Social media has become an essential venue for recruiting top talent and forming relationships with professionals actively looking for a new job as well as those that might be open to a new opportunity. Every social media site is different and requires users to understand its unique personality in order to recruit successfully. LinkedIn is a site for professionals of all types. It had 467 million users worldwide and 128 million in the U.S. as of late 2016. Chances are, a number of professionals you know (if not most of them) have LinkedIn profiles. GitHub is a place where software developers and coders converse and share code, as well as contribute to and critique open source projects. It has over 23 million users worldwide, with over a third of them from Europe. eBook: Using Social Media for Executive Search – Learn how to leverage social media in your executive search process more effectively. Main Differences Between LinkedIn and GitHub for Recruiting When considering which social media site to use in your recruiting efforts, the first thing to understand is that GitHub will be largely useless outside the tech recruiting sector. There may be another social media hub specific to your recruiting area that you can access, but for general recruiting or recruiting across disciplines, LinkedIn will be more effective. That being said, there are definite pros and cons to both LinkedIn and GitHub for tech recruiting. LinkedIn is set up to connect U.S. users with other U.S. users primarily, but GitHub is used by a large number of international tech professionals and gives equal access regardless of location. Both GitHub and LinkedIn have targeted search functions, but LinkedIn has both free and paid options for recruiting built into the site, making LinkedIn easier to use for recruiting even for those without specific training or knowledge about tech recruiting. Software engineers and students use GitHub regularly in the course of their work and schoolwork, so profiles are kept more current and skill levels are fairly evident. LinkedIn profiles are less likely to be used often and updated, particularly by those not actively looking for work. As a recruiter, you may find it more challenging to make connections with passive candidates on LinkedIn than GitHub, given that many users are not active on the site and potential passive candidates may not be providing the most updated information in their profiles. On the upside, LinkedIn can integrate with a robust talent management system and streamline recruiting efforts, in addition to having its own recruiting programs and allowing job descriptions to be posted on the site. LinkedIn also allows companies to set up pages, which can provide more direct recruiting opportunities. A good amount of groundwork will be necessary to recruit on GitHub and a more subtle strategy will be necessary there in order not to scare off or turn off possible candidates that might not want to be bothered by a recruiter while trying to “work” on the site. GitHub may, however, be a source for top talent that could not be reached by other means. There is value in going to where tech professionals hang out when attempting to recruit them. Choosing a Recruiting Venue That Meets Your Needs Both GitHub and LinkedIn offer advantages and challenges to recruiters. Regardless of which social media site you choose to target for recruiting purposes, a robust talent management system enables you to recruit more successfully. To explore your talent management options, contact us today and learn how ThriveTRM can meet your recruitment challenges and exceed your expectations at every turn.