Recruiting via social media is increasingly common these days, with 84% of employers now using social media for recruiting potential candidates. Social media streams like LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram can be a great way to attract interested workers and find passive candidates who may be better off at your company. If you use social media wisely, you’ll be able to promote your company culture, advertise job openings, strengthen your brand identity, and find new employees online. But how exactly do you go about using social media to recruit for job openings at your business? Here we share 7 tips on how to use social media for recruiting new employees!
1. Look in the right places depending on the role
When you’re looking for new employees, consider where you’re going to find them. While most professionals will have a LinkedIn account regardless of their background, the demographics of social media channels like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram are very different. For example, if you’re looking for young blood for your company or a role that is better suited to an entry-level applicant, then you’ll want to use Twitter or Instagram for your posts. 66.2% of Twitter users are under the age of 35, while 70% of Instagram users are under the age of 35. In contrast, if you want an older person for the role who has more experience in the industry, you might want to advertise more on Facebook. Although the amount of users by age range appears similar to Twitter and Instagram, Facebook these days tends to skew toward older people in terms of active users. This helps you find candidates with the right experience level. It’s also worth noting that sites like Instagram have 10 times more engagement than Facebook on average, so you should think carefully about where you’re putting your ads. Unless you’re willing to shell out money for paid sponsorship, your Facebook ad could be easily lost in the timeline forever. Also think about where your potential candidates and new employees hang out online. For example, if the job position is in HR, consider looking at HR-related Facebook pages and Twitter hashtags. Or if the position is in coding, try posting on Reddit forums like r/coding or r/programming to gain a lot of interest (if it’s allowed in their subreddit rules).
2. Utilize multimedia to guarantee engagement
If you’re relying on walls of text for your online recruiting, you’re going to be sorely disappointed. Modern social media is a highly visual platform – you need to produce visual media to advertise your company’s job openings, represent your brand, and highlight the company culture. Use pictures, videos, audio, and live streams to your advantage! Video is especially important when you recruit with social media – it gets 10 times more clicks on average than text-based posts do. If you want to showcase your company and why people should work for it, consider hiring a reputable videographer who has experience with online social media content. Multimedia is especially important for social media recruiting scenarios when you’re headhunting or searching for people in niche roles. While 200 applicants might apply for an admin assistant role, people with very niche skills often have the luxury of picking which company they want to work for. Tempt them with a visual glimpse of what you can offer!
3. Give insights into company culture to make it feel more relatable
Your social media recruiting strategy should always give insights into your company culture. Many candidates will be looking at more than just the job position and salary you’re offering – they want to know what their new job will actually be like. If you’re looking for passive candidates who are already happily employed, you need to give them a reason to join your company instead. Do you have a great workplace environment? Do your employees enjoy after-work drinks and socials? Do you regularly hold charity events? Are there certain milestones you’d like to share? Make your workplace look fun and enjoyable! You might post footage of events, award ceremonies, office parties, or other things that highlight the relationship your employees have with each other and the business. Show pictures of your office space, dress code (if there is one) and the way that your teams are organized – candidates need to be able to imagine themselves in the job. Social media platforms are brilliant tools for selling your company culture as an overall lifestyle – it’s more than just a job.
4. Create engaging content so people don’t ignore your stream
Whether people are looking for work or not, allow them to be drawn in by your company’s amazing content. You might find it’s witty Facebook posts or fun and informative Instagram videos; either way it’s always good to have a strong presence on social media platforms whether it’s part of your recruiting strategy or not. As well as attracting the interest of potential candidates who work within the space, you also help to feed the algorithm that social media platforms use to prioritize how your company will show up in someone’s timeline or feed. The more people regularly engage with your content, the more likely they are to see job-related posts too. However, don’t get too boring with your online content. It’s become very popular in recent years for companies to break up their “boring” business content with lighthearted and humorous content. It’s not uncommon to see major corporations sharing jokes and memes via their social media feed these days, so don’t be the one company left behind that bores all their followers to death. Hire a good social media person!
5. Get your existing employees involved in recruiting to make it more believable
Consider involving your existing team in your recruitment strategy by using social media to promote your company. If you don’t have a social media policy already, I would suggest that you implement one so your current workers know exactly what they can and cannot post about themselves online. Whether it’s casual office selfies or team members advertising job vacancies on their personal Facebook and Twitter timelines, getting your current team involved is a great way to use social media recruiting. Did you know that potential job candidates are 800% more likely to engage with social media recruiting posts if they’re shared by a current employee of the business instead of an official page? Every company on the face of the earth wants people to think it’s amazing. However, if current team members are openly sharing their positive experiences with their workplace on their personal profiles, it seems more legitimate and believable, even if it’s part of a social hiring strategy for recruiting. It also just helps to make your workplace seem like a real office filled with real people.
6. Target passive candidates with unique benefits only you can offer
Passive candidates, if you don’t know, are candidates who aren’t actively looking for a job – you’re trying to headhunt them from other positions. These candidates are likely immune to the tricks of your social media recruiting strategy because they simply aren’t looking for work at your company. Social media recruiting for these candidates is tricky! Consider studying these people to find out what they like or dislike about many of their current work scenarios. You might find clues in their personal social media posts or LinkedIn profile that gives you an idea that helps you to tailor a social media recruiting strategy that suits their needs. For example, the candidates you’re looking for might feel underpaid, they might not get enough vacation days, or they might be forced to work with outdated systems when better technology exists to help them complete their job with ease. Whatever it is, find a way to target social media recruitment posts that tempt these passive people to apply for work at your business. For example:
- Graphic Designer Wanted! (Latest Adobe Suite)
- Ethical Hacker Wanted (Salary $$$$$$)
- Content Writer Position with 20 Days Paid Vacation
- Teaching Role In City Center Location
Whatever makes your company better than the rest, you need to lead with it and make it a key element of your social media recruitment strategy. Recruiting people is much easier when they’re tempted by the unique offering of your business. Also, if you’re reaching out to these candidates directly, make sure that you don’t sugarcoat the job position you’re offering. Be upfront with them about the work involved, but make sure that the benefits of working for your business are abundantly clear.
7. Use social media insights to channel your efforts into the right places
When recruiting and posting with social media, you’ll usually have access to insights that tell you how your posts are performing. For example, Facebook allows you to delve deep into insights for your sponsored post, while Twitter gives you insight information on any tweet you make. Insights can include data on the users who look at your posts according to age, gender, location, and more. These social media insights can also show you which of your posts are more popular than others, giving you ideas on where to focus more of your energy during your social media recruitment process. For instance, you might put a lot of effort into creating videos for social media, but find that your live streams perform much better in terms of engagement. While video content is undoubtedly important, this would suggest that your recruiters should put more energy into holding regular live streams and Q&As to interact with the community. You’ve got to go where the numbers are!
The bottom line
Social media recruitment is a staple for the HR department these days, though it can be difficult to break through and find a social media recruiting strategy that helps you to stand out. Still, if you persevere and follow these tips for recruiting via social media, you should get the candidates of your dreams in no time. Whether you end up recruiting with social media or recruiting the old-fashioned way, we wish you the best of luck on your hiring journey!