What is social media recruitment?

As the name suggests, social media recruiting strategies use social media platforms as a recruitment ground. The broad reach offered by these platforms makes them ideal for advertising job openings and hunting for fresh talent especially from the millennial and Gen Z crowd.

 

The unique network of communities offered by social media allows recruiters to have an unprecedented reach compared to traditional recruiting methods. Additionally, the personalized nature of these platforms makes them an excellent way to acquire context for both companies and candidates through personal profiles, brand pages, etc. It also opens up many formal and informal channels of communication between companies and candidates.

 

Why should you pay attention to social media?


3.8 billion active social media users are spending an average of over 2 hours on approximately nine different social media networks. Suffice to say, social media is the future. All the savvy players have already made it an integral part of their recruitment plan. If you aren’t already on board, you should jump on sooner rather than later.

Social media recruitment strategy with Freshteam Social media recruitment strategy with Freshteam

Recruiting on social media channels

Advantages of using social media recruiting strategies:

Here are a few of the many benefits that a recrutiing strategy on social media  can offer you:

How to use the power of social media for recruitment

Pick the right platform(s)

No one size fits all when it comes to social media recruitment strategies. Different social media sites approach content and connections differently. Some websites are casual, while others are specifically for professional networking. Their content structure is also wildly different in form and length. 
Depending on the role, every platform has the potential to attract the right candidate. Keep in mind the demographics you want to target when choosing a platform. Have a multipronged approach that targets multiple social media platforms with tailored social recruiting strategies that play to each platform’s strengths. Using technology to easily source applicants from multiple social channels in a central manner will greatly optimize your recruitment efforts.

 

Develop a relatable employer brand

Social media is all about establishing relationships. And developing a relatable employer brand is one of the key social media recruiting strategies. Your brand is a curated picture of your values, ethics, and beliefs. By projecting a consistent brand image, you transform your organization from a faceless entity into a personable character. 

A positive, highly visible presence on social media helps you acquire a lot of organic reach for recruitment while also making you a more desirable employer. Additionally, candidates who form theskew younger working crowd—like millennials and Gen Z—want an emotional connection with employers.

To maximize conversion, you should regularly broadcast hiring updates on social media and let candidates apply directly from the platform. This will surely increase your application rates and candidate quality. 

 

Have a dynamic content strategy

Content is like water; it must fit the form of whatever platform it is present on. That philosophy is most applicable when it comes to social media recruitment strategies. What works great on one platform might not necessarily translate to another. You need to develop useful and interesting content that makes the most out of the strengths of a particular platform.

Here are some common content formats on leading platforms:

  • Tweets/Status posts

  • Blogs

  • Images (photography, infographics, memes, etc.)

  • Stories

  • Newsletters

  • Videos

  • Livestreams (Q&A sessions, webinars, etc.)

  • Podcasts

Each format has unique benefits and offers different engagement opportunities. The ones you use depends on their availability and your needs. Statuses and images might be a quick and easy way to connect with your audience and keep them abreast with regular updates, openings, etc. Meanwhile, blogs, videos, etc., offer an avenue for longer, more intensive content presentation. Events like live streams are great for providing a special experience for your audience, potentially drawing a lot of eyeballs. Use a mix and match of all formats to ensure maximum reach.

 

Engage, Engage, Engage

The success of your social media recruitment strategy is measured by the engagement you generate. If a user is engaged, it means they are actively associating with your brand and not just scrolling past. To achieve that, you need to be proactively interacting with your audience. Some great ways to do so are: liking or highlighting user comments, replying to contributions and questions, having Q&A sessions via live streams, etc. Embrace quirkiness, and don’t be afraid of humor and criticism. 

Consistent engagement lets you deepen your relationship with your target audience. If you are actively listening and responding to users, potential candidates will be more inclined to approach you with questions and queries. This, in turn, will attract and convert more of your audience into applicants. 
 

Involve your employees as brand ambassadors

Leaning on your employees is the best way of extending your social media reach. 98% of employees are present on at least one social media site, and half of them are already posting about their employers. Employee activity is an unparalleled avenue for generating organic engagement, as they tend to generate more engagement than brand channels and dictate a greater amount of trust.

Employees can also enhance your conversion rates and applicant quality substantially. Since they have the first-hand experience of your work culture, they can discern people who might make a great fit and personally recommend they apply. Employee referrals have a high applicant-to-hire conversion rate, making them a vital avenue for high-impact recruitments. So keep an ear out for their recommendations. 

Alternatively, (and more ideally) let employees refer candidates directly and keep track of them with the help of a recruitment software to keep things simple and friction-free.

 

Build and network with communities

Community management is an up-and-coming social media recruitment strategy, which lets you curate high-value networks for sourcing candidates. There are many specialized communities on certain social media platforms where professionals from various fields can network. 

Seeking out established professional networks, or better yet, administering one yourself, lets you build a trusted pipeline for sourcing high-quality talent, who are often referred by and vouched for by their industry peers. These places provide opportunities for quality one-to-one engagement with potential candidates and help you get exactly who you are looking for. It is best to have a careers site to serve as a landing page for candidates you attract via these networks. This allows candidates to easily apply if interested, or share the resource with their network, thus spreading more awareness. 

 

Use social media advertising

Social media advertising is a game-changer when it comes to recruitment marketing. It is much more efficient than traditional advertisements, thanks to data-driven algorithms. These solutions offer target parameters that let you pinpoint your advert to the audience of your choice. The precision exponentially increases your reach while reducing your costs. 

Advertising is a crucial social media recruitment strategy that lets you augment your reach. It ensures that your latest call for applications reaches the most relevant eyeballs in the shortest possible amount of time. The best ads are a simple but enticing pitch with an “apply now” button that leads viewers straight to an application form. Deployed correctly, it can drive substantial traffic and dramatically enhance your application rates.

Take your social media recruitment strategy to the next level

 

 

 

Unified social candidate sourcing
Broadcast to social media channels such as LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, etc., from one interface. You can edit, view, and manage postings without ever leaving the platform.

candidate sourcing using social media recruiting candidate sourcing using social media recruiting

 

 

 

Hire directly from social media
Connect Freshteam to your Facebook page to list all the open positions and let candidates directly apply, just like they would on your careers page.

Careers Tab on Facebook with Freshteam Careers Tab on Facebook with Freshteam

 

 

 

Deep integration with Linkedin and major job boards
Freshteam has partnered with LinkedIn to provide a powerful integration that lets you post jobs and source candidates from the platform for free!

linkedin partnership for social media recruitment linkedin partnership for social media recruitment

 

 

No more siloes
Freshteam streamlines incoming applicants from all platforms into the tracking system as candidates and tags them by the source and medium so you where you are getting your traffic from.

Candidate sourcing from social media Candidate sourcing from social media

 

 

Talent Pool
You can curate a talent pool where you can add past applicants and passive candidates who have left a mark. When the right opening comes by, Freshteam will automatically surface the relevant profiles so that you can reach out to them with the opportunity.

Create a talent pool for social media recruitment Create a talent pool for social media recruitment