All roads lead to social media, and this applies to recruiting as well. Social media recruiting has become a popular way to find employees. To do this, you will need a good plan, expert knowledge, and perseverance. In this article, we present you with 6 benefits of social media recruiting.
The term “social media recruiting” covers all HR marketing initiatives in which companies use social media. Popular platforms include Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube as well as professional networks such as XING and LinkedIn. Discussion forums or services that are only known in specific industries are also included.
Social media recruiting includes “passive” initiatives, such as maintaining a job portal, as well as moderating online communities and actively seeking out candidates. Special features of this type of recruiting include the ability to quickly and easily communicate with candidates and the opportunity to build a wide network of contacts.
Ready to discover how social media can benefit your recruiting strategy? Let’s get started!
1. Show the Company’s Culture
Have you ever considered applying for a job, but wanted to learn more about the company first? Most people do. Yes, you can visit the company’s website, but one of the best ways to get a “real feel” for the company is by checking out its social media activity. This includes:
- The company’s official social pages
- Posts tagged by others
- Employee activity, among other elements.
To showcase your company culture and stand out to potential employees, you can implement an organic social media content strategy. This includes regularly creating content to post on your company’s social profiles to give users a sense of who you are. Think of your social profiles as a “landing page” that gives users details about your company before they consider applying.
A solid social content strategy should be cohesive and aligned with key pillars that the company wants to reinforce regularly. For recruiting purposes, some key types of content include:
- Featured and employee testimonials
- Company events
- Participation in community service activities
- Recognitions and awards
- Internal employee communication
Being active on social media also increases employee engagement. When they see that their content can be shared on company pages, they are more likely to post photos or videos of their day-to-day activities and tag the company in their content (UGC, or user-generated content).
A strong social media presence can encourage applicants to feel comfortable applying to your organization.
2. Reaching Applicants Who Are Not Actively Searching
Now that you have a well-defined organic social media content strategy, you are ready to take full advantage of a paid social media advertising strategy. This is a key element in a solid social recruiting strategy.
One of the biggest benefits of using a paid advertising strategy is the ability to reaching people who are not actively seeking employment. Why? Because even if users aren’t actively searching Google for “jobs near me,” you can reach a targeted audience and increase awareness of your company as a potential next step in their career.
Segmentation strategies for new users are very effective on social media, and the possibilities for targeting audiences are endless.
3. Expand Reach with Creative Segmentation Techniques
If you want to reach new users, social media is a great option. Depending on the platform you use, there are endless possibilities for targeting audiences. You can:
- Target specific demographics
- Find people in specific geographic areas
- Target people who are similar to your current employees
- Reach users with interests related to vacancies
For example, if you want to attract high school students eligible for a post-secondary training program, you can use supplemental strategies targeting family members and encourage those individuals to refer interested users.
4. Retargeting Interested Candidates
Are you seeing a high volume of traffic on your job board, but not the applications you expected? Retargeting could be an effective solution to your goals. Social media advertising allows you to:
- Re-engage with people who previously viewed openings on your website in the last 60 days.
- Reach users who follow your social profiles or who have recently interacted with your posts or ads.
- Show ads to users who visited your website in the last 30 days.
- Use lookalike strategies to find people similar to current employees or past applicants.
These strategic options help you Keeping you top of mind for job seekers and motivate them to take action as they continue their search.
5. Building a Talent Community
Beyond receiving direct applications, another goal of social media recruiting is to build audiences for future use, such as a talent community.
A social media user’s focus isn’t always on converting immediately. Offering an option for them to enter their information with minimal commitment is a great way to generate valuable data and increase applications in the long run.
By promoting enrollments to talent communities through social media advertising campaigns, your recruiters can organize prospect data and align them with the most relevant job openings.
6. Data Collection
We all know that data is essential for recruiting! With a social media marketing strategy, you have endless opportunities to gather information about key professionals and their preferences.
For example, social media ads that highlight growth opportunities within the company tend to generate high returns, indicating that this is a top interest among prospective employees.
This data can not only be used to improve recruiting, but also to guide other marketing initiatives and optimize the talent acquisition process, increasing hiring rates.
