As a hiring manager, you want to be where the most talented, qualified and largest pool of potential candidates are.

With more and more people joining social networking sites like LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest, the potential for social media to play a part in your recruitment strategy is huge.

To date, LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter have over 535 million combined users. That’s a lot of potential talent for your company. But how do you find the right person for your team using social media?

Here are 3 key things you should know before using social media to recruit.

1. Understand each social network

2012 has been the year for social media, and by now, I’m sure you’re familiar with the likes of LinkedIn, Facebook, Pinterest and Twitter.

In case you’re not, here’s a quick lowdown on what each of these platforms can potentially offer as a tool for attracting and identifying talent.

LinkedIn – As the world’s largest professional social network, LinkedIn represents 170 industries and 200 countries from around the world. You can find, be introduced to, and collaborate with qualified professionals required to achieve your company goals.

Facebook – With over 400 million users, Facebook is the largest social networking site that connects people with friends, colleagues and anyone else who might be of interest. Whilst it operates on a much more personal domain to LinkedIn, it’s a great platform for developing your company brand and building an engaged following.

Twitter – When it comes to social recruitment, Twitter is sometimes seen as the unsung hero. Yet it’s an invaluable tool if you’re looking to inject some personality into your latest job opportunities and direct audiences to your website or blog without seeming to ‘salesy’.

Pinterest – Earlier this year, Pinterest recorded a staggering 10.4 million users. Whilst it is still a relatively new platform, its potential for companies to develop their employer brand, grow online communities and drive traffic to their website is too hard to ignore.

2. Find out where your ‘perfect’ candidates are

With over-stretched HR departments and ever-decreasing resources, there’s no point wasting your valuable time using platforms that are not appropriately aligned with your business priorities.

Different people have different interests, and are likely to congregate on the same or similar platforms in order to share content and network.

Whilst it’s important to use a combination of resources and platforms, you need to know who you’re trying to reach and what you want them to do. That way, you can determine which social platforms are best for your hiring needs without wasting too much time.

3. Devise a plan for monitoring your social media presence

There’s no point building a presence on social media platforms if you can’t monitor it. You need to be able to respond to potential candidates and understand how people view your company.

Whilst there seems to be a general view that social media takes up too much time, if you set up a daily routine, monitoring your social presence will become a whole lot easier. In fact, Hubspot have a great article with tips for monitoring your social media presence in just 10 minutes a day.

Set yourself clear, realistic objectives and evaluate the resources you have invested in. For example, if you’ve posted a link to a job in a LinkedIn group or tweeted it and not had the response you were hoping for, look at how and why you’re using that particular channel. Perhaps the type of candidate you’re seeking doesn’t use it?

As more companies begin using social media as part of their hiring strategy, it’s important to remember that is of course, only one more channel.

The social space offers a unique way for companies of all sizes to attract and find quality candidates, but people will still search for jobs using search engines like Google, as well as job boards.

However, if you wholeheartedly embrace social media, you will have an added advantage and a genuine opportunity to identify the best talent for your team.