Social media has become the focal point for recruitment.
Social recruiting offers many benefits, including sourcing top candidates and optimising the recruitment process. Through utilising social media, recruiters can source active and passive candidates that align with company values and open positions.
Key Takeaways
- Know Your Audience and Platforms: Understand your target candidates and which social media platforms they frequent the most. Tailor your recruitment efforts to align with the demographics and preferences of these platforms. For instance, LinkedIn is often used for professional networking and job hunting, while platforms like Instagram and TikTok might be more effective for reaching younger audiences.
- Engage with Compelling Content: Create engaging and relevant content to attract potential candidates. This could include sharing employee testimonials, behind-the-scenes glimpses of your company culture, or showcasing the perks of working with your organisation. Visual content such as videos, infographics, and photos tend to perform well on social media and can help you stand out amidst the noise.
- Actively Network and Build Relationships: Social media is not just a broadcasting tool; it’s also a platform for building relationships. Actively engage with your audience by responding to comments, messages, and inquiries in a timely and personalised manner. Additionally, leverage social media groups and communities related to your industry or niche to connect with passive candidates and establish your presence as an employer of choice.
Why Use Social Media for Recruitment?
Social media recruitment is method recruiters and HR professionals use to source and hire potential candidates through social media platforms. It is also known as social hiring and social recruitment.
Social media has been used in the recruitment process for a while now, but it has also been used for enhancing employer branding. These platforms and channels help employers spread the word about their open job roles and company culture and share the benefits of working in that company. They also help optimise their inbound recruiting efforts.
Leveraging social media for recruiting has many benefits. For some employers, social media platforms are the main source of looking for new candidates and finding high-quality applicants. This is because these platforms offer many tools to professionals to target their audience better and broaden their reach.
Benefits of Using Social Media Recruiting
Social media recruiting allows organisations to create channels so job seekers can easily interact with them, which allows for a smoother recruitment process.
The technology behind social media and its advanced search capabilities quickly generate connections between people and helps find people with specific skills. Some of the other benefits include the following:
- Reach passive job seekers
- Find high-quality candidates
- Reduce the cost and time per hire
- Enhance employer branding
- Facilitate networking
- Allow recruiters to learn more about a candidate in just a few clicks
How to Use Social Media for Recruitment?
Every company should create its own unique social media recruitment strategy. Finding the best practices may vary depending on the type of organisation and the target audience you as a company look for.
The strategy should always focus on the goals, choosing the most suitable social media platform and boosting the company’s social media presence.
Identify Your Goals
Before you start recruiting candidates on social media, it is vital to identify your goals as an organisation. Knowing your key performance indicators allows for the strategy to be tailored for sourcing the right people who will contribute to company growth.
Choose the Most Suitable Social Media Platform
When considering what social media platforms to utilise, you should review which ones are relevant to your industry. Each platform offers advantages and various communication methods that recruiters can use to fill different positions.
You need to assess your candidates and where they are most likely to spend their time on social media. For example, recruiters looking for graphic designers may find their ideal candidate on visual social media platforms, while recruiters looking for programmers will look for candidates on more formal platforms, like Linkedin.
Create Social Media Presence
Creating a strong social media presence before sourcing candidates is essential as it allows companies to demonstrate their values and company culture, which can help attract more candidates. Creating an online presence will help determine your company’s brand voice and messaging, which needs to be consistent on all social media channels, giving candidates a better idea and understanding of what your company does.
Outline Your Recruitment Strategy
Outlining a clear social media recruiting strategy will make the process easier and quicker, resulting in more qualified candidates.
It’s important to outline a strategy that enables active and passive candidates to easily apply for job openings. Having a clear picture of what steps job seekers need to take when applying for a job helps to have a smoother hiring process and makes the entire process more efficient.
Which Social Media Platforms to Use?
Each social media platform will require a different approach to sourcing job candidates. As a result, recruiters will have to be focused on the advanced search features of each platform and utilise this for recruiting potential employees.
For example, on Twitter, recruiters often incorporate hashtags to join the conversation and make it simpler for the team of recruiters to reach candidates, while on Facebook, it could be enough to visit the careers page or job groups with job postings to find employees.
Out of all these platforms, LinkedIn has been known to be among the best for online recruiting. LinkedIn allows recruiters to immediately see the candidate’s previous work history, where they worked and in what position. It also allows them to learn more about job seekers by looking at what they follow, like and share.
Effective Social Media Recruitment Strategies
Recruiters agree that there’s no single formula for immediately finding top talent through social media. However, having an effective social media strategy helps the process, and it should contain the following:
- Specific goals for social media campaigns
- Building brand awareness
- Finding the target audience based on objectives
- Multi-channel approach
- Sharing clear and concise information
- Metrics to measure the effectiveness of campaigns
- Focus on building networks and followers
- Developing professional relationships even without job openings
Social Media is a Good Place to Find Passive Job Candidates
Passive candidates or job seekers are people who already have a job and are satisfied in their positions but are open to other job roles. They are not actively searching job boards, sending out resumes or going through other traditional recruiting methods, but they have their options open if a better opportunity arises.
About 86% of recruiters said that they use social media platforms to recruit potential job candidates. Passive job candidates are often some of the top talents, and through social media platforms like LinkedIn, recruiters get an overview of work history and compatibility immediately.
Social Media is Where People are Spending Time
Statistics show that people spend up to 4 hours daily on social media. However, many people use social media to make it visible that they are active job seekers, and 79% of job seekers use social media in their job search.
Social media is one of the best ways to connect with candidates. LinkedIn, for example, is an open pool of professionals organised by industry, job title and company. Nowadays, we can see a person’s complete work, education history, and experience on social media before reaching out to them. These platforms allow us to learn about everyone we connect with and discover their skills.
Olive Recruit Implements Social Media Recruiting in its Strategy
Following the growth and importance of social media, Olive Recruit utilises social media tools, enabling us to help job seekers find their dream job. Our social media presence is focused on sharing what we stand for and letting candidates and companies know our dedication to providing results.
We understand social media’s importance and employ it to make our hiring process more efficient. If you want to know more about how we do this, contact us today!
FAQs
- Which social media platforms are best for recruitment?
LinkedIn is the go-to platform for professional networking and job postings. Facebook and Twitter can also be effective for reaching a broader audience. Instagram and TikTok are increasingly popular for showcasing company culture and attracting younger talent.
2. What type of content performs well for recruitment on social media?
Visual content like videos, photos, and infographics tend to grab attention. Employee testimonials and behind-the-scenes glimpses of company culture are compelling. Job postings with clear, concise descriptions and engaging visuals receive higher engagement.
3. How can I engage with potential candidates on social media?
Respond promptly to comments, messages, and inquiries. Share relevant industry news, tips, and insights to establish thought leadership. Participate in relevant conversations and groups to expand your network.
4. Should I use paid advertising on social media for recruitment?
Paid advertising can be effective for targeting specific demographics and reaching passive candidates. Consider using sponsored job postings or targeted ads to increase visibility. Monitor and adjust your ad campaigns based on performance metrics.
5. How can I measure the effectiveness of my social media recruitment efforts?
Track metrics such as engagement rates, click-through rates, and conversion rates. Monitor the number of applications received through social media channels. Use analytics tools provided by social media platforms to assess the impact of your recruitment campaigns.
