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It takes more than posting on your website’s Career page to recruit the best talents.
After all, if you want to connect with the best people to fill a position, you need to be where they are, and in today’s modern landscape, it’s social media.
Like most things, there are pros and cons to using social media in the recruitment process.
The trick is to take a strategic approach to help ensure you find the best-fitting and qualified potential employees while streamlining your recruitment.
Continue reading to learn more about social media recruiting and why it should be a part of your company’s hiring strategy.
What is social media recruiting?
Social media recruiting (or social recruiting and social hiring) is the process of advertising jobs, connecting with candidates, and recruiting potential employees via social media platforms.
It involves using social media networks (LinkedIn, Facebook, etc.) and websites (forums, job boards, and blogs) to look for, attract, and hire talent.
A social recruitment strategy combines the elements of recruitment marketing and the hiring company’s branding initiatives.
The goal is to attract and connect with active (and passive) candidates on the social and online platforms they use frequently.
The benefits of social media recruiting
If you’re still on the fence about implementing social media recruiting, learning its benefits can help you take that final leap.
Below are several advantages of social recruiting.
Lets you create and repurpose various content
Most recruitment websites only allow specific formats and content for your job posting.
However, the job posts aren’t attractive, especially to candidates looking through hundreds of hiring information.
You’ll miss potential employees who might have been a great fit for the job.
With social media, you’re not likely to face this issue since there is no limit to the types of content you can make for your social recruiting initiatives.
Share text-based content, compelling images, and interactive videos (among others) to support your social recruiting efforts.
You can create a carousel post that starts with engaging Instagram poll questions and ends with a Call-to-Action (CTA) that encourages candidates to apply.
For instance, if you run a talent agency, you could pose a “What’s your dream job: Food content creator or Travel guide blogger?” poll. Then, include a “Find out how we can help” CTA in your post.
You can also reshare your IG carousel post in your Stories and Reels.
Include relevant Instagram Reel hashtags to ensure your post reaches your target audience and improve your content’s visibility.
Share the same content across your other social media channels, but ensure you tailor it for each platform.
Leverage social media management platforms, such as Vista Social to auto-publish your recruiting content across your social networks seamlessly.
Image source: vistasocial.com.
Follow best practices, social media platform specifications, and content writing tips to nail your descriptions and messaging.
Know potential employees beyond their resumes
Traditional resumes are great at summarizing a potential employee’s professional background.
However, these give minimal insights into who a candidate is as a person.
Social recruiting allows you to better understand your prospective employees, including their interests, personalities, mutual connections, etc.
You’ll get to know them better to see whether they are a good fit for the job and your company’s culture.
Use the information you get about candidates from social media with reliable candidate sourcing software to streamline your talent matching process.
Tailor your recruiting initiatives
Social media platforms offer many options to reach specific audience groups, making it easy to target potentially best-fitting candidates.
For instance, Facebook Audience Insights shows you aggregated information about people on the platform and those connected to your Page.
Image source: facebook.com.
Use the information to create content that resonates with your potential candidates and find similar audiences.
For example, you can leverage audience insights to run ads targeting people interested in your Software-as-a-Service, such as robust UX software. Then, tailor your ads to users looking for a career in UX design.
With this, you can narrow the applicant pool early in your recruitment process, allowing you to spend more time on other core tasks.
You can also develop a content tracking strategy to help you assess and analyze whether your social recruiting ads and posts drive your expected results.
3 Tips to develop a solid social recruiting strategy
Your strategy shapes and guides your social media recruiting efforts.
Learn to develop a winning social hiring approach with these tips.
1. Set clear goals
Save yourself from the unnecessary struggle of doing too much without a clear direction.
Set objectives and create a detailed plan. Include the social media platforms on which to focus your recruiting efforts and your approach to funneling prospects through those channels.
Your goals and plan can include the following:
- Use LinkedIn to know more about a candidate’s professional experience.
- Monitor Facebook to get an idea about how candidates present themselves to friends, family, and strangers.
- Add hashtags to posts promoting jobs on Instagram and TikTok for higher visibility.
- Create YouTube videos to showcase your company culture, values, and what your company does, whether you sell retail items or offer services to get customers to buy SEO articles.
2. Simplify the application process
Make the application process as intuitive and easy as possible, from clicking the link on your social recruitment post to the resume submission.
A needlessly long and complicated application process can frustrate potential employees who might not complete the application.
You’ll lose opportunities to recruit qualified talent and delay your hiring process further.
3. Cultivate an online presence that reflects your brand
Develop a more positive and active social media presence to encourage applications.
Consider your brand manifesto and create a strategy highlighting your company values, people, and other differentiators.
One effective approach is to feature your current employees since they’re your biggest advocates.
Share your team events, employee stories, and other company culture touchpoints via written and visual content.
The social recruiting post on Instagram by fermentation company Cultured South is a classic example.
Image source: instagram.com.
It’s a great way to give your candidates a glimpse of what they can look forward to if they join your company.
Amplify your recruitment with social media
Social media recruiting isn’t intended to replace traditional hiring methods (and it shouldn’t).
It should complement and boost your existing recruitment process, helping you narrow your candidate pool and find qualified individuals seamlessly.
Nail your social media recruitment by developing solid strategies, learning from best practices, and using the right tools for your hiring process.
