Social media is by far the most effective and affordable way to get qualified candidates. Learn the 9 best tactics to enhance your hiring efforts in this channel with examples from top brands.
Do you know that 79% percent of recruiters today use platforms like LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook to hire employees?
Yes, social media recruiting has become one of the most common ways to attract talents for employers. More companies are adopting this channel of recruitment because it saves cost, boosts their brand awareness, and increases their job visibility - especially among younger professionals as more than 70% of millennials found their last position through social media.
But social media recruiting comes with its own intricacies and needs to be carefully executed to achieve maximum results. To help you with that, we have curated ten tips to help you attract more candidates on social media. But before that, we will explore five reasons why you should recruit on social media.
Why is it crucial for employers to recruit on social media?
- Reduce the cost of recruitment: The traditional method of recruiting can be costly. You may need to pay for adverts on job portals, which still does not guarantee quality candidates. For organizations looking to cut costs, social media recruiting is a better and cheaper alternative.
- Attract a wider pool of candidates: More than 3.2 billion people actively make use of social media platforms like Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram daily. With this huge user database, being present and active on these channels can help employers reach potential candidates regardless of regions.
- Increase brand awareness: Instead of a sole job post in traditional recruitment portals, candidates will get to know more about your company by visiting your social page. They can see what your products are, what content you produce and what the workplace looks like, which will foster a level of trust and connection between employers and candidates.
- Screen candidates better: While social media should not be the only method of screening candidates, employers can use it as a lens to better understand candidates. A CareerBuilder survey reveals that 7 out of 10 recruiters use social media platforms to screen candidates during the recruitment process.
Having looked at the reasons why employers recruit on social media, let us look at how to attract more candidates when recruiting through social media.
9 tips to attract candidates from social media
Leverage the use of videos
Videos showing your current employees doing a tour around your workplace or talking about their job experience. These videos, known as recruitment videos, go a long way in attracting candidates. According to a study, this could help you attract a 34% increase in application rate.
A notable example of a brand that does this so well is Fiverr; they created a video where they celebrate their culture. The funny video showcases how Fiverr’s employees approach problems and work collaboratively to solve these problems.
With a video like that, you automatically draw the attention of candidates who dream of working in a place like yours. The added humor in the video will also make it light, easy to remember, and relatable.
Use LinkedIn
There are 87% active and passive candidates on LinkedIn. To get the attention of these job seekers, your company’s LinkedIn page has to be optimized, structured, and engaging.
Companies can take a cue from Canva. Their LinkedIn page is as engaging and resourceful as their website. Besides having a dedicated section where they post job openings, Canva also has a section showcasing life at their company. Posting company photos, telling your story, introducing team members are some great ways to build a good digital reputation and attract top talents.
Share your brand’s story
Most outsiders view your organization as just a place of work that provides services or sells products. How about you change the narrative by telling your brand story? Organizations are more attractive and relatable when they tell their brand stories.
Perhaps, there is no better way to do this than taking the Warby Parker approach. Warby Parker filmed their employees talking about words they like the least. This fun and straightforward concept makes the brand relatable to the average individual.
Share valuable content
Getting more candidates via social media recruiting transcends just posting the job openings. It’s also crucial that companies share informative content that the audience on the platform can find useful. This could include how-to guides, blog posts, podcasts, etc.
Microsoft uses its social media platforms to talk about recent developments and inventions in the tech industry; this is an excellent example of valuable content that enlightens the audience. This way, job seekers will see your company as a cesspool of knowledge and will need no convincing to apply whenever a job posting is made.
Get employees to participate in sharing
According to a Jobvite report, social media shares are one of the most efficient sources of hires. Companies can encourage their employees to share their company articles, blog posts, and job posts on their personal social media pages.
Employees should also be told to comment and share pictures taken at company events or around the office. These comments, photos, and reshares will provide job seekers with a relatable look at how things are done in the organization.
Create a different account for recruiting efforts
Your company’s official social media accounts may contain articles, images, and videos that are relevant to your target customers, not your target candidates. The best way to solve this is to create a separate career page account on social media for your recruiting efforts.
For example, AOL has @AOLcareers on Twitter, where the company posts career opportunities, events, and news for job seekers to see. This page is dedicated to your future employees who may want to avoid the news and distraction on the company’s main account.
However, you should note that the career accounts should focus on information relevant to job seekers such as your organization culture, employee, and news.
Social media adverts
Unlike traditional job advertising where you post and hope to attract the candidate that will fit in with your culture, social media advertising helps companies target the exact type of candidates they are looking for with the help of algorithms. Add the proper hashtag in and it becomes even easier for you to attract your dream candidates.
The untapped potential channel you can explore is Facebook Jobs. This feature is specially built to help employers get more candidates via Facebook by allowing them to post job opportunities on their official page. Here are some tips to get you started: eye-catching hiring posts, running targeted ads, and promptly responding to your interested candidates.
Join social media groups
There are many groups on Facebook and LinkedIn focused on different topics and fields where like-minded professionals connect. They serve as hubs for passive and active candidates to share hobbies, career tips, and goals. Recruiters can join these groups to scout and find qualified candidates.
For instance, a hiring manager looking for tech talents could join software developer groups on LinkedIn. In addition, there are specific groups created for hiring purposes where recruiters can post jobs and directly engage with top talents in the industry.
Be consistent
You could practice all the tips posted above and not get the desired results if you are not consistent. Consistency will convince potential job seekers that your organization is active. The more regularly you post, the more likely you’re to connect with your perfect candidates.
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