy for recruitment.
The most important thing
to remember is that social
media is just another tool
that should be one part
of your overall employer
brand and recruitment
communications strategy.
To help you, we’ve compiled
a list of best practices—key
dos and don’ts—to help you
navigate the world of social
networking.
AA L O O K I N S I D E Social Media Do’s
and Don’ts
GET STARTED
Social Media is Here
to Stay
DavidGroup.com Advertising | Marketing | Digital | Employer Brand | Talent Technology | ©2013 | Page 1

2. Social Media Do’s and Don’ts
Do’s:
Define Your Audience
Many hospitals have Facebook, LinkedIn and
Twitter accounts, but very few organizations
have profile pages that are specifically
dedicated to communicating with staff and
prospective employees. If your social media
presence is “owned” by your corporate
marketing department, their focus will be on
developing patients as followers, providing
consumer health tips and promoting your
corporate brand. Though marketing and HR
have shared interests, messages designed to
attract patients are very different from content
that supports recruitment. For your efforts to
impact talent acquisition, messages should be
relevant to the segment of the audience that
matches your greatest hiring needs.
Focus on Conversation
Successful social networking relies on two-
way conversations. Provide opportunities
for prospects to interact with employees,
physicians, nursing leaders, hospital executives
and even each other. Make it a habit to pose
a question to your audience that relates to
the item you are posting. For example, if you
post a link to a television news interview of
your CEO, include a question that relates to the
story. Invite your audience to comment and
your post becomes a conversation.
Keep Content Fresh and Relevant
Candidates will form their opinions—
and ultimately their interest in you as an
employer—based in part on your social media
presence. Incorporate inspiring stories, videos,
photos and surveys to engage your audience
and foster connections. Evaluate every post
from the employee or candidate’s perspective
to answer the question “What’s in it for me?”
Prepare a response strategy
Every hospital has learned to deal with
disgruntled employees and angry or
misguided patients and family members.
With social media, you may have to deal with
unpleasant situations in a public forum. Decide
in advance how you will deal with negative
feedback.
If a comment is inaccurate, find a way to
correct the information while remaining
friendly and respectful. Fight the urge to
delete every negative comment, research has
shown that prospective employees actually
respond favorably when negative impressions
are addressed in a straightforward and honest
manner. Involve corporate communications to
develop appropriate responses to offensive or
inflammatory comments. Request guidance
from HR leaders to help define when postings
should be documented, such as capturing
screen shots of the posting, before they are
removed from your sites. And make it a priority
to express appreciation for compliments and
positive feedback.
Social Media: Looking Beyond the Buzz to Develop Strategies
that Deliver
Make it a habit to pose
a question to your
audience that relates
to the item you are
posting
Advertising | Marketing | Digital | Employer Brand | Talent Technology | ©2013 | Page 2DavidGroup.com
Make it a
priority
to express appreciation
for compliments and
positive feedback

3. Be Mindful of HIPAA
You want your employees to be able to
share great patient care stories on your social
sites, so your social media activities should
support that goal while protecting patient
privacy. If you don’t already have a written
social media policy, involve your legal and
risk management teams to create a policy to
distribute to employees, physicians, residents
and new hires. Monitor content on your social
sites to ensure that “personally identifiable
information” such as a patient’s exact age, date
of birth or death, unique physical description
or medical record numbers are never shared.
A simplified way to think about HIPAA is that
a patient’s family or closest friends should not
be able to identify them from the information
that you publish.
Engage Your Employees to Spread
the Word
Keeping content fresh on social media sites
can be daunting. Recruit key employees to
serve as “Social Ambassadors” to increase
your reach and improve content relevance.
Form a committee to develop guidelines for
posts and shares. Ask your marketing and
public relations departments for assistance
in social media training for the employee
committee before allowing administrator
access to your social sites. Keep tabs on things
your employees participate in—whether civic
events such as a Habitat
for Humanity home
build, fun runs, local
festivals or professional
awards ceremonies—
and encourage your
Social Ambassadors to
attend and post or share
details and photos.
Don’ts:
Don’t Limit Social Sites to Just
Job Postings
Social networking works best when there
is two-way communication. A constant
stream of job postings may actually be
counterproductive to effective recruiting
through social sites. Instead, focus on
providing a glimpse of your environment and
culture through relevant postings that feature
your physicians, leadership and employees.
From stories that chronicle new procedures to
recognition of your employees’ professional
achievements, give prospects the opportunity
to engage with your team. Make every effort
to include content that appeals to your current
staff as well as healthcare professionals who
are not currently job hunting. Use videos,
photos and links to published stories to
engage your audience.
Don’t Forget About Referrals
Pepper your content with job postings
and encourage your fans and followers to
forward those openings to their friends and
contacts. Use your social outlets to showcase
unique opportunities and to promote special
considerations such as sign-on bonuses or
distinct benefits like paid time off. Encourage
your own employees to follow your social
media outlets and use the relationship-
building potential of social media to promote
and energize your Employee Referral Program.
Advertising | Marketing | Digital | Employer Brand | Talent Technology | ©2013 | Page 3
Social Media: Looking Beyond the Buzz to Develop Strategies
that Deliver
DavidGroup.com
Social media is about
relationships
so integrity
is key
developing and nurturing
Use videos, photos
and links to published
stories to engage your
audience

4. Advertising | Marketing | Digital | Employer Brand | Talent Technology | ©2013 | Page 4
Social Media: Looking Beyond the Buzz to Develop Strategies
that Deliver
Keep It Real
Avoid marketing ‘spin’ to ensure that your
messages are authentic and represent an
accurate portrayal of your organization.
Social media is about developing and
nurturing relationships, so integrity is key. Be
sure to present your hospital or system in its
best light without stretching the truth.
Don’t Waste Your Audience’s Time
Irrelevant content will turn off your
talent communities. While some content
updates—poll questions, event invitations
and FAQs—can be scheduled in advance,
most of your postings should relate to timely
information that your audience wants to
know about. One way to judge the success
of your postings is to evaluate how much
conversation you spark. If none of your fans
or followers bother to comment, it is likely
that your post did not hold their attention.
Get Started
You may feel overwhelmed at the thought
of starting a social media recruiting program.
You may be tempted to wait, thinking that in
time you’ll gather enough content to hit the
ground running. Don’t delay, social media is
a long-term recruitment strategy that you
can build over time.
Social Media is Here to Stay
There is no “cookie-cutter” solution when it
comes to developing a social media strategy,
attracting an audience and keeping your
content interesting. Your process should
be based on your own goals and your
organization’s culture. Use this guide as a
place to start, and build your presence on
social sites over time.
The David Group is a leader in healthcare recruitment advertising, marketing and communications.
We work with clients to help them find, attract, engage and keep talent. Our services include advertising,
marketing, digital, employer brand and talent technology.
We know what works.
DavidGroup.com
Social media is a
long term
recruitment strategy
that you can build
over time
One way to judge the
success of your post-
ings is to evaluate how
much conversation
you spark