Social recruitment is on the rise and many companies are using platforms like Twitter and LinkedIn to post job openings, search for talent, and communicate with potential recruits. Things are at a point now where social recruitment is no longer an experiment but rather a must-have for every business. Currently, social recruitment statistics show that more than 90% of professional recruiters use Facebook and other social media platforms to post jobs. On the other hand, a great chunk of employees says an organization’s social media presence was the reason they chose to apply.
There have been a lot of changes to the recruitment process in the past decade. The landscape is now highly competitive, and this requires businesses to find better ways of growing their workforce. Therefore, adopting new recruitment strategies is now crucial if a business is to attract top talent. Let’s look into some social recruitment tips that can help businesses attract and find the perfect employees.
Outline Your Social Recruitment Goals
The most important step if you want to succeed with your social recruitment efforts is to first lay down a good foundation. There are several social media platforms available, and if you are not careful, you can end up tangled up in connecting with candidates. That’s why it’s important to first work on a recruitment strategy before launching the search.
The first thing you will need to do is decide on which sites you are going to use. There are several of them available, and each one offers some benefits and functionalities that the other doesn’t. So, if you approach them haphazardly, without any clear ambitions, you will be setting yourself up for a web of confusion. Instead, sit down with your team and come up with a detailed plan that includes the best platforms for your needs and ideal candidates. That way, you can easily funnel your prospects through one communication channel.
You don’t necessarily have to ignore the other platforms and focus on one. Instead, you can come up with a strategy that uses each of them differently, such as:
- You can use LinkedIn to gather information about a potential candidate’s qualifications and professional experience.
- Engaging candidates on Twitter to find out more about their values and interests. This is very useful for culture fit.
- Follow the candidate on Facebook to see how they present themselves to strangers and friends.
- Use platforms like TikTok to promote jobs using videos and hashtags. You can also use TikTok to show potential candidates what it’s like to be part of your team.
- Creating a Youtube channel to display your organization’s values and culture.
Find Out Where Your Potential Candidates Spend their Time
Tapping into the right platforms is crucial when you want to find information about a candidate. For instance, while LinkedIn might be the usual go-to platform to start your search process, it’s important to understand that your ideal candidate might not spend a lot of their time there. Therefore, before you pick a starting point, you need to research your ideal candidate profile and find out where you are likely to see most of their interactions. For instance, a web developer might spend more time on platforms like GitHub, where a graphic designer will go for something visual like Pinterest.
As a result, it’s important to be very agile when it comes to where you want to plant your flag and start your search for the most talented candidates. Once you tap into the correct platform, it will be easier for you to find the right candidates.
You must also understand that apart from choosing the right platform, you must also come up with a unique approach tailored to each of them. For instance, Twitter thrives on hashtags. If you manage to use them properly, it will be easier to get into the right conversations and reach out to possible candidates. On the other hand, hashtags are not that effective on Facebook. Instead, you will have more success visiting career pages and groups to find potential candidates.
Tweak Your Approach Along the Way
Social recruitment is growing in popularity due to several reasons. Apart from giving companies access to a wider range of candidates, it also makes it easier for candidates to reach out to companies. The overall effect of this is a simplified recruitment process. However, each company has to review and tweak its social recruitment strategy from time to time.
For instance, in the past, all a company had to do was post a job opening on a job board, and potential candidates would respond. However, currently, that might not cut it. An increasing number of candidates are moving more towards social in their search. This means that companies are supposed to take advantage of recruitment strategies that reach out to candidates on various platforms around the world. This is especially true for companies that can have employees working remotely.
Another aspect of recruitment that companies should really invest time in is the application process. Your company’s application process must be as intuitive as possible if you are to win the best candidates. For instance, you need to ensure that there are as few steps as possible from the time a potential candidate sees a job post to the time they are done with their application. This sounds obvious and quite simple, but you will be surprised by the number of organizations that have winding and buddy application and submission processes.
Make Sure Your Brand is Properly Represented Online
If you want to win with social media recruiting, you need to ensure that your brand is properly represented online. Candidates are becoming more selective nowadays, so it’s crucial to display a work environment that’s desirable. This will go a long way in helping you climb the ranks of your potential candidates’ list of requirements. Apart from that, you also need to have a strong reputation and a positive online presence. These two carry a lot of weight, especially if you want to appeal to passive job seekers.
To develop a more positive brand image, you must take time to think about how you can highlight your people, culture, and other differentiators. If you are convinced that you have a strong company culture and your current employees are happy, all you will need to do is feature them on your platforms. After all, if they are happy, they will be your strongest advocates. By showcasing the stories of your employees, special events, and other activities through videos and photos on social media, you will enable candidates to gain a behind-the-scenes glimpse of what they can expect if they join your organization.
Using employee advocacy strategies will automatically boost your reach. For instance, your employees can share jobs on their social media platforms. This will significantly boost your ability to reach out to new and diverse talent. Research shows that posts are shared 25 times more when they are posted by employees than when they are posted through brand pages.
Be Responsive On Social Media and Consistently Engage Your Audience
Any conversation that you have on social media should be two-way. This means that you must be prepared to both ask and provide answers to questions. Apart from that, as a brand, you mustn’t only focus on job postings. It’s important for you to always try to spark conversations that engage people from various backgrounds. You must also take the time to share helpful resources and make sure your messages are infused with your brand’s unique tone. People mustn’t feel that you only engage with them when jobs are available. This will help you create a network that will be useful whenever a role opens up.
Make Use of Advanced Features on Social Networks
There are many cutting-edge features you can use to achieve your goals on different social media platforms. You need to be aware of these features and learn how to use them to your advantage. For instance, on Facebook, there is a functionality known as Facebook Jobs. Every job post on Facebook will appear on your business page under the jobs tag. On the other hand, on LinkedIn, you need to use features like Advanced People Search. Twitter also has a similar functionality known as Twitter Advanced Search, and TikTok has Resumes. Using these features will enable you to view and select candidates from all over the world.
Social recruitment is fast becoming the next big thing. However, you need to ensure that you understand how to recruit effectively on social platforms, and the tips above will help you do just that. If you are not sure how you can come up with the best social recruitment strategy, it’s advisable to seek help from a social recruitment company. They will start by assessing the effectiveness of social recruitment strategies you have in place, and they can tweak them for maximum effectiveness.
