It’s practically impossible to be on social media without it influencing you in some way. In this case, we’re not talking about the latest fashion or health trends – we’re talking about social media recruiting.
Social media has revolutionized recruitment and hiring. According to a recent survey, 92% of employers use social media for recruiting candidates. With over 4.2 billion social media users worldwide, it has become an indispensable tool for talent acquisition teams to connect with qualified candidates.
In this comprehensive guide, I will walk you through everything you need to know to develop an effective social media recruitment strategy.
Why Social Media Recruitment Works
Here are some of the key reasons why social media recruitment is gaining immense popularity
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Access to passive candidates Social media allows you to get your job openings in front of passive candidates who aren’t actively searching Over 85% of the workforce falls under this category
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Showcase employer brand A strong social media presence projects a positive employer image and attracts suitable candidates 69% of candidates consider a company’s reputation before applying
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Wide reach: You can reach a global talent pool across geographies. Social media provides access to over 4 billion users worldwide.
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Engagement: Social platforms allow real-time interaction with candidates, facilitating meaningful conversations.
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Cost-effective: Social recruiting is inexpensive compared to other sourcing methods. You only pay for ads if you use them.
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Analytics: You can track metrics like clicks, shares, followers to determine the effectiveness of your strategy.
Step-by-Step Guide to Social Media Recruitment
Here is a step-by-step process to develop an impactful social media recruitment strategy:
1. Identify Goals
First, determine what you wish to accomplish via social recruiting. Some examples of goals include:
- Increase follower count by 25% in 3 months
- Reduce cost per hire by 10% in 6 months
- Source 20% of hires from social platforms in 1 year
Defining goals will help you measure success later.
2. Research Your Audience
Learn about your ideal candidates’ demographics, interests, values, and professional backgrounds. This will help you determine which platforms they use and how to engage them.
Some key aspects to research:
- Job role
- Industry
- Location
- Age group
- Platform preferences
- Hashtags and groups they follow
3. Select Platforms
Choose 2-3 social platforms based on your audience research. Some top sites for recruiting include:
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LinkedIn: With over 722 million users, it’s ideal for professional networking and job searches.
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Facebook: Its 2.85 billion users make it great for showcasing company culture and branded content.
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Twitter: Its real-time nature helps share current job openings and industry news.
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Instagram: Visual content performs well with its 1.44 billion users.
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Youtube: Video content brings jobs and work culture to life for its 2.56 billion users.
4. Create Content Strategy
Develop a content plan for your selected platforms that aligns with your goals. Include diverse multimedia content like:
- Job openings
- Employee spotlights
- Office tours
- Leadership interviews
- Events and activities
- Industry articles and news
Maintain a consistent schedule and tone across platforms. Use relevant hashtags, handles, images, and videos.
5. Engage Followers
Interact with your followers by:
- Responding to comments and queries
- Sharing user-generated content
- Liking and commenting on followers’ posts
- Following industry influencers
- Hosting Q&As and AMAs
- Conducting polls and surveys
Engagement boosts brand awareness and goodwill.
6. Expand Your Network
Keep expanding your social network by:
- Following competitors’ followers and similar accounts
- Joining industry-specific groups and communities
- Following hashtags related to your field
- Connecting with niche social platforms
A broader network enhances your talent pool.
7. Advertise Openings
Promote job posts via paid ads to reach more niche audiences. Experiment with different targeting options like location, industry, job title, skills, etc.
Track conversions to determine optimal targeting and placement.
8. Track Metrics
Continuously monitor important metrics like:
- Followers gained
- Content reach/impressions
- Engagement rate
- Click-through rate
- Job views/applications
- Cost per hire
- Source of hire
Analytics will reveal what works so you can refine your strategy.
9. Listen and Learn
Keep an eye on recruitment-related conversations on social media to find talent attraction and branding opportunities.
Monitor ratings sites like Glassdoor to learn about your employer brand perception.
Stay updated with platform algorithm changes and leveraged emerging features.
Social Media Recruitment Best Practices
Here are some top tips to make your social media recruitment efforts more effective:
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Be authentic: Highlight real company culture and values. Avoid overly formal language.
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Be responsive: Address candidate queries promptly and professionally.
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Be consistent: Stick to your content calendar and branding guidelines.
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Be optimized: Ensure content is mobile-friendly. Use relevant keywords.
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Be creative: Experiment with polls, live videos and other interactive formats.
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Be compliant: Follow platform rules and privacy regulations.
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Be inclusive: Ensure diversity in your content and communications.
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Be data-driven: Let metrics guide your optimization efforts. Track what works.
Common Social Recruiting Mistakes to Avoid
Steer clear of these common missteps that can sabotage your social media recruiting:
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Not having a strategy with clear goals
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Ignoring platform best practices and algorithms
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Using outdated company descriptions across platforms
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Failing to engage followers or respond to candidates
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Posting too much promotional content
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Not tracking analytics to gauge performance
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Not optimizing content for mobile
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Overusing automated messaging instead of personal outreach
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Neglecting niche sites and online communities
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Underestimating the resources required
Key Takeaways
Social media has become indispensable for modern recruiting. By following a data-driven approach, engaging candidates, and showcasing authentic employer branding, you can source great talent from these platforms.
Be patient and consistent, track what works, optimize continually, and partner with hiring managers to make social recruiting successful. The effort is well worth it to connect with passive candidates and build a strong talent pipeline.
What social media recruitment tactics have you found most effective? What challenges have you faced? I’d love to hear your experiences in the comments below!
X (formerly known as Twitter)
X has evolved plenty over the years, but at its core it’s essentially still a microblogging site. It’s a place where people go to share ideas and videos, and its comments section is where a lot of the engagement happens.
- Start by setting up an account with your company name, a photo and a brief bio.
- Target people to follow who work in the industry, people who may have the skills you need, or their network.
- The easiest way to recruit is to tweet jobs you have available, i.e., “Looking for a marketing coordinator in NYC.”
- Including hastags makes your post instantly searchable, increasingly the likelihood people who don’t follow you will find your post. Examples of hashtags you may want to consider using: #job, #hiring, #career, #sales rep.
- Start and contribute to conversations. Encourage people to their opinions and advice; creating polls is a great way to crowdsource opinions and get people engaged.
Considered the world’s largest professional network and most frequented social media platform for recruiting. With a vast network of valued connections, your company can easily maintain a high-profile relationship with both active and passive candidates. You can even look to employees for a boost via social distribution, which automatically shares job postings on their profiles for greater exposure, promoting internal referral processes.
- Start by making your company profile. Once you create your company profile, make sure you keep it relevant and up to date.
- You can actively search for candidates among LinkedIn members by searching on keywords for qualified people.
- Join industry or skill set groups and advertise your roles.You can contact people individually, or people may directly contact you.
- A final option you have is advertisements. With LinkedIn Ads, you can target a specific audience by job title and function, industry and company size, seniority, and LinkedIn groups.
With such high user retention, Facebook is the perfect place to engage with job seekers, offer industry insights, and post all your open positions. Facebook offers companies a ‘Job Openings’ tab right from their profile, so candidates can visit one single repository and easily see what’s available.
- Start by creating an engaging company page and ensuring that all content is relevant and up to date.
- Encourage your employees to get involved and post comments to your page. Make sure you respond to all comments, good or bad.
- Another option is to post a Facebook ad. Facebook can target ads to the exact audience you are looking to reach.
- For example, suppose your company is in New Jersey, and you are not including relocation in the budget for this position. In that case, you can target the job posting only to show to people who live in New Jersey or bordering states. If the position is an entry-level position, you can target the job posting to a younger demographic.
With its video-only format distinguishing itself amongst the other members of this list, YouTube allows you to broadcast your brand. YouTube enables your company to showcase the value of producing employee and culture-focused recruiting videos regularly.
- In addition to YouTube video content, you can share employee-generated videos, built in house, to your corporate social networks.
- Create a variety of content that showcases your brand, including team-builders, volunteer hours, industry events, and interviews with employees.
Instagram is a highly engaging way to promote your brand via pictures, videos, and text captions while appealing to job seekers’ youthful generation.
- Use the hashtag strategy we discussed in the Twitter section, but be sure to create unique content for this channel.
- Posting the same content across multiple channels (without tailoring it to the unique angles audiences expect there) will tell users you aren’t interested in providing the custom experience to which they are accustomed.
Establish your company brand
Evaluate how you can feature your company culture and brand on social media. The you portray on social media will impact who applies for your company. A great way to get people excited about your company is by showing what makes your company a unique and exciting place to work.
Applicants are interested in learning about the types of people they would potentially work with at companies when they do their research.
Company social media accounts provide candidates with a glimpse into a company’s culture, employees, company morale, and unique offerings. These factors help candidates determine whether that company is a good place to work. Amp up your social recruitment efforts with a solution that makes it easy to cultivate a social media presence and connect with more job seekers. With the iCIMS Talent Cloud, social media recruiting can be your sourcing powerhouse.
A strong employer brand sets the tone for business success. It affects the candidate’s perception of your culture, so it’s essential to get it done right with effective recruitment marketing software.
How to use Social Media for Recruiting | #recruiting
How can social media recruitment be successful?
Here are key steps and best practices to ensure your strategy is successful: First Step: Clearly define what you want to achieve with your social media recruitment efforts. This could range from increasing brand awareness to attracting a specific type of candidate.
What is social media recruiting?
Social media recruiting is a recruitment strategy that combines elements of employer branding and recruitment marketing to connect with and attract active and passive candidates on the digital platforms they frequent. Recruiting the best talent takes much more than posting a job to your careers page and waiting for the candidates to roll in.
How to create a social media recruiting strategy?
Figure out exactly what you want to accomplish with your social media recruiting strategy that you haven’t been able to do with traditional tactics. 4. Determine and Measure Metrics Before you get too engrossed in the likes and follows, make sure that you’re also tracking recruitment metrics.
How can social media help recruiters find and hire candidates?
Using social media for recruitment purposes can help recruiters find and hire candidates who have ideal experience and skills. Social media gives recruiters the opportunity to build a community in the brand’s industry, which they can then use to alert candidates of new positions within the company.
