Social media recruitment is an increasingly popular method used by organizations to attract and hire candidates for job positions. It’s hard to underestimate the importance of social media presence in today’s age. While your company probably has accounts on major social media sites, have you been fully utilizing the accounts to hire new employees? Social media provides a great space to connect with those interested in your company, and that includes potential hires. In fact, 90% of employers have hired someone off of LinkedIn.
In this article, we’ll explore the benefits and best practices for advertising job openings on social media.
Why Social Media?
Everyone is on social media, but why does that make sites like Facebook important to your candidate search? Here are some of the benefits of hiring through social media:
- Lower recruiting costs. Save money on subscriptions to job sites or recruitment search software.
- Leverage your existing online presence. More than likely, your company already has profiles on sites like LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Your followers are all invested in your company and are a great audience that will engage with or share job postings.
- Reach passive job seekers. This is possibly the most important reason to use social media for recruiting. On job sites, only active job seekers will see your postings. On social media, you have the chance to also engage with people who aren’t actively looking for a new job but would consider leaving their current position if something better came their way.
Social Media Recruitment Tools
Before you start posting, consider the following factors so that you can put your best foot forward.
- Know how to post differently for each site. When you think of social media hiring, you probably think of LinkedIn, where you can post lengthy job descriptions. However, you’ll need to create more consolidated posts for Facebook, and quick links to your job postings to share on Twitter. Don’t ignore other platforms like Instagram- while you can’t post long job descriptions, you can still demonstrate team building, employee success stories, and other aspects of your company culture.
- Encourage employees to share job openings. Make use of their professional networks! Did you know that 65% of people would consider a new job opening if they heard about it through a personal connection?
- Don’t forget about ads. Facebook and LinkedIn ads can help you target specific audiences within your industry.
- Post about workplace culture. Don’t just highlight company achievements- show how great it is to work for you! Consider posting employee spotlights, pictures from conferences or group outings, or other photos to highlight the bond between your team. You can also use videos to engage with followers through webinars or Q&A sessions.
- Don’t forget the hashtags. Make sure that your content is easily discoverable! Find the balance, and ensure that your hashtags are not too general that they get lost in the crowd, but not so specific that no one is searching for them.
Measuring Success
So you’ve set up your postings on major social media sites. But how do you know if this recruiting tactic is working well? Here are a few areas you can measure and compare to alternate hiring methods:
- Cost per hire
- Source for high performing employees
- Time to fill positions
- Top sources for hire by volume
- Top source of traffic to career site
Conclusion
Leverage your existing social media platforms by sourcing candidates. However, make sure you stop to think about your branding and recruiting strategy before posting in order to optimize your candidate search.
Interested in learning more from professional recruiters? Contact Lucas James.