Social media recruitment: 10 essential strategies every business should know
With most of the world using social media, the primary workforce is active on social media platforms and using these platforms to search and apply for jobs. Because of this, more and more recruiters are utilising social media best practices to attract top-quality talent and increase reach with their social media recruitment strategy.
Social media recruitment is the process of using social media platforms to search for, attract and hire candidates. There are several benefits to using a social media recruitment strategy: it makes it easy to connect with candidates, brands can target specific audience groups, it reduces hiring costs and so much more.
To discover more benefits, which platforms are most effective and 10 key strategies to improve your social media recruitment, read on.
Why should you recruit using social media?
1. Social media recruitment increases reach, amplifies recruitment marketing efforts and makes it easy to connect with candidates
By leveraging paid social advertising, personalising social media communications and connecting with passive candidates you can increase the reach of your social media recruitment campaigns. As social media allows you to reach millions of people in a matter of minutes, it can help you scale and boost your recruitment marketing efforts.
2. It allows you to tailor recruitment efforts and content creation, whilst also promoting your brand
As social media platforms have advanced targeting options, it can help you tailor your recruitment efforts and specifically target audience groups, who are looking for work in your industry. You can also create varied recruitment content on social media, as platforms offer a range of content formats, such as reels, imagery, compelling copy and short-form videos. Utilising different content formats can help increase engagement and reach. When recruiting on social media, you are also promoting your brand online. Therefore, you can include brand values, key milestones and employee experiences to not only attract the best talent but also stand out to customers, potential partners and clients.
3. By recruiting on social media, you can enhance candidate screening and reduce hiring costs.
As social media provides you with easy access to potential talent profiles, you can gather information about candidates. For example, on LinkedIn, you can view job history, relevant achievements, confidence, network etc. This information might be useful in the recruitment process. Social media recruitment also minimises hiring costs; 90% of employers say that Facebook and Instagram Ads reduced their cost per hire.
Which social media platforms can you recruit on?
Every minute, 7 people are hired and more than 9000 people apply for jobs via LinkedIn. With over 1 billion members, LinkedIn is the front-runner when it comes to social media recruitment. On LinkedIn, users can share job history, achievements and endorsements that are useful for employers. LinkedIn is a platform centered around connection and networking so it is an effective platform for brands to recruit new talent.
81% of job seekers want to see career posts on Facebook. This shows that if used effectively, Facebook can be a great platform to advertise job listings and receive job applications. Facebook has advanced targeting ad options and allows advertisers to use lead ads to generate conversions. You can utilise these features in your social media recruitment campaign to get more candidates applying. Facebook groups also offer recruiters to option to connect with job seekers or people in their industry.
Like Facebook, Instagram relies on visually appealing content and offers advertisers various ad formats to increase engagement. 29% of job seekers are using Instagram in their search. Although not as popular as LinkedIn and
Facebook, people are still hoping to see job adverts on Instagram. Instagram features like reels, stories and highlights, allow recruiters to appeal to younger audiences and showcase company culture more creatively. Investing into Instagram explore ads to advertise jobs is a great way to reach open-minded people on the search for discovery.
TikTok
Although a newer platform in comparison to the ones above, TikTok is becoming more and more popular for social media recruitment. If you want to increase candidate applications for the GenZ talent pool, TikTok might be one of the best platforms to use. Over 40% of GenZ are using TikTok to search, instead of Google, so having job adverts on here is a great way to get in front of the right people. As
TikTok favours authentic user-generated content, employers can showcase company culture and brand in an entertaining, captivating way. If done well, TikTok ads can build trust between a brand and the viewer, making them more likely to apply. Some of the biggest companies are using TikTok in their recruitment efforts. For example, Chipotle asked job seekers to post video ‘resumes’.
This campaign not only provided Chipotle with a huge amount of talented candidates but also promoted the business, increased reach and engagement for other content and enhanced brand awareness. Nice work chipotle!
You should also consider recruiting on smaller networking sites like GitHub, StackOverflow, Warrior Forum, Moz and Reddit. Sometimes less well-known sites still have a large number of active users.
10 strategies to up your social media recruitment game!
Plan and prepare
Create your ideal candidate
Before you start recruiting, take some time to understand who you want to attract. Creating personas and understanding your target audience is essential with any social strategy and it is no different with a social recruitment strategy. From this, you can create social media content that will appeal to your ideal candidate and boost your recruitment marketing efforts.
Research competitors and candidates
Identify the platforms your competitors are recruiting on. Look at what type of content they are creating and the types of responses they are receiving. You can use these ideas as inspiration and also take note of mistakes they might have made, so you can avoid them!
You should also take time to assess where your ideal candidates are job searching; which platforms they are using, how long they spend on platforms and if there are any specific social media groups/less well-known platforms that your audience uses.
By taking the time to have a clear idea of who your audience is, where they are and how your competitors are reaching them, you will have valuable insights to input into your strategy.
Make a good impression on potential candidates
Be consistent with your company values
You need to make sure potential candidates resonate with your brand. Showcasing your brand values clearly and consistently is crucial in building a connection with your audience. Using examples of how your brand follows these values is a great way to make the audience resonate with your brand. As well as consistent company values, you should also have a consistent tone of voice; which is used across multiple channels such as your website, emails and campaigns.. The better your online reputation, the more candidates will want to be a part of your business.
Share real-life employee experience
As mentioned above, creating content that makes the audience feel something is essential. Sharing employee testimonials and stories is an effective way to build on brand reputation and showcase brand achievements in the process.
Encourage your team to get active in the social media recruitment process
Make the most of connections
Each of your employees has a network, which could contain potential candidates. Having your employees recommend the business and advertise the roles to their network can increase the number of people applying for a role. Ultimately, people are more likely to trust and be persuaded by an endorsement from someone they know. You can also add a ‘hiring’ sticker to your profile; this is an effective way to increase reach and showcase your business to job seekers.
Offer referral incentives
An effective way to encourage your team to help with the recruitment process on social media is to offer rewards to employees who refer a successful candidate. This is a commonly used technique to encourage team members to help attract top-quality talent.
Be consistent with your posts
Remain active throughout your social media recruitment campaign
It is important to start strong with your social media recruitment but maintaining this consistency is key to attracting a large pool of talented candidates. You should remain active on social platforms throughout your recruitment campaign; this includes posting, responding to comments and adapting your strategy based on performance. It is also crucial that you don’t spend all your social media recruitment efforts on one platform. Utilise the multiple platforms you have and you will reach a larger pool of candidates; not everyone is on every social media platform.
Consistently use hashtags in your job ads
Using hashtags in your content is a great way to increase reach and get your recruitment posts in front of people who your content wouldn’t normally reach. Similarly, you can also use specific hashtags to target a specific talent pool or industry. Make sure the hashtags align with your brand and are easy to remember. They can help massively when boosting online reach and visibility.
Make the most out of your accounts
Optimise your profile(s)
Whether you are recruiting on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram or another platform, the look and content within your profile will have an impact on potential candidates. You need to ensure you have completed all the steps needed to fully set up your social media profiles. E.g. a banner image, a compelling description/bio, brand logo, website link, contact information etc.
LinkedIn also offers recruiters the ability to filter candidate searches. You can set criteria such as location, experience and skills and find potential candidates that fit. Leveraging the features social platforms offer is crucial and should not be overlooked.
Experiment with interactive content
Live stream videos are a great way to connect with candidates and offer answers to questions directly. Using this, you can build rapport and relationships with potential candidates that could help in the recruitment process. Platforms like LinkedIn and Facebook allow you to host virtual ‘events’ on the platforms themselves. This makes it easy to arrange and organise.
Quickfire: mistakes to avoid with social media recruitment
- Posting the same content across all platforms: each social media platform is designed for specific types of content. Tailor your content to each platform to achieve better results
- Only posting job openings: users will get bored if all they see is a constant push for recruitment. You need to share other valuable cotent, that will support social media recruitment and increase engagement that way.
- Ignoring feedback: if a candidate has an opinion on your social media recruitment strategy, listen! Taking this on board and refining your strategy can help you improve.
- Not tracking success: you need to monitor your recruitment campaign performance in real-time. KPIs can help you understand what content is attracting clients so you can create more of it. It can also show you the improvements you need to make.
- Ignoring mobile optimisation: as most social media users access the platforms via smartphones, you need to ensure your content and recruitment process is suitable for mobile users.
… The biggest mistake brands make is not getting support from social media experts!
Embryo is here to help!
We understand how overwhelming the recruitment process can be for businesses. You want the best talent and you want a social media strategy that will provide that for you.
That is where we can help! Our team of paid social experts can help you create a successful paid social strategy to ensure you increase reach and engagement and attract the right candidate for your business. Get in touch today and start your paid social journey. We look forward to hearing from you.
